Page 1 of Hot Summer

1

There was nothing quite like stumbling into the office still half-drunk from the night before.

Cas had chewed an entire pack of gum on the way in that morning but, as a quick breath test in the lift up to her office confirmed, last night’s gin was still very much present on her breath. And coupled with the, well, artful way her eyeliner was smudged under her eyes, she looked like she’d rolled out of the sewer before dragging herself to work.

In her defense, this wasn’t Cas’s usual commute. It was rare that she had to be in this early after a late-night event, and Cas would never have let herself drink so much if she’d known she was going to have to be here at this ungodly hour. And she especially wouldn’t have drunk so much if she’d known she was going to be in a meeting with their chief marketing officer. In typical Robert fashion, though, he’d only felt the need to text her and request this god-awful eight a.m. meeting at nine last night when she was already five drinks deep.

Because he was nothing if not considerate.

And, all right, she shouldn’t be drinking that heavily on the job, but it was the only thing that helped her pretend these dating events for Friday, the premier dating-app company she worked for, had anything to offer her these days. She could only host awkward singles mixers and talk to the same carbon-copy people about their very particular interests for so many nights in a row before she wanted to go lie down in the middle of the motorway and hope for the best.

Cas leaned forward and examined her reflection in the lift doors. She’d genuinely tried to make herself look presentable this morning, had even borrowed some of her roommate Aisha’s vitamin C serum in a last-ditch attempt to brighten things up, but you would never know it by looking at her now. Her skin was sallow, dry; her mascara and eyeliner had refused to come off when she’d cleansed, hence the smudging; and her eyes looked like they were trying to retreat into her skull. She’d chugged a sports drink on the tube, but she was also halfway through an iced coffee, which was probably not doing anything to help her debilitating dehydration.

“Fuck,” Cas muttered. She might have just been happy that she was able to show up here so early in the first place (gin stench, dry mouth, and all), but there had been something... suspicious about Robert’s message after she agreed to the meeting. Something that told Cas she needed her wits about her this morning.

21:34

Robert: Great! If you could refrain from mentioning the meeting to anyone, I’d appreciate it. Talk tomorrow.

The fact that he had asked her not to let anyone know, not even her direct supervisor, had set off immediate alarm bells in Cas’s head. She’d had to order herself another gin to keep from immediately texting Skye, her closest friend at work and her second roommate, to overanalyze it. The only solution, at that point, had been to hope she’d drink so much that she’d forget.

A solution she was clearly regretting now.

Cas scrubbed some eyeliner off with her index finger before slashing open the zipper on her crossbody bag. She unearthed her lip balm and swiped a thick coat across her lips as the lift floated to a stop on the ninth floor.

The lift opened onto a small lobby, little more than a reception desk and a pair of armchairs in Friday’s signature purple. They’d left the standard concrete on the floor—seemingly an aesthetic choice, although Cas couldn’t imagine that Friday would have been able to afford anything other than the bare minimum in the early days—but there had been concerted efforts to warm it up since they’d moved into this space six years ago. Cas hadn’t been here then, they’d moved into this building about a year before she joined and started running their live events, but she could only imagine what this place must have looked like without all the rugs and plants and soft touches their receptionist and general genius, Jana, had added.

Jana smiled as Cas stepped off the lift. “Morning, Cas.” Her gaze flicked quickly over Cas, probably taking in the way she was practically dragging her body behind her as she walked. “Looks like you had fun last night.”

Cas laughed, though it sounded more like someone had thrown gravel into a blender. “You know how much I love First Date, Speed Date night.”

“I need to go to one of those at some point,” Jana said. The phone started ringing and she turned toward it slowly. “My single life is, like, fucking tragic.” Jana paused. “Thank you for calling Friday, how may I direct your call?”

“That makes two of us,” Cas whispered as she unearthed her ID card and tapped it onto the reader on Jana’s desk to sign in for the day. Jana turned her head away from the receiver to laugh.

“Of course. Hold, please.” She clicked a few buttons on the phone before dropping the receiver back onto the base. “Don’t talk to me about tragic,” Jana said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve got a new person on your arm every week.”

Cas attempted a smile, but the tightening around her eyes made her feel like her gesture probably looked less amused and more... unsafe to be around.

“Well, someone’s got to make sure the scrubs we recruit are worth our time.”

Jana barked a laugh and lifted her mug off her desk with a flourish. “You’re too much.”

“That’s what they tell me. Hey, do you know if Robert is in his office?”

“Haven’t seen him this morning, but let me check the system,” Jana said. “Sometimes he likes to sneak in.”

She took a sip of her tea and started rapidly tapping her mouse with her free hand, her eyes scanning the screen for a few seconds before she clicked her tongue. “Yup. He’s here—must have shown up while I was putting the kettle on.”

“Perfect.” The sooner she got this meeting over with, the better. “Thanks, Jana.”

“Of course.” Jana flashed a wink. “I hope the meeting goes well.”

“I— What do you know?”

“Nothing you won’t know in about ten minutes. Now go, you’re going to be late.”

There was no sense pressing Jana for more. Cas had worked with her long enough to know that Jana said exactly as much or as little as she was ever going to. Cas half waved and walked off into the office, slinging her ID badge around her neck as she went.

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