Page 28 of S.O.S. Perk

“Uh, uh. Don’t deflect,” Perk chastised. “I hear it in your voice. You’re stressed. Does this have anything to do with me not contacting you right away after I left school?”

Sloane blinked at the accusation. “No. No. Of course not. I figured you’d be debriefing with your handlers and your team, then you’d call me as soon as you were free.”

Perk actually chuckled. “Well, you’re mostly right. But you can add eating an excellent meal that Tertia concocted, and me sucking up my homework to that list. If I hadn’t done that stack of teacher-related-busywork right away, I would have procrastinated all night.”

“Good call, then,” Sloane agreed, feeling relief that he hadn’t been ignoring her for any real reason. But suddenly she became tongue-tied and silence reigned between them until—

“So, what’s actually wrong?” It seemed Perk wasn’t going to give up.

“Well, I was just talking to Melissa, and—”

“Dammit. Don’t tell me,” Perk interrupted with a long, pained groan. “She didn’t buy my student act.”

“Oh, no,” Sloane was quick to reassure him. “She bought it, alright. It’s just that…” Sloane decided to reveal what else Mel had said. “…she actually thought you were hot, and said that the girls in school were going to be all over you.”

Perk snorted. “Oh really? I’m sure theveryprofessional woman I met today didn’t use the word ‘hot’ when referring to a student.”

“Okay. You got me,” Sloane rephrased things. “She said you were like a piece of fine art; that she could look and appreciate, but not touch.”

This time Perk let out a howl of laughter, then spoke again when he finally managed to calm down.

“I’m flattered. By her attentionandover the attention she thinks I’ll be getting from the female student body. But Sloane, even if those high school girls weren’t jail-bait, I’m currently interested in only one woman. And that’s you.”

Wow.Perk’s first thought had been to reassure her, and what a way to do it. He was putting her before the nubile young things he’d meet, and at least for the present, every other female out there. That was a new one for Sloane.

“Uh, thanks?” she managed.

He didn’t call her on her hesitation. “Now, with all that being said, you’re still circumnavigating my original question,” Perk prodded. “What’s wrong?”

“Fine,” Sloane grumbled. “I’ll tell you. I was chatting with Melissa, and realized I don’t know anything about you.”

“Uh, Sloane?” Perk responded.

“Yeah?”

“We’ve talked for hours. You know me.”

“No. I know about your work and your friends, but nothing else.”

“Well, here’s where I’m going out on a limb,” Perk cautioned. “I’m sure you must have done a deep dive into my background before you agreed to ‘see’ me as a friend; even an innocuous get-together like we had planned.”

“Nope. Not even close,” Sloane countered. “Which goes to show you that you don’t know anything aboutme, either. Because if you did, you understand that I don’t use company resources to look into potential…friends.”

“Friends, huh?” he responded with a chuckle. “I’m glad you’ve finally put me in that category, but Sloane, don’t think I’m not angling for an upgrade from there.”

Sloane snorted.

Perk continued. “Okay. Color me wrong on the whole background-check thing,” he said somewhat bemusedly. “And now that that’s off the table, I’ll share whatever you need. I’m an open book, and all you have to do is ask. I’ll answer any questions you have.”

Well shit. Did Sloane really want their somewhat playful conversation to devolve into an interrogation? Right now? The answer to that was easy.No.She knew she was being chicken-shit, but putting things off would be easier.

“Listen, Perk. I—”

“No. Stop right there. You brought this up, Sloane, and I can hear it’s important to you, so don’t lose your courage now. What is it you want to know?”

Sloane dragged in a deep breath and the most pertinent question at the forefront of her gray matter spewed out.

“Have you ever been married?”

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