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He looked down at me in surprise. “Mom and I didn’t have financial problems. Registered nurses do pretty well, you know. My problem was loneliness. She had to work the night shift a lot and I didn’t have anyone to play with.”
Allrighty then, I’d have to find some other way to bond with him.
I chuckled lightly. “I’m an only child, too. When I get married, I’m going to have a houseful of kids so they’ll have plenty of playmates.”
He looked uncomfortable and that’s when I remembered that you were never supposed to mention the word “marriage” on a first date.
“So how is work coming along?” I asked hastily.
“Not as well as I’d like. I was up for district manager a few weeks ago and the job went to someone else.”
By now we’d reached the restaurant and we waited for a few minutes until a table became available. I was still full from the salmon I’d had at lunch. What could I order that was light and yet plentiful enough to keep Victor at the table for a long time?
When we were seated, he gave me a sexy smile. “Thanks for coming out with me.”
He should thank me five hundred times. After referring to my vagina as a THAT! Maybe I should give it a name . . . something elegant like Grace, in case another man did the same thing to me. I would haughtily reply, Her name is not THAT. It is Grace.
Victor was looking at me curiously. “A penny for your thoughts.”
“I was thinking about what you said about the district manager position,” I lied smoothly. “The same thing happened to me recently.”
He sighed and spread his napkin over his lap. “I’m going to open my own business. I’m sick of this kind of nonsense. These decisions are not based on ability . . . it’s all politics.”
We ordered wonton soup and agreed to share some kind of shrimp dish. He asked the waiter to bring him a straight vodka on the rocks.
“Why don’t you want a drink?”
Because I’ll end up telling you about the pornographic dreams I have about you at least three times a week, I thought.
“I’ve just started a new diet.”
“You look fine to me just the way you are.”
The gods were smiling down on me.
“Thanks.”
“So, tell me about the job you didn’t get.”
“It’s the next step up the editorial ladder. I’ve done mysteries, romance, suspense, biography, every category I could think of over the past five years so that I’d be ready for an executive editor slot if one opened up. Well, one did open up and my boss gave it to a woman named Astrid Norstromm.”
“Did she give you a reason?”
“She said that Astrid had worked in a wider variety of categories. What she really meant was that all my work was with Black authors. Astrid’s authors are all white.”
“Damn! What did you say to her?”
“Nothing. Not a word. I got up and walked out.”
“Was that before or after the CEO was killed?”
“My conversation was with the CEO. She got killed the next day.”
Victor was about to say something when a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Wait a minute! Annabelle never had the chance to announce her decision. I wonder . . .”
“You wonder if it’s too late,” Victor observed quietly. “It is too late. By the time Annabelle talked with you, the paperwork on this other woman was already done and processed. That is how the corporate machine works. They’re just waiting until a decent amount of time has passed before they start announcing promotions and such. After all, the poor woman’s killer is still on the loose.”
