Page 14 of Analysing Her Assets

“Thanks, Marina, you’re the best. Shit. My meeting is in twenty! I have to run.”

She went straight to her balcony, where she had left Giddy this morning. Her heart stopped.

The small pots were trashed by Giddy, who ate the nana and verbena leaves, then puked them up. He was sneezing and rolling, smeared with dirt and his own green vomit. He greeted her with a wagging tail and tried to lick her when she picked him up. He wasn’t too keen on being washed, but she insisted. Then she acquainted him with his new nest. He took to his poof immediately, snuggling happily, ate a little food, slurped water, and when she covered him with the old sheet, his from last night, he fell asleep.

For the second time this day, she needed to get rid of her new puppy’s mess. His vomit was a little better than his poop, but not by much. For the second time this day, she soaped and shampooed. She wouldn’t have any skin or hair left by the time Giddy would be six months old.

Her hair wet and her shirt damp, she half ran all the way to the Peaks building.

N reserved one of the small meeting rooms on the portfolio management floor. Tamar lost her way several times before finally locating it.

She burst into the small room half an hour late. The table had three people sitting and an empty chair waiting for her. She expected to see N’s arching brows and Gideon’s smug face. She wasn’t ready for Big D’s presence. Keynan frowned.

She was so screwed.

10. Gideon

Tamar’s cheeks were bright red, her face shiny with perspiration. Her wet hair plastered to her skull, painting darker streaks along her blouse and jacket. Her sensual scent smacked him head on. Her seat’s armrests were locked in with his, and there was a commotion when he rolled his own chair backwards, standing until the flushed Tamar took her seat.

Yehuda Keynan’s eyes narrowed. He pursed his thick lips.

“Hi, so sorry to be late,” she said. Her voice had changed into its high-pitched version. Nathanela nodded and gave Tamar a small smile. Tamar gulped and continued, “I’m not used to being a mommy.”

“What?” Keynan’s forehead creased. “What do you mean...? You have a baby? Nathanela, you never told me!”

“Well, it’s partly your fault, Yehuda,” Tamar said. N’s brows climbed up, disappearing under her bangs.

“My fault?” A stroke was imminent if Keynan’s purple complexion was anything to go by. Tamar was cruising very close to the precipice.

“Yes, Yehuda, you gifted me my adorable puppy yesterday, and I just couldn’t bear to leave him alone and had to visit him during my lunch hour. I gave him a bath, and time just flew! I really apologize for making you wait...” She ended her plea with round eyes, her bottom lip caught by her teeth. She was good.

“Oh, of course, of course, the puppy...” Keynan’s transformation was unbelievable. He was actually nodding and grinning. Tamar turned to him.

“What about you, Gideon? Did you leave your puppy all alone all day? The poor thing!”

Gideon would have laughed in her face—she was telling him how to behave with puppies—except that Keynan turned an accusing stare at him.

“No!” he protested. “I left him with my mother at my parents’ house.”

He’d driven to his parents’ after his morning run, his puppy an excellent excuse to make up with his mom. His mother had never slammed a phone in his face, and for the past couple of days, she hadn’t answered his calls. But Naomi couldn’t keep her distance, not when there was a puppy around. She’d hugged Gideon, erected back the old dog pen, and named his puppy Shemesh–Sun. It was a natural progression to the weather theme of the family dogs’ names, and Gideon rather liked it.

“Please come tomorrow,” Naomi had begged. “Please come to Friday dinner. I promise, everyone will be on their best behavior. No one will question your choices.” Tears ran down his mother’s cheeks. He was hurting her, and that was never his intention.

“You shouldn’t question my choices. I’m leading the analyst competition and I’m up for the chief analyst position,” he’d said with pride.

“Please come,” his mother had repeated.

“I will.” He finally relented. The elated look in her eyes should be his reward, because the next thing she said was, “Pick up your grandmothers, will you?”

Keynan was looking at him questioningly, and Gideon realized he’d asked him a question.

“What?”

“I asked how you are planning to do things differently than Nathanela.”

N was right there. Keynan wasn’t an empowering boss.

“I hope to continue to be the department leader, just like her. I am working on a project for the research department. I already presented it to Nathanela, and she approved it.”

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