Page 11 of Glitter

I grinned at her cheekily. “Eh, you love me.”

“I do.” She beamed at me and bumped my shoulder with hers. “Seriously though, what do you want to do if you don’t want to email them?”

“Is quietly stalking each department from afar until I find the right Henry completely off the table?”

She tilted her head to the side as she contemplated my words. “I mean, it’ll get the job done, but wouldn’t it be quicker just to email them?”

I huffed. “Quicker, butwayless fun.”

“Yes, well, you’ve already accused me of being a member of the fun police, so I guess that I’m proving your hypothesis by suggesting the simplest solution, aren’t I?”

I nodded, grinning like a loon.

“Ugh.” Amy deflated. “I never used to be like this. Motherhood has changed me.”

“Changed you for the better, you mean? You’re exactly the right person you need to be at this point in time and space.” I hauled her into a long hug, waiting for her to relax before I pulled away. “You’re perfect, Amy, just the way you are.” I looked up at the sizable clock on the wall. “Come on, wifey, it’s lunchtime. Let’s go eat.”

“Only if I can continue to point and laugh at all your ludicrous attempts to stalk multiple Henry’s at the same time.” She got up and pushed her chair back to her own desk.

I sighed theatrically, letting my head fall backwards. “Fine.”

We made our way to the lunchroom, and I cast my eyes around the space to see if Travis was there. It wasn’t something I normally did, but he’d rattled me on Friday, and seeing as this was my first workday for the week, I was a little more cautious than usual.

Which is why I was shocked to discover Henry sitting in the corner eating his lunch.

“What the fuck…?” I froze and blinked in his direction, vaguely aware that Amy had stopped too and was now looking at me curiously.“Henry?”

Amy’s eyes widened, and she followed my gaze across the crowded room. “Henry? He’s here? Who is it?” She scanned the people in front of us, rising to her tiptoes a couple of times as if that would help her see over the already seated patrons.

Seeing that he was sitting alone, I forced my feet to move and led Amy across the room.

Halfway there, he looked in our direction and his face lit up. “Blue!”

“That’s a good sign,” Amy murmured happily behind me, then prodded me in the lower back to keep walking.

We were two or three steps away from him when he stood up. His hands lifted slightly, like he wanted to reach for me, but he then thought better of it and dropped them to his sides. “How are you? How was your weekend?”

“Good!” I beamed at him so hard that my cheeks hurt. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find you again. You work for Eckersley’s, right?”

He chuckled; his sparkling gaze still locked on my eyes. “I do. One floor up in the engineering department.”

“Engineering…” I repeated quietly, before turning to raise an eyebrow at Amy. “One floor up, he says…”

She smirked at me, then thrust her hand out to shake Henry’s. “Hi. I’m Amy, this one’s general babysitter. How’s things?”

He startled as if he suddenly realized he and I weren’t alone. “Oh, hi Amy. Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand firmly, but not aggressively so.

Letting them talk amongst themselves, I took a moment to let my eyes drift over Henry to compare my memory of him to what he looked like right now, standing in front of me.

Just as I remembered, he was a couple of inches shorter than me and a little stockier, but itworkedfor him. He had dark brown hair that was just going grey at the temples, but it was far more noticeable in his full beard, where a large patch covered his chin. There was an adorable cowlick poking up from the back of his head, even though the rest of his hair had been combed meticulously into place.

He had a small black gauge in each earlobe that matched his black wardrobe. Much like what he wore on Friday, he was wearing a lightly faded black hoodie, black jeans, and black sneakers. Everything was well worn and completely odd to see on someone who worked at Eckersley’s, where the vast majority of people wore smart business casual. Although it wasn’t what I would choose to wear for work, his completely relaxed style appealed to me for being different in its own way.

His sleeves had been pushed up on both arms, revealing a random collection of tattoos. They’d been largely hidden on Friday, so I spent more time than I probably should have staring at them and trying to commit them to memory. There was a cross on the back of his left hand near his thumb and forefinger, a stunning, large black and red design of Jack Skellington fromThe Nightmare Before Christmason his right forearm, and a person in steampunk armor on his left.

But what had captured my attention on Friday the most, and again even now, were his startling pale blue eyes. Wide and expressive, they took in everything around them like a knowledge-hungry child. There was a mischievous innocence to them that made me think there was more to the quiet man than most people saw. Maybe even more than he saw in himself.

“Isn’t that right, Blue?” Amy asked, yanking me out of my reverie.

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