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Lucas trails after him and he winks at me as he leaves.
There is no flirtatiousness in his eyes or posture, so I take it as friendly encouragement.
“So, Halley.” Lana takes out a folder. “You’re Raymond’s niece?”
I nod. “He took me in when I was eight.”
This makes Lana look up. “Took you in?”
Even Jace studies me.
Now, I wish I had kept my answer limited to a simple ‘yes’. “He was my mom’s friend and after she left, he took me in.”
“Oh.”
I can see from her face she’s resisting the urge to ask where my father was but I’m grateful she doesn’t. I really wouldn’t know what to say. I have very few memories of my mother but the ones I have are of an image of a woman who’s smiling and laughing. She loved me, so I never really understood why she left me. She never mentioned my father and Uncle Raymond professed to no knowledge of the man.
Lana asks other questions and she hands me a form to fill in. I see where my parents name is requested, so I put in Lily Cooper as my mother’s name and without hesitation, I cross out the part where it asks for my father’s name.
Filling in the data takes me a few minutes.
When I finally hand it over, she takes my biometric verification and then sends me on my way, promising I can collect my card tomorrow morning.
Jace puts me to work almost instantly.
Going through lengthy excel sheets, I let out a small groan after a few hours.
He looks up. “What?”
“Nothing,” I mutter.
He goes back to ignoring me and after another half hour, I let out another sound.
This makes him growl, “What?”
I make a face. “Your data is all over the place. I keep having to go up and then go down and then look at some random number somewhere and it’s annoying!”
He bares his teeth at me. “Good. Let’s see if you can do all that without talking.”
“I wonder if you can work without that stick up your ass,” I mumble
to myself.
His head shoots up as he asks in a dangerous tone, “What was that?”
“Nothing.” I smile, cheerfully at him. Prick.
By the time the lunch hour arrives, my stomach is growling and I start looking up nearby restaurants where I can eat. It feels weird to have no one to hang out with during lunch. Of course, it’s my first day here but I wish I had someone to talk to about my day. I fiddle with my phone, wondering if I should call Mia.
Mia Wong is my childhood friend. She’s an artist and she recently joined the Metropolitan Police Department as a sketch artist. Come to think of it, the station is around here somewhere. Maybe I can meet her somewhere in the middle.
There are still five minutes to the lunch break and I dial her number and wait.
I see Jace eyeing me but my hands are busy on the laptop, the phone nestled between my ear and my shoulder.
See, I’m working.
Mia picks up on the third ring.
