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The next message said, “Dagmar Holloway in Outside Sales has been acting suspicious lately. I hear her sales numbers are dropping, too.” The tipster had called from a Corporate Sales extension. This was starting to sound like the girls’ bathroom at lunchtime in a junior high school.
The e-mails were even worse:
Hi, i’m writing this from my home account because i don’t want you to no who i am but your should chek on kim in verification she’s always taking notes and that makes me suspishus. She’s also a stuck-up bitch and you can tell her i said so. She’s also been staying late at teh office and i think she’s up to something.
And that was one of the more literate ones. I felt like I had to read each one all the way through in case there really was worthwhile information buried in all the venom. While some of the intrigue was fascinating, in many cases I’d read economics textbooks that were more gripping. I didn’t need a log of anyone’s daily activities, including bathroom visits.
And the work kept piling up. While I listened to a message, at least one more came in. I had to turn my computer’s sound off so the constant ding of incoming e-mail notifications didn’t drive me bonkers. As I finished charting the tip from an e-mail, my phone would ring. Finally, I got caught up, but I didn’t feel like I’d made any real progress on the investigation.
With a groan, I got up and staggered to the outer office. “Trix, coffee, please!” I begged. “This company may be too much for even Dr. Phil to help. We might want to go straight to beating each other over the head with chairs like on Jerry Springer.” Then I noticed the person standing at Trix’s desk. It was my date from Saturday night, the date I hadn’t heard from since then, come to think of it.
“Hi, Katie,” Ethan said. “Rough day?”
“You have no idea.” I turned to Trix. “Coffee?” I whimpered. A steaming cup soon appeared in my hand. I was glad I didn’t have to actually make pots of coffee. This way, I didn’t know how many cups I was drinking, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“I hear you’ve got some excitement going on around here,” Ethan said, leaning casually against Trix’s desk. “I tried to drop in on Owen, but Security wouldn’t let me past the door. Then I thought I’d come up here and say hi and see what was going on.”
I ignored the implication that visiting me was an afterthought to dropping in on his buddy. “We’ve apparently got a spy/saboteur/double agent, something like that. The boss put me in charge of collecting tips, and my phone is about to melt.” I turned to Trix. “Doesn’t anyone in this company like anyone else in this company? This is insane.”
“I don’t know,” Ethan said with a shrug and a raised eyebrow. “It’s no worse than some law firms I’ve worked with. Someone would drop the slightest hint of innuendo and it was like throwing a hunk of raw meat into a shark tank. It was sometimes kind of funny.”
I faced him with a glare. “If you did this on purpose to see what would happen, now would be the time to confess. I might even let you live.”
“I agree with Katie,” Trix said. “I’ve been getting the overflow, and it’s brutal.”
“This seems to be the chance to settle all your old scores,” I said. “Maybe we should just throw everyone into the conference room with some of those foam bat things and let them all get it out of their systems.”
“You don’t think they’d stick to foam, do you?” Trix asked.
“You’re right. We’d be busy for months disenchanting the entire staff after they all turned each other into cockroaches and dung beetles.”
Ethan stood up straighter and said to me, “Do you have time to talk? I know you’re busy. This’ll only take a minute.”
He sounded serious, so I was instantly concerned. “Of course. Come on into my office.” As I left I said over my shoulder, “Thanks for the coffee, Trix.”
While I set my coffee down on my desk, Ethan closed my door behind him. I was on the verge of real worry when he stepped forward and pulled me to him in a big hug, then kissed me. He was grinning when he let me go. “Was that what you wanted to see me about?” I asked. The kiss had left me dizzy and breathless, most likely because it was so unexpected. In our extremely short relationship, we’d never come close to kissing.
He shrugged. “Maybe. I didn’t think you really wanted that to happen out in the lobby.”
“Us dating is the worst-kept secret in the company. Even Merlin knows. But thanks for the attempt at discretion.”
He settled into my guest chair. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call yesterday. How have you been? It wasn’t too bad a hangover, was it?”
I sat down and took a sip of coffee. “I’m fine. I’ve had worse hangovers. Not many, granted. I’m not sure I have what it takes to be a wine connoisseur, though. You’d have to be able to get through one of those dinners without getting blitzed.”
“It’s like any sport. You have to train and work up to it. But I promise, no getting you drunk next time. And speaking of next time, what are you doing Friday night?”
“If the rest of the week goes like this, very possibly I’ll be putting my head in the oven.”
“Dinner with me might be more fun than that.”
“I may be begging you to get me drunk by then.”
“Only if you insist. So it’s a date?”
I studied him for a long moment. True, he wasn’t Owen, but if the night before had taught me anything, it was that as cute as Owen was, whatever it took to bridge the gap from friends to lovers apparently wasn’t there for us—at least, not from his side of things. Even I was beginning to pick up on and maybe even welcome the brother vibe. It wasn’t like Ethan was sloppy seconds, either. It was entirely possible that if I put Owen out of my mind for more than a few minutes, something might happen with Ethan. The kiss had been a good start.
“It’s a date,” I said. “Should we leave from here, meet somewhere later, or what?”
