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“I hadn’t told the story yet,” Mr. Peters said.
I just looked at him with that ridiculous grin on my face.
Blinking.
Silent.
Awkward.
I looked to Kai. I don’t know why. It wasn’t like I could expect any help from him. He mouthed a single word, ouch! Yep, I was right. No. Help. At. All.
I couldn’t really blame him though. I was his competition. The way things were going, he must have been feeling pretty confident about his chances right about then.
I half-expected Mr. Peters to shove a donut in a doggie bag, give it to me as a parting gift, and send me on my way. “I’m sorry, Miss Ferguson, but we’ve decided to go a different, less-crazy direction. Thanks for the laughs.”
But that didn’t happen.
Instead, he held the tray of donuts out to me. “Would you like one?”
I froze as several scenarios instantly played out in my brain. In one, I took a bite of a cream-filled donut and the cream squirted out the other end, leaving a sticky trail down the front of my shirt. In the other, much worse vision, I chose a donut packed with red raspberry filling. I took one bite of that puppy and filling shot out the other side and sprayed Mr. Peters, staining his silk tie.
Okay, so maybe that second one was a little far-fetched. But considering everything that had already happened that day, I figured it was in my best interest to play it safe. I shook my head and declined as politely as I could.
“Thanks, but I grabbed breakfast on the way.”
“She sure did,” Kai muttered.
I shot him a warning look. I had plenty of ammunition if Kai wanted to go into detail about the fiasco on the bus. Would Mr. Peters really want someone running his brand-new branch who was so unfocused that they’d sit on someone’s breakfast? I thought not.
Kai only grinned and winked again.
All I could think of as I rubbed the goosebumps off my arms was how much he needed to stop doing that.
Fifteen minutes later, I was still waiting for Mr. Peters to ask me a few questions. In all that time, the interview had been nothing but the Kai Show. Written and produced by Kai. Featuring Kai. With a special guest star—you guessed it—Kai.
I swear, if that man was a real celebrity, he’d be the kind the entire world would recognize by only one name. First, there was Elvis, then Madonna, after that…
Kai.
I was losing. I could feel it in my bones. My heart pounded so hard my blood pressure throbbed in my fingertips. It was time to break out the big guns. I’d use every power-play move I’d ever learned from years of watching my stepmom control a room. Okay, maybe not every move. I wasn’t going to sacrifice any goats, and I didn’t want to make small children cry unless I was completely out of other options.
I wasn’t a cruel monster—just a desperate one.
I ran through a mental checklist of everything I had to do to dominate the room.
Maintain eye contact.If Mr. Peters would ever look my way, I’d be sure to lock onto his gaze with the tenacity of a starving pit bull latched onto a side of beef.
Lean forward with elbows on the table.I could do that. I had to show these boys I meant business. I was so ruthless I didn’t even care if I made Miss Manners clutch her pearls. These elbows weren’t going anywhere, baby.
I chanced a glance Kai’s way. His elbows weren’t on the table. The self-help book I’d read last weekend said that kind of body language meant Kai wasn’t “claiming his space”.
More points for me!
And last, but not least, nod when appropriate. Did it count if you nodded to a conversation that didn’t include you in the slightest? My gut told me it didn’t, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I doubled down on my nodding until I looked like a dashboard bobble head taking an off-road adventure.
“Are you getting all this, Beth?” Mr. Peters said.
He remembered my name? That had to count for bonus points, right? Or not.
