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Gracie grinned happily. “Awesome. Um, how’s your head? Betty said you were mugged last night?”
He scowled and then half-reached a hand toward the band-aid. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with."
Yep, Gracie thought, listening to his cold tone: definitely not cute.
Just before five,her phone buzzed with a message from Klarov:
need a ride home?
Ugh, she would need a ride home. Though only because her annoying boss had insisted on driving her this morning. Gracie mentally glossed over that he’d only done it because he was worried about her.
Fine, I’m just wrapping up here. Chesney left early and locked his office.
Klarov texted right back:
I’ll meet you a block over, where I parked this morning. If you’re good I’ll pick up a sugary treat.
Gracie sneered, but it lacked her usual spite when dealing with her boss.
Before she could leave for the day, she had to collect Klarov’s confiscated taser from the help desk downstairs.
There was one older guy in a security uniform with a bored expression on his face reading a newspaper behind the help desk. He seemed thrilled when Gracie approached him, eager to have the chance to talk to someone.
“Oh yeah, those guys have no respect for people’s property,” he told Gracie as she handed him the receipt she’d been given earlier. “I can’t count the number of times someone has come to me, expecting me to have something they took in the morning, but then they never gave to me. It’s always a headache, dealing with these outside contractors. Word to the wise,” he paused, sliding the taser across the desk. “Best not to bring it at all in the future.”
“Sure.”
“Because this isn’t the end. Oh no, definitely not.”
Gracie put her hand on the taser, but she couldn’t take it because the guard was still holding onto it too.
“Gonna be security checks every morning from now on. I’ve been working here for five years, and I’ve never let anyone in that didn’t belong here. This is a safe building. But now they tell me I haven’t been working hard enough. Not been getting the job done.”
Gracie pulled the taser out of his grip.
“They’re going to have the metal detector out every morning?”
“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’ like it had personally offended him.
“Huh, thanks. Have a good evening,” Gracie said, mentally adding the new information to her list of very interesting but inconclusive facts.
Gracie walked over a block, catching sight of Klarov without him noticing her. He was standing on the sidewalk, leaning against the car. He had his sunglasses on and his face was tilted up into the sky, basking in the late afternoon sun. His arms were casually stretched out and he looked totally relaxed and cool. Of course he was relaxed! Gracie frowned, marching toward him. Klarov hasn’t just spent all day undercover, having to deal with an increasingly distrustful suspect.
From one hand, Klarov dangled a take out milkshake carton. Slowly, entirely wrapped up in his own world, he lifted the straw to his lips and sucked. Gracie coughed loudly, not wanting to spend another second thinking about what Klarov’s lips were doing.
“Hey there! Little Miss. Loses-the-Taser I gave her.”
“You shouldn’t try and make up nicknames. You’re terrible at it.”
Klarov shrugged and knocked his sunglasses down his nose a little ways so he could peer at her.
“Anyway,” Gracie continued, “I got it back.”
“You did!” Klarov grinned sharply. “Then you deserve this after all.”
He turned and leaned into the car to get something. When he turned back around he had a second take-out milkshake in his hand, which he handed to her.
“Hey, this is strawberry,” Gracie said, after taking a sip. There was nothing wrong with acknowledging that Klarov could, very occasionally, be a nice person. “Thanks, Klarov.”
