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I looked her up and down, and my professionalism was offended by the girl before me. If I hadn’t known better I’d have dismissed her as a waste of time, a sulky child, just like her sister. Her fuckingsister.A self-entitled little ratbag who expects an easy ride.
Bite me, baby.Her t-shirt was faded and shrunken, and I could see at least an inch of her belly, the curve of her hips heading into the top of some thoroughly tattered denim.
She looked away from me, folded her arms, and I registered her embarrassment.
She’d a whole case full of clothes back home at ours, I’d lugged them back and forth to the car enough to know, and every single item I’d seen her in would have been better suited to the office than the mess she’d chosen to rock up here in.
David was smiling. “Well, what a small world.” His eyes met mine. “You didn’t mention you’d met my daughter, Carl. This is a surprise.”
Wasn’t it just.
He laughed a little. “Didn’t you realise? Did you two not… talk? Surely you talked?”
David wanted answers, I could tell, but direct has its limits. I couldn’t tell the guy she’d called him a blank space on her birth certificate. Couldn’t tell him that she claimed shehadno father,knewno father, that she wanted nothing to do with her fucking father.
And yet here she was.
Large as life in Daddy’s office.
My office.
And lucky number twenty on my internship programme.
“I guess I didn’t put two and twotogether,” I said, and my eyes were burning hers.
“I’m surprisedyoudidn’t realise, Katie,” he said. “I’ve been working with Carl for twenty years. This is extraordinary.” He handed me a batch of application paperwork, blank. “Katie hasn’t officially applied yet, Carl. She’ll need talking through the procedure.”
“You’re starting late,” I said to her. “You’ll have some work to do. A lot of work to do.”
She closed her eyes, embarrassment practically steaming from her. And then she shrugged. “Sure, whatever.”
Her nonchalance made me bristle.
David’s phone started buzzing on the table top. “No rest for the wicked,” he said. He checked out the caller ID before sighing and indicating the door. He slapped my back on the way past.
“I’ll leave her in your hands, Carl,” he said. “Take good care of my little girl now.”
He could count on that.
“Sit,” I said, and Katie sat.
I took David’s seat and stared at her, and she stared at me.
“This is fucking awkward,” she said.
“No fucking shit,” I said. I reclined in my seat and weighed her up, piecing together the situation. “So, you’re the love child?”
“Something like that.” Her expression was sour. “I’m the love child and you’re the sugar daddy. Brilliant. Just brilliant.”
“You said he was a blank space on your birth certificate.”
Her eyes were like fire. “Heisa blank space on my birth certificate! He’s an idiot, a prick, I don’t know how you can even stand to work with him.”
I couldn’t comprehend her venom. “David’s the best man I know, Rick excluded. The best man I’ve ever known.”
“Poor you, then,” she snapped. “Your standards must be pretty low.”
“No,” I said. “They’re not.”
