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Okay, I didn’t see that coming!
Three minutes and fifty-seven seconds later, I stepped out of the ladies room. Yes, I’d used the stopwatch feature on my phone. I’d gotten up two hours before I needed to that morning to make sure I was early for this interview. I wasn’t going to blow it by messing around in the bathroom for too long.
I stopped the clock on my phone and looked up. Kai was leaning against the kitchen doorjamb across the hall. He watched me with a smirk that made me want to check my shoe for discarded toilet paper.
“Do you always time yourself when you’re on the can?” he asked. “What’s your best record?”
“Seriously?” I cast a nonchalant glance toward my shoe. All clear. “Were you standing there the whole time, watching the door?”
“No, not the whole time. Part of the time I was chatting with Chuck.”
“Who’s Chuck?”
Kai laughed at me, but his laugh was so rich and honest I almost didn't want him to stop, and that was the most infuriating part about it. "Does the name Charles Peters ring a bell?"
Charles Peters, as in the owner of the company? Uh, yeah, that name rang a bell.
“What are you laughing about?” I asked. “Of course I know that name. I’d just never dream of calling Mr. Peters ‘Chuck.’ It’s unprofessional.” I tossed my hair as if I was glad I wasn’t chummy with the head man. Chalk that up to the dumbest bluff in history.
“Well, he’s waiting for us now. We’d better get in there or he’s going to think you fell in.”
My entire body turned a fiery shade of mortified-red. “You didn’t tell him I was…” It was physically impossible for my lips to finish that sentence.
“Taking a leak? No. Well, not in so many words, at least.”
My throat closed up on me, and little spots swirled around in my peripheral vision. “How could you—why would you—you told him?” The last thing I wanted was for Mr. Peters to have the mental image of me sitting on the porcelain throne with my undies in a wad around my ankles! Way to tank an interview before it even got started.
“Relax. He poked his head into the kitchen and asked where you were. You wouldn’t have wanted me to tell him you weren’t here, would you? Not when your phone was so adamant about making sure you were here right on time.”
“But—” I had no great comeback. He was right… again. I wouldn’t have wanted Mr. Peters to believe I thought so little of the position that I wouldn’t show up until the last minute.
“Come on. Chuck’s cool. The conference room is this way.”
I followed him blindly down the hall and up to a pair of solid-oak double-doors. Kai stopped just outside. He adjusted his shirt and smoothed his hands over the already-perfect hair on top of his head. For the first time that morning, he looked just as nervous as I was.
So, he was a mortal, after all.
“Where are you going to be while I’m in there?” I asked with a too-light tone, trying to mask my suspicion. If there was one thing I didn’t need, it was Kai eavesdropping on my interview so he could answer all of the questions better than I did when his turn came.
“That’s the interesting part. He wants us both in there.”
“Both?” My head swam.
“Yep.”
“At the same time?”
He looked at me and shrugged. “It’s what he said.”
“That’s not interesting,” I muttered. “That’s downright scary.”
“Uh-huh,” he said with a nod that dislodged one of his sexy curls and allowed it to hang across his forehead. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to tame the curly waves. I couldn’t look away.
I imagined that was probably how his hair looked in his natural habitat on the beach, only a bit more tousled by the sea breeze.
A miniature movie played in my head, starring Kai. He stood in the warm sand with waves crashing ashore behind him. Soft ukulele music filled the air as he held a surfboard under one of his muscled arms. With the other, he offered me one of those tropical drinks served in a coconut. It even had a little pink umbrella in it. I had no idea what kind of concoction was in that coconut, but I didn't care. I was too busy enjoying the view.
His curls moved with the ocean breeze as the sun beat down on his bronzed chest.
