Page 4 of The Swiping Game
I don’t have a chance to respond before Hunter and I stop in front of Tara’s desk. Or should I call it a disaster zone? There are papers everywhere. Sticky note reminders scattered around her computer. A plant that’s on its last days. I have no clue how the woman stays organized. If she were my assistant, I’d force her to clean up her desk every day. Then again, if she were my assistant, we probably wouldn’t get anything done other than trading verbal jabs all day.
“Tara, you good to hold down the fort while I’m gone?” Hunter asks.
“The Fury is safe with me. Have a great trip. And remember what you asked me to do over the next three weeks when thinking about what kind of souvenir to get me.”
“Noted.” He chuckles as he turns toward me. “Talk to you when I get back?”
“Sounds good. Go get me some new clients.”
Hunter waves to the both of us as he exits through the glass doors that lead to and from the Fury coaches’ offices.
I turn to look at Tara, and just as I suspected—and felt—her eyes are doing their best attempt to burn through me. It’s too bad I have a rule about not dipping my pen in any proverbial company ink, because I don’t think she realizes that there is a very thin line between love and hate.
And currently, I’m walking that line like it’s a tightrope.
“So what is it you’re going to be doing?” I ask her.
She mumbles something under her breath as she turns away from me.
“What was that?” I walk around to the other side of her desk, forcing her to make eye contact with me.
She looks up at me, her eyes clearly saying she’d rather be doing anything other than having this conversation. “If you must know, for the next few weeks I’ll be pulling double duty as Hunter’sandNeil’s assistant. Neil’s assistant started her maternity leave unexpectedly early.”
“Oh, really.” I take a seat on the corner of her desk. The fact that I’m not sitting on anything is a miracle. “So you’re going to be back up on the third floor, huh?”
“Seems that way.”
“For how long?”
“Did I stutter? A few weeks. Until the temp can start.”
The next month is the busiest time for me. And three of my contracts are in the height of negotiations. The back and forth, the push and pull—I love it all. And yes, in this day and age, I could do most of my negotiating through conference calls and emails. But one of the benefits of being the in-town agent is coming down to the Fury offices and talking things out face-to-face. That’s what makes me so good at my job. I’m not just an agent by paper. I come down and fight for the best contracts for each of my clients.
And if that means seeing a whole lot of Tara in the process, well, then that’s just an added bonus.
“So I guess I’ll be seeing you around a lot, then?”
She doesn’t look at me, instead typing something on her computer. “Seems that way.”
“Oh, come on. Admit it, you miss me now that you’re down here working for McAvoy.”
She snaps a look at me, and I’m pretty sure her brown eyes have turned a shade of red. “Gee, let’s see what I would have missed. The constant teasing? The taking up residence on the corner of my desk? The cologne that you apparently bathe in? Yes, Dean, I’ve missed you oh so terribly.”
I take a sniff of my jacket for added effect. “I think I smell great.”
“You smell like a teenager going on his first date. What is that? Axe?”
“What if it is?” It’s not, but I haven’t had a good Tara sparring session in a while, so I roll with it. “Maybe I thought it smelled good. Maybe I wore it to impress you.”
“You’d impress me by leaving me alone.”
“You know you love it when I come visit you. Who else would ask you if you wanted me to make funeral arrangements for your plant over there?”
She quickly locates the small plant and hurriedly shoves it into her desk. “It was doing fine until you got here. Maybe it wilted by your mere presence. Much like my good mood.”
“Wow, my powers are greater than I thought.”
She lets out a huff. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Someone else’s assistant to annoy? Or am I the only one who gets this kind of treatment?”
