Page 54 of A Break in Communications

Somewhere she’d bother me less. This was a good thing. I strained a smile. “Paradise indeed. You too, Masters.”

I sat at my desk, and I got to work, dammit. Put in the hours, even as half of it was helping people troubleshoot their own problems they’d collected from the long weekend, and Lucy—Masters climbed onto my desk or into my chair a total of zero times through the day.

And when I packed up to leave late in the evening, she didn’t even look at me on my way out. And it didn’t bother me at all.

I got home, and I was bothered, because I couldn’t get work done to save my life.

I sat at my computer staring blankly at the template plan I had open, trying to make sense of the most basic words and getting nowhere. I didn’t know up from down, let alone how to manage this press release event we were scheduling and inviting Gould to be an exclusive part of.

After an hour and a half and a finished cup of Ethiopian coffee that didn’t taste right, I pulled out my phone, and I was out of my mind, because I almost texted Lucy. Texted her what? I didn’t know until I had her contact open on my phone, and I cringed, wrinkling my nose at myself.

What was I doing?I miss you, come over?I didn’t know what she’d done to me, but I didn’t like it. I put the phone away, closing her contact, and I forgot all about her. Tried to, anyway.

I didn’t sleep well that night. And seeing the Christmas tree the next morning helped no one. I needed to throw that damn thing in the garbage. There was a reason I didn’t do Christmas celebrations. This was bullshit.

The office was quiet the next morning, all of the long-weekend gossip spent now and everybody grinding their way through hump day, eyes on the end of the week. I joined in the hazy quiet of it all, everybody working in a trance, and I did too, put my nose down and turned off my brain long enough to get it done. End of the day rolled around, and I stuck around long after everyone else left, and even Lucy went not too long after the rest of the department, not sparing another look my way, and I wanted to chase her down and demand to know if this was her petty way of getting back at me for not dating her.

Of course, I didn’t, because that would have been clinically insane. She was engaged in the very normal, very reasonable activity ofnot wanting to talk to the girl who just rejected your romantic advances,and why the hell was I so upset by her not talking to me, anyway?

The simple answer would have been that I had feelings for her too—actual feelings, not just sex-fueled puppy love. But even if that was a thing, not only was it too late now, but both parties having feelings didn’t mean a relationship was a good idea. Me and Lucy would never have ended well, not with… well, just… I couldn’t imagine it.

Also—it wasMasters,not Lucy. I was going to take some time to come around on that. Maybe by the time Lucy was talking to me again.

By the time Masters was talking to me again. Dammit.

Thursday morning, Sean met me at my desk with a concerned look in his eyes.

“Morning, Anna,” he said. “You’re in even earlier than usual.”

“Look who’s talking. Do you actually live here?”

“I’m just trying to make sure the place doesn’t burn down before I get out. Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” I said, sitting down, and he cleared his throat.

“Ah, well… it’s about the holiday party and this invoice…”

“Oh, that…” I tented my hands on the desk. “Yeah, that’d be my fault. Sorry, Dobbs. Uh—Kelcey ordered them and asked me if something was wrong with it, and I checked it and had to tell her the order was for boxes of lights and not individual lights, so I told her I’d send it along to Daniel to clear it up but, I, uh… well, I got distracted and forgot. That’s on me.”

“Well, as long as we’re not making a habit out of it. I guess we can repurpose them to decorate the office. Can probably dress up the whole building.”

“Just don’t take it as an excuse to put six hundred trees in your office. I know you would.”

“Any chance I can see you in that office for a few minutes? I’d like to talk about the job you’re on.”

Hard to tell from his tone if it was good news or bad news, so I put on a cautiously polite smile and agreed, following him into the office, where he sat down with a vexed look, ushering me to shut the door. I sat across from him, and we sat there in awkward silence for about ten seconds while I looked around at where he was already well on his way to six hundred tiny Christmas trees in here.

Finally, he managed, “I’d like to talk about the successorship to this office once I leave,” he said, and I smiled politely at him, showing no reaction one way or the other.

“I’m listening.”

“You’re interested in the position, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. I’m doing my best work on the G&S case in hopes it can prove my dedication to the work and suitability to the role.”

He nodded. “Good, good. Yes, well, truth be told, I actually had two candidates in mind going into this, yourself and Lucy Masters.”

“Of course. Go on.”

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