Page 27 of Not the Plan

She smiled back, but her attention was drawn to the person on the other end of the line. He left again while she asked for someone to come clean the carpet. When she hung up, he was back with a small bottle of club soda and clean paper towels.

“For your skirt,” he said, handing them to her.

“Thanks.” She sat, opening the bottle to dab at the stain on the fabric.

“It’s been a bit of a crash course for you, hasn’t it?” she asked.

He smiled again, adjusted his nerdy-cute glasses, and returned to his seat. The relaxed way he crossed his arms made his shoulders even broader, sexier. “There’s a lot to learn,” he said.

“And a lot to watch out for, apparently. Morning sickness, clumsy coffee drinkers. I don’t think it’s safe for me to be around you with a cup of coffee.”

He blushed and laughed, glancing at the table.

God, even his laugh is sexy.

“You do…keep me on my toes a bit. And a new job wouldn’t be much fun without a few surprises, I guess.”

“I guess not.” She shrugged, closing the bottle. There was a draft—one of the buttons on her blouse had come undone in the commotion over the coffee. She often had problems with it, the second to last one she buttoned. If it was open, the middle of her bra might appear depending on the way she moved. She was wearing the bra that matched the garter. If they were back to the flirting they’d started in their first meeting, no reason he shouldn’t get a peek to feed his imagination.

He smiled, tucking his fists deeper into the crook of eachelbow. Then he uncrossed his arms and reached for his pen. He was delicious to look at, but she wanted to know more about him.

“Tell me,” she said. “What’s the craziest bill you’ve worked on?”

“The craziest?” he asked, rolling the pen between his fingers.

“Yeah. Or the weirdest. One that sticks out in your mind.”

He chuckled.

“Clowns.”

“Clowns?” she asked.

“Yeah. Regulating the number of clowns a circus can have,” he said.

She leaned back in her seat.

“I’ve worked on a variety of subjects over the years,” she said. “But I can’t say that clowns have ever crossed my desk.”

“It was a surprise for me too,” he said, glancing down at the table. “I didn’t have to do much work on it personally, but I did have to give advice on a few legal arguments a senator wanted to make against the bill. He felt very strongly that circuses should have an unlimited number of clowns.”

The image of a circus tent with masses of clowns spilling out popped into Isadora’s head, and she tilted her head back to laugh. Karim joined her, but when she looked at him again, she caught his gaze dart up from the collar of her blouse.

Gotcha. My collar is close enough for your peripheral vision to catch that open button, isn’t it?She tried to keep her smile closer to “tickled” than “victorious.”

“How did it work out?” she asked.

“The bill failed. They kept their unlimited clowns,” he said, smiling. “What about you? One that sticks out?”

She thought a moment. It was tough to choose just one.

“Matchmaking agencies,” she finally said.

He raised his eyebrows.

“I ended up learning a lot about them. Including the fact that sometimes lines can get blurred between legitimate agencies, dating websites, and escorting services.”

“Ah. Well, the escorting is a completely irrelevant issue, but I’m certain you wouldn’t ever need those other two services personally,” he said, leaning closer. She maintained eye contact with him but didn’t speak. An ember expanded in her chest, and she wondered if he could hear her heart beating.

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