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“Totally,” she said.
He eyed Evan for a moment until she said, “Oh. Jesus. Sorry. This is my boyfriend, Evan. Evan, my boss, Mike.”
They shook hands and Mike said, “She’s a smart one. We were lucky she wanted to stay in Los Angeles. You, too, I guess.”
“Yeah,” he agreed as Mike popped the trunk. He handed the bag over to Mike who grunted and said, “Christ, Michaels. What the hell did you pack in here?”
Evan laughed and said, “Bricks.”
She shot a dirty look at Evan and said, “Bye.”
He grinned and pulled her into his arms. “Not so fast,” he said, as he leaned in.
By the time he backed away, she was light headed. She was absolutely certain that she had never ever been kissed like that before.
She said, “I’ll call you tonight,” as she slid into the car with a wave.
When she closed the door and put on her seat belt, Mike immediately said, “Seriously. Did you pack bricks in that bag?”
She laughed, and just like that, the ice was broken.
They hit a little bit of traffic and they didn’t make it to the zoo until almost ten, but when they did, she was overwhelmed by the size. The San Diego Zoo was gigantic.
Mike must have noticed her shock because he asked, “Have you never been here?”
“Nope,” she said. “First time I’ve been this far outside of Los Angeles.”
“Oh, sheltered child,” he said. “The fellowships are all yours for the next little bit. Everyone else hates them anyway, and you need to see the world. Los Angeles is mostly smoggy and overpopulated.”
“I will one day. I’m still adapting to not being a poor college kid. I’ll work up to travel one day,” she said.
“How’s your foot holding up? There’s gonna be a lot of walking the next couple of days,” he asked.
“Fine, now. Bastard elephant.”
Mike laughed and said, “Yeah. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. I didn’t think she’d be that overprotective. I still feel bad about that.”
“Totally my fault. I was off my game. I think I may have still been in a turkey coma,” she said.
“I’m so over turkey. We had a huge to-do at my house this year. Made a couple turkeys. We’ve been eating nothing but leftovers since. At this rate I won’t be able to stomach turkey until next year,” Mike said, a mild look of disgust on his face.
“We went to Evan’s Mom’s house. She sent us home with some leftovers but we went through them really fast,” she said mournfully. “I think she brined it. Whatever she did, it was awesome.”
“I love my wife but ours were awesomely dry,” he said with a laugh. He immediately pokered up and said, “Don’t you dare tell her I said that.”
Taryn laughed and said, “Gee, Doris. Sorry to hear about your turkey being so dry. It’s all Mike has talked about for days!”
“And now you’re back to shoveling rhino poop, Michaels. Amazing how quickly that happened!”
“Abuse of power,” she said sadly.
A moment later they both started laughing as they continued to walk toward the executive offices. Taryn had a feeling that this week was going to be terrific. She couldn’t wait to see a real live panda.
By the time they checked into their hotel that evening, Taryn was exhausted. She had walked for what felt like a million miles. She bid Mike farewell in the lobby and dragged her bag toward the lobby elevator.
Using her keycard, she swiped into her room and immediately flopped down on to the bed. She returned several texts from Cora, who was demanding panda pictures immediately, and one from Evan who told her that he missed her.
When her phone buzzed a few minutes later, she saw that Evan was calling.
