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"I don't know." To be honest with myself, I wasn't anyone's idea of a good-time girl.
I was the kind of woman who made people think of things like apple pie and picket fences. That didn't make me very popular in a place like New York, where people came to get away from picket fences.
"I guess those are two guys we can cross off our lists of Mr. Right potentials,"
Marcia said, interrupting my musings.
"How many million does that leave in the city?"
"It can't be a million, not if we exclude men who are gay, married, or seriously involved, or that we've gone out with before. We've got to be down to the thousands."
I had another category to add to that: men who weren't quite human, and I wasn't sure where men who could make things appear and disappear at will fit on the scale of eligibility. I was pretty sure that apple pie and picket fences weren't what they were looking for in a woman. If my degree of ordinary was boring for normal men, I'd send magical men straight into a coma.
SIX
Tuesday morning came a lot more quickly than I expected. After dressing in my second-best suit, I took the subway to work, and I was relieved to see Owen standing on the platform at the Union Square station. It meant I wouldn't have to walk into the building by myself. "Hi there!" I greeted him.
He turned his usual shade of pink before responding. "Good morning, Katie. I'm glad you're joining us."
"So am I. I'm excited about it. And a little nervous." I figured that he, of all people, should be able to understand some nervousness about a new situation.
He gave me one of his mischievous grins, and my knees went just a bit weak. "Want to get to work early?"
"Oh, why not?" Still smiling, he did something with his left hand, and sure enough, a train hurried out of the tunnel to stop in front of us. "After you," he said with a gallant gesture. There weren't any empty seats, but we found an empty pole to cling to. "Want to make it an express trip?" he whispered to me.
"I don't think that's necessary," I whispered back. "Let's not inconvenience everyone else."
He turned crimson. "I did summon another train right behind ours so they weren't inconvenienced that much."
"That was awfully sweet of you." I wondered what he'd do if I kissed him on the cheek, but I was rusty on CPR, and I doubted it would be an appropriate way to interact with a coworker even if he didn't have a heart attack.
It was bad enough that at every station, the momentum from the train stopping threw me up against him. He might not be a big man, but he was solid and sturdy. "Now I remember why I usually walk to and from work," I said after one particularly abrupt stop. "It's much less violent."
We finally reached the City Hall station and left the train together. Owen wasn't particularly tall, but he walked quickly enough that I had to work to keep up with him as he went through the park. He crossed Park Row against the light and away from the crosswalk, but there wasn't any traffic at the time. I wondered if that was a fluke or something he did. In spite of all his bashfulness, I began to get the impression that he was a very powerful person who cleared a path for himself through all of life's little inconveniences without even a second thought. The contrast was disconcerting.
Summoning subway cars and making coffee appear out of thin air seemed rather benign, almost like the parlor tricks one of my uncles liked to do at family gatherings, only much more useful. But this was a business, and apparently a rather large one, so I knew there had to be more to magic than that. It had to affect your way of looking at the world to know that you could control the elements like that. Would you expect to have that kind of control over everything? I decided I'd be safer if I focused on the impression of power instead of the bash-fulness when I dealt with Owen. If I only let myself see the cute, shy guy, I'd underestimate him, possibly even to a dangerous degree. It was like dealing with the sales reps who used to come to our store. The nicest, most friendly good ole boys were the ones you really had to look out for.
As if reinforcing my mental lecture, as soon as Owen stepped through the doorway into the building he almost became another person, very confident and professional and matching that impression of power I'd just had from him. "Good morning, Hughes," he said to the lobby's security guard. "You remember that Miss Chandler is joining us?"
"Of course, sir. Welcome, Miss Chandler."
"Katie, please," I insisted.
"I'll take her up to Personnel," Owen said.
"Very good, sir. Have a good day, sir, Katie."
"You, too," I called over my shoulder as Owen led me toward the stairs.
"Rod will take care of your orientation," he explained, winding his way through corridors. I wished I'd thought to bring some bread crumbs so I wouldn't get lost, but I didn't have time to worry about that now. Everyone we passed greeted him with some deference. Now I couldn't help but wonder just who this guy was. He couldn't be much more than thirty, yet they treated him like he was the top brass. I should see past any illusion he used to make himself look younger. Maybe he wasn't human at all and was some human-looking species that lived a very long time, so he could still look around thirty while actually being three hundred.
We reached a doorway and he came to a stop. "This is Rod's office," he said. "I'll leave you to him, but I'm sure I'll see you around."
"Thanks for leading the way."
He turned a little bit pink, looked like he was about to say something, then turned and went back down the hallway. I steeled myself before stepping through the doorway into what appeared to be an outer office. The largest woman I'd ever seen sat at a desk with the newest model of iMac, along with a crystal ball thingy like the one on the desk in the lobby and an ordinary office phone. She wasn't fat, just big all around. She could play linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. Before I could open my mouth
to say who I was and what my business was, she stood up, towering over me, and gave me a huge smile. "Katie! Sweetheart! You're here!"
