Page 152 of Her Defiant Warrior

“Just the little that one of my nannies taught me. Tell me more about your grandfather.”

“He roamed all over Argentina before he met my abuelita. He said the day he met her, his wandering days were over. All he ever wanted to do from that day on was stay next to her and start a family.”

“That’s so romantic. Was it the same way for your mother and father?”

He picked up the bottle of fernet and poured a little bit into her glass and a healthy amount into his. He took a large gulp, then set it down. “No, not really. Mom met my dad in college when she was getting her master’s degree. As she explained it, she had lived a sheltered life, and I believed it. My abuelita and abuelo were strict Catholics and sent her to an all-girls Catholic school until she was ready to go to college. She was at the top of her class. When she wanted to go to university, they were so proud that they scrimped and saved and made it happen.”

“Mom was an only child, and they spoiled her, but she never acted like she was spoiled. She was one of the kindest people you could ever meet. But sheltered. Maybe even naïve. Actually, there was no maybe about it.”

He paused again, and this time poured some of the fernet into his coffee. “Are you going to try yours?” he asked, indicating her untouched glass of alcohol.

“I forgot. I was too hung up by your story.” He watched as she took a dainty sip. Her eyes lit up. “Oh, this isn’t bad at all. I like this, Matt. I’ve been meaning to ask you. Is your name really Matthew? That’s odd that you would be named that when you were born in Argentina.”

“Are you the woman who didn’t know about the reset buttons on the electrical outlets?” he teased.

“Why? Am I right? I bet your name is Mateo or something like that, right?”

Shit!

“Yep, that’s the name I was given when I was born. When I came to America, Mom just went with Matt so that when I went to school, it made me fit in better. It kind of worked. But my brown skin still made me stand out like a sore thumb in Wilmington, Delaware.”

She winced. “I can imagine.” Then she winced again. “That is to say, I’m sorry that happened, and I can’t really imagine being in your shoes, because I was never in your shoes, you know?”

Mateo chuckled. “I get what you’re saying. Don’t worry about it. As soon as little league soccer and football started, nobody gave a shit. They all wanted me on their team.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” Lainey smiled.

“If you like the fernet, you should pour just a little into your coffee, then you’ll be living large.”

He watched as she carefully poured some of her drink into her mug, making sure she didn’t spill a drop. It was funny to watch how perfectly she tried to do things. Thank God she used paper towels instead of cloth napkins and extension cords for perfectly good outlets. Otherwise, he’d be intimidated by her.

She took a sip of her coffee. “This is good, Matt. Really, really good. I’m glad I’ll now have a bottle of it around.” They quietly sipped their coffee for long moments. It was nice that she didn’t feel like she had to fill every second with inane chatter.

“Is being a banker hard?” he finally asked.

“Not really. A lot of what I do has been repetitive. But three weeks ago, I got transferred to this new department, and the boss who was supposed to train me immediately went on vacation. That hasn’t been a walk in the park.”

“Why were you transferred?”

“I got a job as a management trainee. This is a fast track to becoming a personal banker, and that’s where I can do those loans I was telling you about.”

“Tell me more about the management trainee program. Did many people apply?”

“Unfortunately, yes. The only other person in my current department applied, and she’s kind of bitter that I got the position. I can’t tell if she is really kind of incompetent, or if she is doing things on purpose to make my job tougher.”

“Like what?”

“She’s handing me things that I can’t read, and I’m supposed to decipher them before I can properly enter them into the system. Or she’ll tell me that somebody called and won’t give me the right number. Stuff like that. Since I only worked with the head of the department for four days, I don’t know if he puts up with this kind of malarky or not. I would hope not, but when I called her on it, she said she just shows her cleavage and she gets along with Mr. Pine just fine.” Lainey shuddered. “Can you imagine?”

Talk about sheltered. If she only knew how many straw-blonde, painted up, mini-skirt wearing, thong-showing Frog Hogs had actually flashed their tits at him and his fellow SEALs, just to get their attention. She’d probably die of shock.

“Hmmm,” he shook his head noncommittally. “So, what do you do when you have trouble with the numbers?”

“Eventually, I can figure it out. There was this one time I had to call down to the Cayman Islands and validate an account number. I had to talk to someone else who was new. He was busy telling me his life story, and how his uncle was the vice president of the bank. Took me forever to validate the account. You wouldn’t believe how many cryptocurrency transactions flow through the Cayman Islands.”

“Aren’t they known for being a big tax haven?” Mateo asked, trying to sound ignorant.

“Yeah, and they are also known for money laundering. Thank God we have strong policies in place that look for those types of things. However, I’m going to recommend that we bring on a strong cyber-security programmer like some of the bigger banks use. That’s just an added layer of protection.”