Page 7 of Greed
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Are you mocking me?”
Heat flared up her neck. She decided to focus on the damage the gum had caused. “How about I buy you a new one?”
He glanced at his chest, wincing. “You’re still touching me.”
Lilo froze. Oh no. Her mother had warned her about this. She got handsy. People didn’t like it. Her ex, Donald Doppenger—or Donnie Darko as she now called him behind his back—used to berate her constantly if she touched him in public. Which was very hard not to do, mind you, especially when they were allowed to touch as much as they wanted behind closed doors. She liked touching. A lot. But she shouldn’t really use that relationship as a benchmark to compare other relationships. Not that this incident was a relationship. Oh for goodness sake, now she rambled in her mind.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured and stepped away, hiding her hands behind her back. This was a nightmare in need of immediate rectification. She turned away and spoke as she made two mugs of instant coffee with sticky hands. “If you send me the bill, I’ll be happy to pay for the sweater damage. You can find me in the criminal investigations section. My name is Lilo Likeke.”
Please God, don’t let it be real cashmere.
Quick. Hurry. Make the coffee and get out of there.
The silence extended for a good few minutes while she poured steaming liquid into two mugs, then added cream and sugar. His presence burned along her back. Why wasn’t he saying anything?
Something crunched behind her, like a squashed soda can.
She whirled around.
He stared at her, wide-eyed and white faced. His accusatory gaze ping-ponged between the crushed metal mug in his hand and back to her as though she had something to do with the mangled wreck.
She’d made him angry enough to crush his mug.
With another mumbled apology, she rushed out the door to the open-plan office area.
She shuffled into her cubicle and lowered into her chair until she was sure she became invisible. Only when the burning in her cheeks subsided did she look around to see if anyone noticed her flaming embarrassment. Her desk was next to an eclectic array of others. Over the partition was Bev. A depressed investigator called Quentin sat to her left, and behind Lilo was Candy the fashion journalist.
Criminal Investigations bordered with the lifestyle section. It was a hoot.
The latter two journalists weren’t in yet which made Lilo grateful. The last thing she needed was more eyes judging her embarrassing morning.
“Coffee, Bev.” She put the mug on her friend’s desk and ducked back into her little cubby to twiddle her hoop earrings and fade away.
“I didn’t ask for a coffee, love.” Beverly’s husky voice carried a “do-not-fuck-with-me” vibe. It was misleading because Bev was as sweet as pie.
“Well, I made it anyway. You can have it. It’s all yours.”
“I drink tea,” Bev mumbled. “But, thank you anyway, gorgeous.”
“You’re right. You like tea. I know that.” Lilo put her face in her hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me this morning. First, I sleep through my alarm, then there was the bubblegum incident, and now this. Knowing my luck, I’ll log on and find a police report about something that should have been uploaded to the web hours ago.”
Silence from over the partition. Bev slowly stood on the other side, just long enough for Lilo to catch blue hair, arched eyebrows and blue eyeshadow before she popped back down again. She lifted. She sat.
Doing her morning squats.
“The bubblegum incident,” Bev said on an up squat. “That shmendrik bothering you again? I thought you told him to stick it where the sun don’t shine.”
She referred to Donnie.
“No. All me this time. I—” She couldn’t even picture the incident without blushing. “I totally face-planted the cashmere chest of this uber hot geek-god in the coffee room and kinda accidentally popped my bubblegum on said cashmere and then I tried to rub it off but made it worse and then I told him to take it off and oh my God I’m going to be sick.” She clutched her stomach.
This time, Bev stood up and stayed, peering over the partition. Her red nails clicked on the divider as her fingers thrummed. “We don’t have hot geeks working here. Only old, semi-retired schmoes.”
“Yes, I know. He must be new.” As the words fell out of her mouth, the world closed in on Lilo and she sat up straight, back like a rod. “Oh no. The new guy. He must be Grace’s boyfriend’s brother. The one I referred for the consultant job.”
“You referred someone you don’t know?”
“Grace knows him. I trust her.”
