Page 33 of Mister Mom

“Vance.”

I stop at the door, my hand on the knob.

“Just remember what I said. This is your chance, let’s not blow it with a scandal.”

I don’t turn around. Instead, I nod and open the door to escape the lecture of a man who is a master at his job, but needs to take the agent hat off and put his friend hat back on.

Closing the door behind me, I find Payne spinning in Victoria’s office chair, the arms hitting her desk on every turn.

“Where’s Victoria?” I ask.

“Getting me lunch.” He spins again and I grab her mug of water before it spills over.

“She left you?” I grab my phone off the desk and place my hand on the chair to stop it from spinning.

“She’s getting me something to eat.”

“I fed you on the way over.” I lean my butt against the desk and cross my arms over my chest.

“Cheerios. Via eats Cheerios.” He rolls his eyes and then glances toward the garbage.

Standing up, I see the bag sitting in the trash. “Fine, but when she gets back, we’re leaving.”

I hear Victoria’s heels click behind me. “Hey, you’re done already?” she asks.

I stand up. “You’re lucky your desk is still in one piece.”

“I was only gone for five minutes. Payne promised he’d say seated.” She smiles at him and he spins in her chair again, hitting the desk so that her bottle of water falls, a puddle forming all over her desk.

“Shit!” I say, hurriedly picking up the bottle.

Payne stands up when the water falls on his legs and stares at his pants. Victoria drops the bag of food and reaches over with some napkins, soaking up the liquid right away. She’s calm and doesn’t seem at all pissed that half her papers are soaked.

“I can reprint them,” she tells Payne. “It’s just a mistake, right?” She smiles at him and the look of fear on Payne’s face disintegrates.

“Do you have kids?” I ask her after she’s handed Payne a small hamburger and fries.

She glances back to Jagger’s office and then to me. “Yeah. I’m a single mom,” she says in a quiet voice.

“My mom too,” Payne chirps in.

A soft smile forms on her lips. “She must be pretty cool then.”

Payne chomps down on his fries, his legs swinging under the chair.

“Are you keeping it a secret?” I ask.

Again, she glances at Jagger’s door like she’s afraid he’ll overhear us. “You know Jagger, rumor is that he doesn’t like his employees to have kids.”

I wave her off. “That’s absurd. He wouldn’t care.”

She shrugs and her phone pages, Jagger’s voice not waiting for her to answer.

“Tell my best friend and the kid to get lost. You have work to do.”

Before I can even offer a smartass comment back the line clicks off.

She raises both eyebrows and sits down at her desk, trying to clean up Payne’s mess.

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