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She laughs, and I feel like a kid who’s won the hardest game at the fair. Which is exactly what makes Lucie so dangerous: because every time I see her, I want to see her again, and every time she smiles, I want to be the one who put that smile there.
I want to win that game at the fair, when the prize isn’t one I’d be able to keep.
9
LUCIE
Kayleigh shows up at my cubicle first thing Monday morning, looking even more displeased than normal, which is truly an accomplishment. “Caleb told me I’m supposed to give you a tour,” she says with a heavy sigh. “Where do you want to start?”
I’m on my feet before I really have time to think about it—Kayleigh doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to be kept waiting.
I’ve seen most of the offices at this point, but I must have missed something, because…it’salloffices. “Maybe the spaces where people relax. Like break rooms?”
“You mean the cafeteria?” she asks.
I’d assume she was joking if she wasn’t already back on her phone. I’ve been to the fluorescent-lit cafeteria in the basement, with its cheap plastic tables and linoleum floors. The one time I went down there to eat, I chose to skip lunch rather than experience a damp sandwich in cellophane or green beans floating in a haze of greasy water.
“No, I meant, like...if you want to chat with a friend here… where do you do that?”
She rolls her eyes. “Nowhere. It’s not really that kind of place.”
I’m not sure if this is a TSG issue or aKayleighissue, since she’s not exactly friendly. But if she’s correct...it’s definitely a problem. I sat beside my aunt for enough summers to know that while people stay at a job for the salary and benefits, what keeps them there when the grass looks greener elsewhere is when colleagues feel like friends. Which can only happen if they’ve actually hung out a bit.
“Is there no other large space? In a building this size, there must be something.”
She shrugs. “Yeah, but it’s closed now.”
“Can you show it to me?”
She glances up, a single brow raised as if I’ve asked to read her private texts. “I guess. But if anyone asks, you’re the one who put me up to it.”
I follow her to the elevator, and we ascend to the seventh floor. She’s on her phone posting something to Instagram. I’m fairly certain she just took a picture of my heels. My own phone chimes, but I ignore it. It is, undoubtedly, Jeremy and anything he has to say can wait. Forever, preferably.
The first door she attempts to open is locked, but we manage to get in through a side door, where I discover a huge room flooded with sunlight.
“We’ve got this amazing space up here and we’re using the dungeon downstairs for lunch instead? Why?” My head is already spinning with plans Caleb will hate, and the walking program has given me enough confidence to hope I might be able to pull them off.
She doesn’t answer until she’s done typing. “It was something about cutting costs.”
“But there shouldn’t be a cost to maintaining a break room,” I argue. “The food wasn’t free, right?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. It was before my time. I heardCaleb went through some personal stuff a few years ago and changes were made.”
I assumed Caleb lives for his job. Maybe it isn’t entirely by choice.
I’M SITTINGdown by the shore Thursday night with the twins when Caleb appears, still in suit pants and a button-down.
His eyes flicker to my bare legs and remain there a moment before jerking away. “I have a conference call soon,” he says, “but do you have a minute to discuss the interview?”
I consider pointing out that I’moff work, an entirely foreign concept to him, but he’s clearly stressed out, so I remove my phone from the Adirondack chair beside me and gesture for him to sit.
He stretches his long legs in front of him, looking ridiculously out of place. One false move and he’s going to ruin those pants.
I hold up a hand to block the dying sun as I meet his eye. “I was just thinking about that raft you and your friends tried to build. Remember that? You’d have been twelve, maybe?”
He frowns. “I can’t believeyouremember that.”
“Are you kidding? It was the highlight of my week. You guys spent the whole damn day on it, but some older guy was with you and when he climbed on, it freaking exploded.”
