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Whatever, she could handle a party.
Vivien clicked her mouse. “Liam Velhausen, your goaltender. He’s the only player who has a January birthday. What do you know about Liam?”
Calista opened her mouth.
“That’s not about hockey,” Olivia said before Calista could speak.
Calista closed her mouth.
Artie said nothing.
Dude could participate. He was a guy, they knew what men wanted for birthdays.
“Liam likes Scotch. He’s Canadian.” Calista racked her brain, but that was all she had. And the last Scotch they’d shared had gotten them banned from Dodo’s office.
Olivia wrote on her legal pad. “Great, branch out from there. What do Canadians like?”
Vivien did a quick internet search. “They like hockey.”
Calista opened her palms. “See.”
“You’re not giving him hockey.” Vivien scrolled through multiple websites in quick succession. “They like other stuff.” She expanded her search. “Not much else though; snowshoeing, moose hunting...”
They had none of that in Austin, and Calista wanted to stay in town. Their jetting off to the Mer-bar had been a risk, and she didn’t need an unexpected absence messing up her diploma. Calista wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to do those.”
“Fair.” Olivia bounced up and down in her chair and pointed to Vivien as a fresh idea came to her. “You’re the computer guru, do a dating red flag search on Liam.”
Vivien typed faster. “I’ll take a quick peek at his emails.”
“Don’t tell me how you do it,” Olivia’s voice squeaked. “Though, if you’re accessing his work email, there’s no problem. At least, there won’t be when Calista is granted her seventy percent ownership. Then we’ll have full privileges to have a look, nay, a corporate responsibility.” Her tone calmed.
“Sure, that’s where I’m searching.” Vivien’s tone convinced none of them.
Olivia looked up at the ceiling. “Good.”
“This analysis could take a few minutes, depending on the complexity and diversity of his likes.” Vivien’s laptop speaker chimed. “Nope, his profile is loading now. He whines about his ex. His family is all up in his business asking for money, he gives it. And he likes maple syrup and hockey.” She nodded. “That’s about it.”
Didn’t leave Calista much to choose from. “Should I send his family money?”
Both Vivien and Olivia looked at her like she was an idiot.
Calista shoved her hair back and twisted the length into a braid. Hey, people needed what they needed.
“That’s not a typical birthday gift,” Olivia explained.
True. “Okay, but you said no hockey.” They were boxing her in here. “Maple syrup it is.”
“Yeah, great.” Olivia didn’t sound enthused. She gathered her stuff. “We’ll firm up our ideas this afternoon.”
“No syrup around my robot.” Artie said, as if he had more than an arm going. An arm that could be washed.
“Whatever,” Vivien said. “You shouldn’t try and restrict us. Do we try and restrict you?”
Artie snorted. He eyed Calista’s hair and drew a hairbrush from his toolkit. “Want me to smooth your braid?”
Calista scrunched back in her chair. “No thank you.”
* * *
Leaving her row of seats after practice, Calista was on a high. Her body was relaxed and her mood buoyed by activities she couldn’t think about in polite company. Plus, during the last hour, she’d come up with a killer birthday idea for Liam, and no one had bothered her as she hung out and placed the order for the gift. Take that, doubting Dodo who thought she couldn’t party plan.
Ping.A text from Dodo appeared as if he’d heard her thoughts.
Her shoulders tightened. Well, she had told him not to email, not that he couldn’t text.
His text read, “Come down to the conference room, I want to run an idea by you.”
