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“Now we can’t seem to get rid of him,” she groans sarcastically. “They are completely disgusting. Seriously. Just look at them.”
As I watch, Lou and Sunny walk a circle around the room, then immediately duck into the conference room and close the blinds, giggling like teenagers.
“So gross,” Landry mutters.
“Yeah,” I agree, smiling.
Across the room, I see Clarissa notice us. She throws her hand up over her head and waves, then rushes toward us, her arms outstretched.
“Landry!” she calls out. “You came!”
Landry rolls her eyes, then reaches down to unbuckle the swaddled package inside the stroller. It’s so neatly wrapped, for a moment I can’t believe it’s a baby in there. Landry gathers the yellow blanket under her curved arm and pokes delicately at the folds until she opens it to reveal a round, perfectly angelic face framed by light-brown ringlets of baby-fine hair.
“Oh my Goooooooooood!” Clarissa whisper-yells. “Look at him!”
“This is Avery,” Landry smiles, brimming with pride. “He’s amazing.”
“Of course he is!” Clarissa coos as she pokes at the blanket, running her knuckles gently over his chubby, pink cheeks. “Hello Avery! Hello little one! I’m your Auntie Clarissa!”
“Sunny is determined to make sure his first word is Auntie,” Landry explains, rolling her eyes. “It’s supposed to be Mama, isn’t it? That’s what all the books say.”
“Auntie sounds amazing!” Clarissa coos in her goofy, spontaneously maternal voice.
“It looks awesome in here,” Landry tells me conspiratorially, holding Avery so that Clarissa can continue making sounds and faces.
“Thank you for saying so,” I smile. “Are you working?”
“I work for Sunny now,” she explains. “She says I’m exactly what she needed.”
I nod. I see it. They definitely needed each other.
A sound catches my attention on the opposite end of the room and I look past the champagne-drinking employees to the corner, where Frank and Fred are raising their arms defensively, as though waving someone back.
To my surprise, the stairwell door opens behind them, and Greg stumbles through, holding two bottles of Dom Perignon over his head.
“Congratulations, you guys!” he yells, immediately causing the whole room to go silent.
Clarissa stiffens and gasps, temporarily forgetting about little Avery.
“What is he doing here?” she mutters in shock.
“Stay here,” I caution her. “Call security. I will take care of this.”
Greg shakes his head when he sees me walking toward him, his face twisted in a smile that doesn’t seem to have any joy in it at all.
“Maxwell, I should’ve known,” he calls out. “You were a rat in college, and you are rat now.”
“Greg, great to see you!” I smile anyway. “Let’s take this down the hall, okay?”
“Hey, Clarissa!” he yells out over my shoulder. “It finally worked! You finally slept your way to the top!”
My hands clench into fists at my side.
“Greg, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
He focuses on me slowly, as though too drunk to remember why I am standing here. “You know what? There is a good reason I didn’t promote her. A really good reason. You want to know what it is?”
“No.”
