“It might be better if I don’t share all the details with everyone.” I shrug. “For deniability reasons. You understand.” Not that anyone will be able to trace what I did, but still. It doesn’t hurt to keep the circle of people-in-the-know very small, and I’m pretty sure she’s not a decision maker around here.
Toni scowls, but Thibault smiles, and I take that as a good sign. Ozzie’s expression is as unreadable as ever. Dev and Lucky are nodding. May looks like she just watched her baby take her first step. I think she’s having a hard time not clapping. My chest is ready to explode, my heart is so full right now.
“How much money are we talking here?” Thibault asks.
I turn to Lucky for that. I found all the connections and did the tally, but I don’t want to step on his toes. He’s the financial guy, not me. I know how to be a team player.
“Nearly a million dollars over five years.”
Dev whistles in appreciation of the awfulness, forcing me to look up at him. We catch each other’s eyes and my face starts to burn. I have to look away. I cannot believe how silly I feel, with my stomach doing flips and my heart going nuts, just looking at him. He’s like the cuttlefish, hypnotizing me with his powers of adorableness.
Ozzie’s focus is back on me. “I know this is more of a legal question, but what do you know about prosecuting for embezzlement? Do you know if we have enough evidence here?”
Now my heart is stopping for a whole other reason. “Uhh . . . I have no idea. Sorry.” Oops. Was I supposed to research that?
Lucky picks up the conversation. “No worries. It’s not your area of expertise. This report is really nice. Very thorough. It must have taken you hours to put it together.” He pages through it for effect, holding up a screenshot for Thibault to see.
“It did, but I had a lot of coffee and the kids were asleep, so . . .” I shrug, appreciating Lucky’s efforts at making me feel better but still sad that I didn’t think to look up the legal aspects. Sure, it’s not my area of expertise, but I knew what we were doing the work for.
“I told you she’s good.” My sister is still beaming.
When Ozzie is done paging through the report, he hands it over to Thibault. Then Thibault takes his turn with it, nodding with every turn of a new page. Dev nods his head and winks at me before shifting his focus to studying Thibault’s expression.
“You’re right, Lucky. This is nice. Very nice work product. I don’t even understand most of it.”
Dev speaks, his voice making me flush all over again. “So what’s the plan? What’s our next move?” I can’t look at him, afraid everyone will see in my expression how over the moon I am.
Lucky answers. “Well, I need to sit down with Jenny and have her show me all this on the computer, and then we need to invite Mr. Jorgensen to come in and show him what we’ve found. And at that point, I assume he’ll want to get the police department involved.” Lucky looks over at me. “Are you cool with that? Do you mind sitting with the client and explaining what you found? I think you’re the only one who can really explain the details.”
I’m anxious to keep the good vibes flowing. “Absolutely. I want to help however I can. You guys hired me to do this job, so I’ll do anything you need to finish it up.”
“That brings us to our next order of business,” Ozzie says. The room goes silent and Thibault puts the report down on the table, turning his attention to me.
I look around at everyone, but the only one giving me any hint as to what’s going on is Dev. He’s smiling at me and then he winks.
I have to look away because my face is turning beet red. I feel like I just caught fire.
“I think, based on this report that we’re looking at here, and the feedback that I’ve gotten from Lucky out in the field and from Dev as well, not to mention the information that Thibault was able to find, and of course May’s recommendation”—Ozzie pauses to glance at his girlfriend, making her blush—“I’d like to move forward with our earlier conversation if that’s okay with the group.”
Everybody at the table with the exception of Toni nods in agreement. She doesn’t say anything; she just stares straight ahead into space.
Ozzie turns his attention to me. “I know we had a bit of a rough start with you last week, but we’ve all been really impressed with your work product and your performance in general. Thibault, Lucky, and I have conducted an analysis of our business, and we’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been turning down a lot of work because we’re lacking some particular skillsets in our current roster. It appears as if you could pick up some of the slack on that.”
