Page 18 of Diluted Truths
I stared slack-jawed at the man for the second time in five minutes. Not only was he interested in my case, he wanted to help. “When you say work the case with me, how much do you want to participate in?”
“All of it.”
“I plan on traveling to multiple states for this case. Would you want to do that as well?” It was a lie. I was only planning on going to San Francisco but he didn’t need to know that now.
“Jackie, I really mean all of it. For the duration that you’re researching this and writing about it, I want to be there. For all of it.” Will leaned towards me in earnest, resting his arms on my desk. “I want to be there with you researching this. I’m all in.”
I looked down trying to hide the girlish blush on my cheeks.God,it was annoying how charming Will was.
Once I felt my face return to its usual color I looked back up at Will.“I could honestly use your help. If you can stick around for a bit, we can go over some of the logistics with you?”
“We?” Will asked.
I smiled, stood and walked to my door. As I opened it I found Oliver, Goldie and even Stan eavesdropping on the other side. I wasn’t surprised to find them all there.
“Y’all want to come in and talk to us about the case or would you like to stay out here?”
I heard Will laugh behind me as Goldie and Oliver entered my office sheepishly. Stan walked back to his station chuckling as he threw me a wink.
“Will, this is Goldie and Oliver.” I gestured to my friends and coworkers. “Oliver, Goldie, this is Dr. William Bly.”
“Pleasure to meet you both,” Will stated as he stood to shake both their hands. “Eavesdrop on Jackie's conversations a lot?”
“Yep,” Oliver and Goldie stated in unison.
I laughed at my friends as I sat back in my chair. “It’s true. But I do it to them too. Now I want to discuss San Francisco with you all. Goldie, I know you’ll be booking the travel. Can you add Will to the itinerary?”
“Ummm… yeah, I can do that.” Goldie leaned towards me. “Does Fai know he’s here and helping?” Fai’s hatred for Will was infamous in the office.
The drama of him hating his wife’s best friend was, as Stan would say, titillating.
“Nope, and we are keeping it that way. Is it going to be hard to add Will this close to the trip?” I continued on, moving away from the question, not wanting to explain to my friends my lies to our boss.
Goldie cleared her throat as she looked at me with concern filling her gaze. “No. Oliver informed me this morning he wasn’t going to be able to come so I’ll just put Will in his spot.”
My gaze whipped to Oliver. “You’re not coming?”
“No,” Oliver sighed. “I wanted to, but I have a lead on my case that I want to explore.”
“Care to share?” I asked. We often used each other as a sounding board for our work. It helped to have one another’s opinion without the pressure of impressing each other like we did when going to Fai.
“Not yet, but soon.”
“Cryptic, but understood.” I turned to face Will, who had been watching silently. “We leave next week on Friday. I can get you caught up on all the details before we go. Are you sure you want to get involved with us?”
Will smiled at me, and I swear it was brilliant. “More than sure.”
Chapter 6Born to Die by. Lana Del Ray
Will
Sarah stared at me, awestruck. “You volunteered to go and stated you had time off of work?”
“Maybe,” I responded as I took a sip of my beer.
“William!” Sarah practically yelled. “You are in the middle of the semester. You do not have time off!”
We sat across from each other in the crowded room. We had been coming to this bar weekly since graduate school. The amount of stories the fading walls had heard from the two of us could fill multiple novels.
