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I moved my things from Trix’s desk back to my own office, then got my coat and bag and headed out. I was surprised to bump into Owen in the lobby. “I don’t remember the last time I saw you going home this early. I mean, other than when you’d had your shoulder ripped to shreds,” I remarked.
“I suppose one good thing to come of this is the fact that sealing off the department means I have to go home on time.”
“You could probably use the rest anyway.”
Then we reversed our morning routine, walking to the subway station from the office, side by side and almost in step. “So you got the ugly job of sorting through all this,” he said.
“Yeah. I wonder what I did to deserve it.”
“You’ve got a level head and a knack for seeing through all kinds of illusions,” he replied.
“I was being sarcastic.”
“I wasn’t. I think you’re probably best for the job. You don’t have any real ax to grind, unlike most of us who’ve worked there a long time.”
I looked at him suspiciously. “You have grudges and enemies and all that, too?”
“Let’s just say that there are people I don’t trust. I wouldn’t go out of my way to hurt them, and I wouldn’t frame them. But I wouldn’t be sad to see evidence pointing at them, and I might not be as discerning as I should be at deciding whether to believe that evidence.” He shrugged. “The problem with a company this old and this stable is that not only have most of us been working there our entire adult lives, but our parents and grandparents also worked there. Some of these grudges and feuds go back generations.”
“It’s nice to hear that the company man isn’t entirely a thing of the past.”
“When you’re dealing with inherited job skills, it’s more likely. I suppose you could inherit a head for figures or a talent for art or music, but when the skill that makes you right for a job is a genetic trait, you get multiple generations in the same job. I’m one of the few outsiders in the company in a job that nobody in my family had before me. At least, as far as I know.”
I remembered that he’d said he was an orphan who didn’t know who his parents were. Although I was curious about his background, I didn’t know if that was a touchy subject for him, so instead I said, “I guess you, Merlin, and I are in the same boat, then. He’s not technically an outsider, since he was the founder, but he doesn’t really know anyone else in the company.”
“That’s one of the reasons he was brought back. We didn’t know if we could trust our previous leadership. We needed someone above suspicion with no ties to the current employees.”
I was dying to ask him what he meant by that, but we’d reached the subway station, where a platform full of rush-hour commuters wasn’t the best place to talk about magic.
I used to hate riding the subway at rush hour, but since I’d started commuting with Owen, I’d learned to like it a lot better. He could reach the overhead bar, and since I couldn’t, he’d hold me steady with an arm around my waist. I had a feeling that was the only way I’d ever get contact that intimate with him, so I had to enjoy it where I found it. Standing like that with him made me remember every romance-novel cliché I’d ever read about weak knees and pounding pulses, while it didn’t seem to affect him at all. Reason number seven-hundred sixty-eight why I was pretty sure he didn’t feel about me the way I felt about him.
I felt a pang of disappointment when we lurched to a stop at the Union Square station and shoved our way to the doors. My daily time with Owen had nearly come to an end. I’d have to wait until the next morning when I emerged from my building to see him again.
Oh boy, did I have it bad. I thought I’d talked myself out of the crush that ate Cleveland, but no matter how many pep talks I gave myself about how an ultrapowerful wizard of mysterious parentage might make a great fantasy-novel hero but would probably make a lousy boyfriend for a girl like me, and no matter how many clues I found that proved he saw me as nothing more than a friend, the next time I saw him, it started all over again. If I didn’t know for sure that magic didn’t work on me, I’d have suspected him of using one of Rod’s attraction spells.
We finally came aboveground and I took a deep breath of fresh (or what passed for fresh in the city) air. I started to head for the crosswalk, but Owen paused. He frowned as if in thought, then said, “Do you have any plans for dinner?”
“Not that I can think of. Both my roommates said they had late meetings this evening, so I’m on my own.”
“After today, I don’t even have the energy to throw something in the microwave. Do you want to get some dinner?”
My heart did back handsprings worthy of the Olympic gymnastics team while my brain reminded it that this didn’t sound like a date. It was merely two single people who didn’t want to eat alone. “Sure,” I said with what I hoped looked like a casual shrug instead of a nervous spasm.
He smiled and his blue eyes lit up. “I know a great little diner down the street. It’s nothing fancy, just good food and a lot of variety. I’ve been eating there for years, and I haven’t had anything bad yet.”
You could probably poison Owen and he wouldn’t complain, but I’d also learned that he didn’t give a compliment he didn’t mean wholeheartedly, so I said, “I’ll take that as a recommendation. It sounds wonderful.”
He led the way across Fourteenth and then down a block to a little corner diner. It would have been nice if he’d held my hand, taken my arm, or even put a guiding hand to my back, but this was really the first time we’d been together in a nonwork capacity, so I reminded myself not to let my imagination run away with me. This was not a date.
The waitress who met us at the door appeared to know Owen, for she greeted him like an old friend. “Well, hey there, handsome. I thought you’d abandoned me,” she teased.
He turned crimson and didn’t meet her eyes as he said, “I haven’t been eating out much lately.”
“As long as you’re not cheating on me with some other waitress. Would a booth work for you tonight?” she flirted.
o;It’s nice to hear that the company man isn’t entirely a thing of the past.”
“When you’re dealing with inherited job skills, it’s more likely. I suppose you could inherit a head for figures or a talent for art or music, but when the skill that makes you right for a job is a genetic trait, you get multiple generations in the same job. I’m one of the few outsiders in the company in a job that nobody in my family had before me. At least, as far as I know.”
