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“What?”
“Only a man would say something like that.”
“It wasn’t a sexist remark.”
“You even thinking that is sexist.”
“How do you figure? Online information is linear.”
“Research isn’t linear. How a person approaches a problem isn’t the same. People don’t think the same. I didn’t go to law school, but surely they taught you that men and women think differently, even if it was to explain simple things like motives for murder or say cheating.”
She raises an eyebrow, I guess, thinking that this subject should make me uncomfortable. I guess in a way it does, only because she thinks I’m a cheater, but since I’m not, this is a conversation I can have with her.
“Lay it out for me.”
“If men think a woman is cheating, they’re going to have their wife followed, or they’re going to put up hidden cameras. They want to catch her in the act. It’s mostly actions going forward. A woman will work retroactively. She will dig so deep into a man’s past she’s going to find out about the medical bills unpaid from the time he got alcohol poisoning freshman year in college.”
I swallow thickly, straightening up in my chair, the perfectly cooked salmon suddenly dry in my throat because I was certain I paid that bill in full.
She chuckles. “It was just an example, you idiot. The point is, men and women think differently. I’m not saying all men, or even your guy Wren isn’t going to go back and look, maybe he does. Experience teaches a lot of stuff, but genders think differently. Having two different people who do the same thing on a team is always beneficial. Different approaches to the same task are always better than one when they’re working together.”
“Another whiskey, sir?” the waiter asks as he approaches, and our conversation must’ve looked intense because he already has the glass in hand.
I nod, looking to Leighton. “A white wine?”
“No thank you,” she says to the waiter even though I’m the one who asked.
“And San Jose,” I say, getting us back on track. She’s already floored me with how prepared she is despite not having a computer in front of her.
“San Jose brings us to Dr. Phoebe Cox, surgical resident at San Jose Regional. Top of her class at St. George. She chose San Jose to be close to her elderly parents. She was adopted at the age of ten by Thelma and Peter Cox,” she says, frowning before taking another bite of steak.
“Why that look?”
“What look?”
“The frown.”
“She’s not going to work for Blackbridge.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. Did you not just hear me?”
“I did. She attended medical school at a prestigious university at a gorgeous island location. The woman isn’t afraid of a little adventure. A female doctor on staff is very important for the comfort of our female staff.”
“I don’t disagree, but she had her pick of residency all over the world and she went right back to California to be close to her family. Her mother is going through chemo treatments for breast cancer. She’s not going to pack her things in the middle of that and her third year of residency to tend to battle wounds in St. Louis, Missouri.” She holds her hand up before I can even open my mouth to argue.
“I’m not saying I won’t go through the motions. I get paid either way, but it’s a waste of time.”
I nod, having nothing else to say.
“Are we done?”
“Yes,” I say as I close my laptop.
Without another word, she scoots back from the table, stands, and walks away. The woman didn’t even change out of her work attire for the day, and I can’t say I’m disappointed. I don’t take another bite of food, watching her ass until she disappears out of the restaurant.
Chapter 16
Leighton
I’m cursing stupid, handsome men with quick smiles and fingers that can’t decide if they should wear wedding rings or not. The face mask I’ve applied forces my face into a frown, but I know I’d be angry even if the mud mask wasn’t doing it for me.
His ability to draw out my worst emotions is uncanny, and I hate him for it. I’m not an angry person, or at least I wasn’t a week ago. Hell, six days ago, I had a smile on my face. Life was wonderful. Work was fast-paced as always, and I loved every second of it. I helped organizations, big and small, find the people they needed to take their companies to the next level. I take pride in my work, and I tell it like it is, but he just wouldn’t listen tonight. He has to know that we’re wasting our time. The women we have lined up to meet are all like Janine Miller, the woman we met today. They’ve each busted their asses to get where they are, and they’re not going to be the least bit interested in throwing that away to work for anyone other than themselves. And if they aren’t already independent contractors with their own company, then they’re situated in life exactly where they want to be. If we get lucky and find one person willing to uproot and move to St. Louis, that’s not enough to make the team Deacon wants.