He pauses to let that sink in and maybe to gauge my reaction. I remain as cool as possible under the circumstances. Having Dev across the table helps to remind me that I can handle myself well under pressure. I just have to remember that night in the office and how I didn’t run out the door screaming in a blind panic. I dealt with that, I dealt with Frank’s sorry ass, and I can certainly deal with this too.
“So, if you’d be willing, we’d love to have you join the team. We’d start you out on a ninety-day trial basis, to see if it’s something that’s a good fit for you and for us, but if it all works out the way we think it will, you could be a full-time employee and entitled to all the benefits that come along with that.”
I swallow a couple times trying to get my voice to work. Should I do it? Should I take the risk? Should I stop worrying about all the things that might happen and instead focus on all the things that could happen?
I look across the table at Dev and he’s staring me down with a serious expression on his face. He nods, like he has all the confidence in the world in me, like I actually could be a member of the Super Friends team. My heart soars and my courage hops up to ride shotgun.
I nod. “I’d like that. The trial basis sounds like a good idea.” That’s my out. If I hate it, no harm, no foul; I’ll back out and there’ll be no commitment to anyone that I have to blow off, and May will be safe from her team’s ire. I refuse to consider where Dev falls in this scenario.
Ozzie nods. “Great.” He looks around the table. “Does anybody else have any other business to discuss right now?”
I’m pretty sure they continue on and talk about another client at this point, but I don’t hear any of it. I sit at the table in a daze, unable to believe my good fortune. Or is it my misfortune? I have no way of knowing right now. All I do know is that I’m sitting at a table with my sister—arguably the best friend I’ve ever had—and a man with a killer dimple who’s giving me the most adorable look I could ever imagine, and I’ve just been offered a full-time job. It feels like this trial version is not just a trial for my job but also a trial for my heart.
Will I survive is the question. And if I don’t, where will I be then? What if this turns out like my last job, where I work really hard and then get destroyed and left out in the cold?
It doesn’t even bear thinking about right now. Always looking in my rearview mirror isn’t the way for me to move forward. Up, up, and away! as Superman says. I’m going to focus on my future and not the mistakes of my past.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Well, it’s here; the moment I’ve been thinking about for the past several days. I drop the curtain in the front window back into place. Dev is in the driveway getting out of his car. He looks nice, wearing khakis and a cotton, button-down shirt.
I look down at myself, glad that I splurged at the mall today and bought this dress when I went shopping with May. I’ve spent so many years in comfy, boring clothes, going to work in sneakers and jeans, I almost forgot what it feels like to dress up.
The kids are happily installed at Auntie May’s townhouse. It’s a rare treat for them to have a sleepover there. Usually, May prefers to watch my kids here, but when she offered to take them to her place, I’m pretty sure she did it because she was thinking that this date might go really well. But it can’t go that well; it’s not like I’m going to sleep with my coworker on a first
date. Besides . . . it’s not a date. I lost a bet, that’s all.
The doorbell rings, sending my heart rate soaring. I check my eye makeup and teeth in the front hall mirror really quickly before I go to the door and open it. I try to affect an air of casualness that I don’t feel as I lean on the doorframe.
“Hey there, Dev.”
“Hello.” He stands on my porch towering above me, and if I’m not mistaken, he seems a little nervous. “You ready to go? Or did you want to stay here for a drink first?”
I do have a bottle of wine in the fridge, but I’m worried the conversation will stall out if we’re left in this empty, quiet house together for too long. “We can go. It’s fine. Unless you have later reservations . . .”
He shakes his head. “Nope. We’re all set.”
I grab my purse off the front hall table, double- and triple-checking that I have both my phone and my wallet. Since tonight’s dinner is on me, I made sure to stop off at the ATM to get some extra cash earlier. Every once in a great while my debit card doesn’t work, and I don’t want to suffer that kind of embarrassment tonight. Actually, I don’t want to suffer that embarrassment ever in my life, but because Miles gives me bouncy checks sometimes, it’s unavoidable. The bank doesn’t like fronting me money for some strange reason.
