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“You’re telling me.”
Cora smirked and added, “If you need some help burying the body, call me.”
“Girl,” she said, a look of disgust on her face. “Don’t even tempt me.”
When the phone rang, Cora took the opportunity to shuffle into her office. After she had dumped her bag and briefcase into the file cabinet, she sat down to go through e-mail. She saw the forty-seven messages waiting for her and knew it was going to be a long day.
Between the correspondence, the backlog of paperwork she had been putting off, and her patient load, she didn’t start to break free until a little bit after two. When she heard the knock on her door, she said, “Celia, you don’t have to knock. You know that.”
She was surprised to see Jamie pop his head in ask, “Got a second, Doc?”
Pleasure bloomed across Cora’s face as she said, “For you? Several. Come in.”
She took him in. He looked particularly amazing in his dark slacks and crisp blue dress shirt. Her eyes zeroed in on the brown bag he held. She sniffed the air and asked, “What’s that in the bag?”
“Lunch. Pot stickers and lo mein. I picked up lunch on the way back from my consult. You interested?”
“I’m starving,” she said as she slid out from behind the desk. She approached him, stretched up on tiptoe, and pressed a kiss against his mouth. “Thanks. By the time I got ready and left, I didn’t have time to stop for breakfast. Now I’m buried in paperwork.”
He stroked a hand lightly over her hair and said, “Yeah. I just barely made it to my appointment on time this morning. So hungry.”
“You can leave some stuff at my place if you want,” Cora said as they settled in together on the couch. “If that makes it easier.”
“Thanks. I will,” he said. “It’s easier than carrying a bag back and forth. I’ll clear out a little space for you, too.”
“Kay,” she said as her focus zeroed in on the bag again.
As he unrolled the top of the paper bag he laughed and said, “Someone’s got a one-track mind, it seems.”
Cora conceded the point by saying, “Maybe I’m a little focused,” as she reached for her lo mein.
When he reached into the bag and pulled out a diet cola for her, she smiled and said, “You’re really the best ever.”
Cracking open his own food, he asked, “Ever?”
She nodded, a mouthful of food and mumbled, “Ever.”
Jamie watched her for a moment, a grin pulling at his lips, then moved for his chopsticks. As he was cracking them apart, she heard a disembodied ring from his pocket and sighed.
He looked at his food, and said, “Really? Come on!”
A moment later, he fished his phone out of his pocket and answered. Cora parked her chop-sticks in her lo mein and gave it a mournful look. As much as she didn’t want to stop eating, she thought it would be rude to continue without him.
He gave her an apologetic glance and then gestured to her food as if she should go on without him. Not requiring any further instruction, she continued to eat her meal and listen to his half of the conversation.
From what she was gathering, he was talking to an old contact and they were discussing video games. When he uttered the words “level 38 paladin,” she bit down on her lip to stop the giggling. Jamie had been really into online games. He got so serious when he played that it bordered on hilarious. She’d even gotten him a headset for Christmas so he could talk hands-free instead of typing.
Jamie, she realized, was a little bit of a nerd. The combination of his outgoing personality and the fact he was absolutely ripped, made it a little difficult to reconcile the image in her mind. It took all types, she supposed.
Cora helped herself to a few of the pot stickers and continued to unabashedly eavesdrop on the conversation until he disconnected ten minutes later.
In a daze, he sat down and said, “Holy shit.”
“Good news?”
“Great news,” he said. “That was Tim, my old contact at Shinobi Games. They’re launching another MMORPG later this year and they want me to work on the campaign for them.”
Cora’s eyes widened. “Holy shit,” she echoed. “That’s amazing!”
