Page 18 of Shifters in the Night

Listening to her boss obliviously insult the people around them was like watching a car accident in real time. And the car was driving through her apartment, while on fire. She supposed she should be grateful that Dr. Bremmer seemed so fascinated by this exchange that he was sitting there silent, instead of starting a debate with Victor about the construction.

“I have reminded this panel that our presence in town is a positive,” Lia said quickly. “While noting how much our company is benefiting from the relationship as well. It’s nice when two parties can come together and create something special, isn’t it? I’ve been very impressed with the pride people in Mystic Bayou take in their town, and their homes.”

Lia hoped that he would pick up the hints she was dropping, but no, he just kept plowing ahead. “That’s because they don’t know any better,” Victor said, smiling as if he hadn’t just insulted the Bayou’s population at large. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a reservation at a very exclusive bistro in New Orleans tonight. I just have to get something decent to eat. Nice to meet you all.”

Victor rose and strode from the room without so much as a “goodbye.” Lia expected Zed or Alex to offer to meet him for coffee as he left, like they’d offered to socialize with her. But they just let him walk out.

Lia wondered if it was too early in the day to drink in an office setting.

An awkward silence hovered over the table and Lia had no idea what to say. Sonja rounded the table and she dropped into the vacant chair. Fortunately, Jillian displayed all of the grace she’d become known for in her media appearances, smiling brightly and saying, “All right then! Thanks so much everybody for your contributions. We meet again in two weeks. Feel free to come to Sonja or Alex if you have questions or concerns. Lia, thank you for joining us. We look forward to working with you.”

“It was nice meeting you all,” Lia said as people closed their binders and rose from their chairs.

She sat in her chair, unsure of what to say or do. She was almost afraid to open up her other senses and see what sort of damage her boss had just done to her relationships with the people in this room. In her years of working with Victor, he had never done something so counter-intuitive, so openly destructive of what she was trying to accomplish. Was he trying to make her ineffective at her job? Was he trying to sabotage her? For the first time in her professional life, she was concerned about losing her job. She’d never been fired before. She could find another job, of course, but it would just be so insulting to have to pack up her box of belongings and slink back to her apartment in professional disgrace. She expected people to simply abandon her in the conference room until her legs worked again. But to her shock, Sonja, Dani and Jillian all surrounded her, radiating the warm cinnamon of sympathy.

“So that was awkward,” Jillian said. “And I say that as someone who has witnessed a lot of uncomfortable bureaucratic situations.”

“I cannot explain what just happened,” Lia said, shaking her head.

“Believe it or not, we’ve had worse things happen in this office,” Sonja offered kindly. “The League has inadvertently hired evil and/or murderous executive assistants. And then there was that ‘consultant’ who claimed to work for the League but didn’t. She was also, murderous.”

“Well, technically, those bad things happened at the rift site, not in the office,” Dani reminded her.

Sonja shrugged. “Semantics. You, Lia, look like someone who could use a drink.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not,” Lia confessed. Sonja waggled her hand.

“Well, if you’re free, we’d love it if you’d join us for drinks at my place later,” Dani said. “We do girls’ nights every few weeks. It’s my turn to host.”

Lia was prepared to say no. She rarely got invited into someone’s home when she was on these assignments. It was always drinks at a hotel or dinner at some nice restaurant. What if this was some sort of attempt by the League’s female contingent to manipulate her into more favorable terms? And she was just so tired all of the sudden, like Victor’s presence had sucked all of the energy out of her. But the thought of going home alone to her sad, sterile trailer flitted through her brain and made her say, “That sounds great. Can I bring anything?”

Jillian grinned. “Well, if you don’t enjoy fruit-based, extremely sweet drinks, you might want to bring your preferred alcohol.”

“Fruit-based, extremely sweet drinks sound just right, thanks,” Lia said.

* * *

Lia found herself humming along to the radio as she followed Sonja’s very explicit directions to Dani’s. Despite Victor’s interference, she’d managed to overcome a few pre-groundbreaking hurdles with the League’s head engineer, Hank Rossum, the man in charge of expanding the parish’s utilities and roads. And she had plans for the evening that didn’t involve retiring to her sad little trailer and eating alone. Lia hadn’t realized how much she’d missed having plans. When she was home in St. Louis, she spent so much of her time doing errands and catch-up that she rarely went out with friends. Zed had been right, even if his pronouncement that she needed friends in front of the whole meeting room was a little embarrassing.

Dani’s house was a perfectly normal-looking stone single-story on the edge of town, which was a bit of a let-down. She was sure that Zed would live in some sort of Bavarian mock-castle or something. Suddenly, Zed came barreling out of the front door, reminding her of an excited child. “You came! I’m so glad, bebelle. I was worried about you after that meeting earlier.”

“What does that mean? Bebelle?” Lia asked.

“It’s just a general term of endearment,” he said. Zed put his huge hand on her shoulder. “Can I be honest with you?”

“Generally speaking, that is a very dangerous question to answer,” Lia said.

He snorted, then all levity disappeared from his face as he said, “Your boss is a couillon, Lia.”

Lia chewed her lip. “I don’t know French, but that doesn’t sound good.”

Zed shook his head. “It’s not.”

“That’s part of the reason he has me, to prevent misunderstandings,” Lia responded.

He chuckled. “To be honest with you, your boss isn’t someone I want to do business with and if it wasn’t for you, I would send your whole operation packing.”

“You barely know me,” Lia said.

---