After I lock the front door behind me, we walk down the front steps together. “Where are we going?” I ask.
He accompanies me over to the passenger side of the car and opens the door for me. I’m charmed. I know it’s old-fashioned, but I can’t help it. Miles never did that for me, even when we were dating.
“You’ll see. Don’t worry, you’ll like it. I promise.”
I get into the car and smooth my dress down as he closes the door. I have a few moments to admire his amazing body as he makes his way around the front of the car and over to the driver’s side. I feel really lucky to be with him tonight, even if this is just a friendly date. I’m also feeling especially fortunate that we work together, because if we run out of things to talk about at dinner, we could always discuss business. I’m super curious about his friends’ backstories, so if nothing else, this dinner is an opportunity to get to know my own coworkers a little bit better.
Dev starts up his beast of a car and reverses out of the driveway, using the heel of one hand on the steering wheel to spin it around and around. We leave the neighborhood heading north, and soon we’re out on the main road that I know will take us to an area of town I don’t frequent very often. But I’m not going to worry about it, because I trust this man. I know he would never put me in danger.
“Great job at work today,” he says.
“Thanks. It was no big deal.” I was never very good at accepting compliments about my work. Performance evaluations are something I can deal with, because they’re mostly on paper, but when people compliment me to my face, it always makes me feel like I need to squirm around in my seat. I stare out the side window, waiting for that sensation to pass.
“Well, Ozzie thought it was a big deal. And so did I.”
“Toni didn’t.” I try not to sound bitter about that.
Dev shakes his head a little. “Don’t worry about Toni. She’ll come around. She’s just stubborn and protective.”
I look at Dev. “Does she actually think I would do something to harm you guys?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think she believes you’d do anything purposely, anyway. But she does worry that having people on the team who lack training could be a liability. And she’s not wrong about that.”
I want to defend myself, but she’s probably right. This isn’t a regular job that you walk into and work for eight hours and leave. It’s a security company that deals with really sensitive information, and I’m about as far from security material as a person can be.
“But don’t worry about it,” he says. “We’ll get you whipped into shape in no time.”
“Do you mean that literally or figuratively?” I laugh a little, but he doesn’t join in.
“Both. I’m in charge of your training, so you have nothing to worry about.” He looks over and flashes me a big, cheesy grin.
“Sounds exciting.” I say this with a complete lack of enthusiasm.
He reaches over and pokes me on the leg. “Be careful. I’m your trainer now, so you don’t want to piss me off.”
“Oh my, that sounds like a threat. Let me check my pulse.” I make a big show of resting my fingers at my wrist. “Hmmm, nope. Sorry. Not scared.”
“You will be. I promise.”
I know he’s joking, but it sends a special thrill up my spine to hear him say that. I like it when he goes from joking to serious. It makes him seem almost a little dangerous, and although I’m kind of allergic to real danger, the sexy danger is something I could get used to.
We travel along in companionable silence, listening to the radio and enjoying the cooling temperature that allows us to drive with the windows open for a change. When Boys Don’t Cry, one of my favorite songs from the eighties, blares from the speakers, Dev and I start singing together. At the chorus, we raise our voices louder and louder. By the time we pull into the restaurant parking lot, we’re practically yelling the last lines of the song. Happy brain hormone-drugs are pumping through my veins as he glides into a parking spot near the front doors and shuts off the engine.
“You ready to get your catfish on?” he asks.
I look up at the sign above us. “The sign says Chicken Licken. I think I’m supposed to be getting my chicken on.” I am definitely overdressed for this eatery, but I don’t care, because so is he. It’s like I’m on an adventure right now, and anything could happen. Fun stuff. Sexy stuff, maybe. Woo hoo! Bring on the catfish!
