AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll hold your calls, Director Clifton,” she said and closed the office door.
Frank’s smile for her was much more menacing as she stood awkwardly holding all of her things. “Well, now,” he said. “Nice to see you still come when called.”
It was work to stay neutral. Talking back was her natural response, but she didn’t give him the pleasure. Didn’t even let her distaste for him cross her face. She refused to show him the anger she felt at her situation, the guilt over what had led her here, or the shame of being treated as an outsider in a place she had once belonged.
“Sit, sit,” he urged.
She set her duffle down and sat across from his desk, leaning back just a little. Comfortable but not relaxed. She was hungry and tired and had planned her day poorly. She could see thebig picture—see all the pieces at once and how they fit—and she could live in the moment. But the short-term planning always tripped her up—what clothes to pack for a week, how to make things last until they could be replenished, making sure she ate before a meeting. She’d been so focused on her nerves that she didn’t think about how she would feel when she got here.
“I could use some coffee.” Annie surrendered to her need for fuel.
“Let’s take a walk,” Frank said.
The building had a huge cafeteria with burgers and fries, sandwiches, pizza, Chinese food, Mexican, pho. But it was too early for lunch, and so they went to the coffee cart. She allowed Frank to pay only because purchasing anything required a company badge to complete the transaction. She threw a blueberry muffin on the counter as he pulled out his wallet. He laughed. “Of course.”
They went out to a courtyard and sat on a bench in the cold. She ate her muffin and sipped her hot coffee. The brew was achingly familiar, like how church coffee always tastes the same—watered down, made in bulk by little old ladies.
She thought about her old desk and her stateside colleagues. Most of them would be here still. She’d already seen more than one familiar face that wouldn’t meet her eye. They knew she’d washed out of the Company and quit. The way no one would look at her told her that Clifton’s little project was still under the radar. Surely, they couldn’t keep this up forever. She was costing his department a lot of money.
“I have to say, you’ve held up your end of our bargain quite well,” he said. “I expected less, and for that I apologize. Your flaws have never been in your work, Miss Weaver.”
“You and my grandma should have backhanded compliment competitions.” She balled up the paper from the muffin.
“Belinda Marie Weaver, 71Beaverwood Lane, Yellow Springs, Ohio,” Frank recited cheerfully. “Currently retired. Mother to Benjamin, Kenneth, and Leighanne. Has a dog named Magnolia.”
Annie stared at him, horrified.
“I believe they call her Maggie,” he added.
“Yeah.”
“You see, there isn’t anything I don’t know about you, and my memory is just as remarkable as yours. I know your file. I keep you right in here,” he said, tapping his temple. “I know you as well as you know yourself, and that’s why I know that eventually you’re going to come back to me.”
“You haven’t given me a lot of wiggle room,” she pointed out. “You sabotaged my housing. You implied that you’d derail any alternate career prospects. You threatened to turn me in for treason.”
“Nonsense,” he said. “You have an entire country of wiggle room. I don’t tell you how to help or how to run the cases they call you in for. All we ask is that you show up.”
She drank her coffee; it was cool now.
“You’ve built a good reputation out there, you know,” he said. “So good, in fact, that the funds we set aside to pay you with have already been depleted.”
There it was. The money.
“Is that why you called me out here? To fire me while I freeze my ass off?”
“I’ve never understood why someone would name a pet something and then call them something entirely different. Why not just name her Maggie from the start?”
Annie stared at him.
“Let’s go back inside,” he said.
They walked back to his office in silence. There was no way he was going to cut her loose. No, he wanted to alter theirarrangement somehow. She just hoped she could live with the change.
Shirley didn’t look up as they walked past her desk into Frank’s office and resumed their seats, Frank behind his desk and Annie on the other side. Frank reached into a drawer, pulled something out, and tossed it onto the desk.
A pager.
“We’d like your old one, please,” he said.
