Page 65 of The Mercenary's Guide to Mishaps and Romance

We head out onto the street which we cross to reach a rather large office building. I grab the door and hold it open for everyone.

“He’s even got manners,” Leland whispers. “You picked a good one, Tavish.”

“A good one to abduct?” I ask, unsure what else he could be referring to.

Tavish glances over at me and I feel like that look has a deeper meaning that I’m a little uncertain about uncovering.

The woman who’d been coming in behind them looks confused now that we’re talking about abductions, but I just smile and keep holding the door open… and now some man is coming, but he’s like twenty feet away and it’s that awkward stage where I don’t know if I should just go in or keep holding it for him. He now looks just as concerned and is trying to walk faster to get to the door to keep me from holding it any longerthan I need to. And now it’s too late to go inside, so I just keep holding and he just keeps speed walking, but then he stumbles in his attempt to quicken the pace. His eyes snap up, and suddenly, we’ve locked eyes, and I’ve become confident that this memory will haunt me for no apparent reason on some random night when I’m trying to sleep three years from now.

When that catastrophe is finally over, I hurry inside, unsure how I’m supposed to face some evil organization if I can’t even figure out how long to hold a door open.

“That was awkward, even for me,” Tavish assures me.

“Secondhand embarrassment for sure,” Cassel agrees.

“Thanks,” I say sarcastically.

Tavish gives me a playful elbow. “I’m teasing you. That was nice of you.”

“I made him trip.”

“Nah, his inferior legs made him trip,” he says as he sets a hand on my shoulder and squeezes it. “You’re fine.”

I glance over at him. “How’d you know I was freaking out?”

“It’s all over your face, buddy. Now, deep breath, we are here for a business meeting. Look calm and casual. We are meant to be here. We belong here. It’s as simple as that.” He gives his tie a tug before tossing me a cocky look thatiskind of handsome. “Simple meeting. It’s a woman at the receptionist desk. Let me handle it. Women love the accent,” he informs me before he saunters right up to it.

“Guid ta see ye on such a lovely day,” he says… or at least I think that’s what he says since he’s working the accent like there’s no tomorrow. It’s so thick the woman leans forward a bit, like maybe that’ll help her understand what he’s just said.

“You… need to use the bathroom?” she asks.

“Ahhhh, nah. Not me. I dinna mean ta confuse ya. You’re such a funny lass!”

Why is it getting worse? Why is he now whipping it out even thicker and stronger? It almost sounds like he’s an American trying to do a Scottish accent.

“Sorry, my friend doesn’t know English,” Leland says, even though Tavish was clearly speaking English… if you could decipher it, that is. “We’re here for the eight o’clock meeting with Nate Stewart.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize he had a meeting… he’s not usually in this early,” she responds as she turns to the computer. “Oh! He must have scheduled it and forgotten to let me know. I haven’t seen him come in yet, but I’ll see where he’s at. Until then, I’ll have you guys wait in the meeting room. I’ll have someone send you right up.”

“Thank you,” he says with a warm smile. No sign of the bubble gum-wielding murderer that I’d heard about in the parking lot.

“And please, sign your party in,” she requests.

Leland picks up the pen but tosses it to Cassel, who starts signing some names that definitely aren’t ours with ease. When Cassel’s done, she gives each of us our own visitor badge, and a young man hurries over to collect us.

“Right this way,” he says as he heads over to the elevator which we slip into. “What company are you guys from?”

Tavish says something in his newly acquired ultra-thick accent which leaves the poor guy looking confused and unsure how to continue this conversation, so he ends up going with, “Ah, that’s fantastic.”

The moment the doors open, we’re ushered out of the elevator and onto the eighth floor. We’re taken over to a closed door that he pushes open before waving us in.

“As soon as Mr. Stewart is in, he’ll be right this way. Can I get you some coffee? Water? Anything else while you wait?”

“We’re good, thank you. No rush. We know we’re a bit early,” Leland says with a smile, and the guy immediately smiles back before leaving.

I take a deep breath that I realize I’d been holding for some reason. Like what did holding my breath do to make me look normal and at ease?

“There aren’t many people here yet; I say we break into his office and snoop around,” Tavish says.

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