Page 3 of Absent Feeling

“That’swhy,” Agent Palliser continued, “I am offering you a place in my department,working with Agent Phelps as his partner.”

“That…” Amber hadn’t been expecting that. She’d been convinced that Palliser didn’tlike her. That she would never even consider allowing Amber to work in herdepartment. It would mean that she could continue working in DC, and it wouldmean that she got to work on some of the most serious crimes.

Itwas a lot to be offered, all at once. Amber’s first instinct was to jump at theopportunity, but she’d already seen how difficult and dangerous the cases Simonworked were. Amber had already seen more death than she’d ever thought shewould. Could she really jump into more of that?

“CanI think about it?” Amber said.

“Thinkabout it? I’m sure that any of the others here would say yes in an instant, andyou want to hesitate?” Palliser didn’t sound entirely happy.

“Ma’am,you just said that I can be too impulsive, and this … this is a lot. I needsome time to let it all sink in.”

Pallisernodded. “All right but don’t take too long.” She looked over to Simon. “Phelps,I want a list of alternative candidates on my desk by tomorrow. If Ms. Younghere doesn’t want the job, I want alternative options.”

CHAPTER THREE

Themoment Amber walked into the restaurant where Joseph had made reservations tocelebrate her finishing the training course, she started to feel out of place.

Shewas underdressed for it, for one thing, in a casual, floral print skirt and acream blouse with a green cardigan over the top. She’d been home to herapartment to change, but it wasn’t as if she even owned the kind of clothesthat people went to fancy restaurants in.

Joseph,meanwhile, looked amazing in a dark blue, three-piece suit with a crisp, whiteshirt and no tie. It was the most formal Amber thought she’d ever seen himdress. It suited him; although, to Amber, he also looked great just walkingaround the office in slacks and a casual shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Therestaurant was chic and minimalist, decorated in shades of white and grey, withsmall, round tables spreading out around a central kitchen space where acollection of chefs worked in surprising near silence. Couples and groups werespread out around the restaurant; it was busy enough that Amber was surprisedthat they’d been able to get a reservation. Amber noted that all of the othersthere were dressed up in some of their fanciest clothes. It seemed that cominghere was an event, not just a chance to eat out.

Thewhole thing was enough to make Amber nervous. So nervous that she had to startcoming up with quiz questions relating to capital cities of the world to calmherself. She’d gotten as far as Baku when Joseph stood and walked over to her.

“Amber.”A part of her wanted to kiss him hello, but the thought of doing so in front ofthe other diners was too much. “You look amazing.”

Amberfound herself shaking her head without thinking. She wished that she could juststand there and take compliments like that, believing that they were true andthat she deserved them, but she couldn’t. Not in a place like this.

“I’mprobably the most underdressed person here,” she said.

“Amber,you would look great whatever you wore,” Joseph assured her. He started to leadher over to their table.

“Saysthe guy who gets flirtatious looks from just about every woman in theWashingtonNews,”Amber said with a smile. “When even the fashion editor is watchingyou like she might be able to use you as a model on one of her shoots,that’swhen you’re good looking.”

Josephlaughed at that, although Amber wasn’t entirely joking. Back when they’d bothworked on the newspaper together, he’d been the one who’d had all the attention,and no one had even noticed her. She’d just been the mousy little puzzleeditor, working away in her own weird world of chess problems and crosswords,not even getting an office while all the other section editors did. All of thatmade it amazing that, when Amber had simply marched up to Joseph on the day sheleft and asked him if he wanted to go out on a date, he’d said yes.

Now,months later, here they both were in a fancy restaurant together while twowaiters were already approaching with food as the two of them sat down.

“Wedidn’t order,” Amber said with a frown.

“It’sa nine-course tasting menu,” Joseph replied. He looked slightly embarrassed. “Iasked the restaurant critic for somewhere fancy to celebrate, and he came backwith a reservation for two for this place. Apparently, it usually takes monthsto get in. I forgot to allow for the fact that he eats in the best restaurantsin the city pretty much every day.”

Ah,so he’d had help. That explained a lot. Joseph normally struck Amber as someonewho preferred things a lot simpler than all of this. Of course, that meant thathe was making this much of an effort just for her, trying to impress her. Amberhad to admit that it was working, at least a little.

“Youknow you didn’t have to go to all this trouble just for me,” Amber said as shecontemplated the first course: scallops with a pea foam and edible flowers. “Imean, it’s amazing that you did, but I would have been happy with youanywhere.”

Thekey point was that they were finally getting to spend some real time together.In the past few months, they’d managed to grab a few dates where they couldspend some time together, a few snatched moments at her place or hisafterwards, but there had always been that need for Amber to go back toQuantico to get on with her training again. They not only hadn’t been workingat the same newspaper anymore, but they also weren’t even in the same city. Now,they had a chance to actually spend some more time together.

“Iwanted to do something big to celebrate your graduation,” Joseph said. “It’snot every day that you qualify to be an FBI agent.”

“Iwasn’t sure if I was going to be able to manage it,” Amber said.

“Areyou kidding? How many trainees have caught two killers before they even finishtheir training course? How many have found themselves on the front page of theWashingtonNewsfor the things they’ve achieved?”

“Well,you had a lot to do with getting me on the front page,” Amber said, tilting herhead to the side. “You’re the one who wrote it all up and made me into astory.”

“Onlybecause you deserved it,” Joseph said. “Do you think that Harry would have runthe stories if they weren’t important? He’s even going to run one about youqualifying as an agent now, because our readers are interested in what happensto you.”

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