“Stay right there.” He opens his door and gets out, shuts it, and then jogs around to my side. My door opens and he’s standing there with his hand out. I slide my palm into his and use the contact to lever myself out of the car. I feel like a princess. A princess standing outside of Chicken Licken, the fried food capital of New Orleans, if the smell is any indicator.
“Trust me,” he says, “this’ll be the best fried catfish you’ve ever eaten.” He leads me up to the front door. The odor of grease gets more pungent.
“What if I don’t like catfish?” I ask, looking at him sideways.
He grabs the door and pulls it open, looking down at me with a very serious expression. “If you don’t like catfish, I’m afraid we can’t be friends anymore.”
I poke him in the belly as I walk by. “Good thing I like catfish.”
Okay, so I’m flirting, even though he called us friends. Sue me. He’s too damn cute with that dimple of his. I’m pretty sure he knows it’s killing me every time he uses it.
Several people greet Dev by name as we walk into the restaurant. A rotund lady easily in her sixties leads us to a booth in the back corner.
“The usual?” she asks.
“Of course. Bring me a double order so I can share it with this lovely lady here.”
The woman looks at me and winks. “I was wondering when you were going to bring somebody special by.”
Does that mean I’m the first? My face goes warm with the compliment.
“This here is Jenny. She’s my friend from work.” Dev’s voice has taken on a distinct Cajun flair. I like it. A lot.
The lady nods. “Jenny, it’s very nice to make your acquaintance. I’m Melba, and you are welcome here anytime, even if you don’t bring this tall drink of water with you.” She gestures at my date who’s not really a date.
“I hear you have the best catfish in town.” I smile at her, caught up in the mood of the place.
“You heard right. But I’ll let you judge for yourself.” She looks at Dev. “Sweet tea?”
He winks at her. “Bring us two.”
I’m not going to complain about all the calories in that tea that’s probably just as sweet as an actual Coke. Tonight, I’m going to splurge. I’m going to eat catfish and drink sweet tea
until my stomach begs for mercy.
We’re alone at the table now, the sounds of satisfied diners surrounding us with a happy buzz. The smell of greasy, fried food hangs in the air, probably coating my hair and clothing, but I don’t care. This is already one of the best non-dates I’ve ever been on.
“So, did you enjoy working with Lucky?”
I nod. “Yep. We had a little bit of a scare with those people breaking in when we were working, but besides that, it was fun.” I realize as I’m telling him this that I actually did enjoy myself. I have a sneaking suspicion that this job is going to be a lot like pregnancy; at the time, it seems really awful and hard and scary, but looking back all you can remember are the good parts. The fear kind of fades out to a mere wisp of a memory, the details fuzzy and hard to recall.
“Lucky tells me you did just fine. And you don’t need to worry about that kind of stuff in the future. Going on-site is very rare for Lucky, and it’ll be the same for you.”
“He told me that he works at the warehouse most of the time and sometimes from home.”
“Yep. That’s pretty much it. Lucky tends to be a homebody.”
I play with my fork, wanting to talk more about Lucky and his life, but not wanting to seem like a busybody. It’s just that he’s such an interesting person, a genuine mystery, and I do looove me a puzzle. It’s why I’m so good at what I do, maybe. And why this job with the Bourbon Street Boys is really starting to excite me. I could be solving puzzles every day working with them.
“Have you met his goldfish Sunny?” I ask, trying to sound casual, which isn’t easy, considering I’m bringing up a goldfish as a conversation starter.
Dev shakes his head. “Nope. Lucky moved to a new place a while back, and I don’t know if anybody’s been there yet. Maybe Thibault has. Sunny moved in with him sometime after he changed apartments.”
“How come you haven’t been there? Doesn’t he like visitors?”
Dev looks off in the distance. “Lucky is . . . private, I guess you could say.”
I stare at the table, drawing imaginary lines on the surface with my fingertip. “He told me about his sister.” I glance up at Dev to gauge his reaction, and catch him looking very surprised.