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He extends his hand, and I take the paper from him, reading the words aloud. “Fish tacos with chipotle slaw and pickled onions. Fried green tomato and bacon panini with roasted potatoes. Pasta Primavera with summer squash.” I look it up at him, frowning. “Is there a problem with next week’s menu?”
“On the other side.”
I flip over the note and my heart stutters.
Innocuous Answers Never. Don’t Over Notice Animals Veering Ominously Nowhere.
Innocent Alligators Notch. Dalmatians Only Newly Anticipate Vocal Overtones Nightly.
I consider feigning innocence, but I doubt he’d fall for it. So I simply arch an eyebrow and say, “Yes?”
“It’s obviously a code.”
In for a penny, in for a pound. I nod.
“Of my name.”
“It is.”
“Why?”
His gaze is moving over me, seeming to take in every detail of my appearance. It’s unsettling. But that’s not surprising, since everything about this man unsettles me, and in none of the ways he should.
Including the fact that I’m not even tempted to lie to him.
“I assume you’ve seen my contract?”
He gives a tight nod.
“Then you know I was told not to google you.”
“Yes.”
“And I haven’t. Not before I signed the contract and not since. But…”
“But?”
“I didn’t mind. When I assumed you were just some old, rich guy living alone, it didn’t seem important. I thought you were eccentric, yes, but that wasn’t even the weirdest part of the contract.”
“And now?”
“Since we met, I have questions.” Since he just keeps staring at me, I start babbling. Trying to unravel the thoughts in my head that haven’t even made sense to me yet. “My sister and I used to do this thing when we were kids and we spent summers apart. She always stayed with our mom. I would go visit our dad. She and I would send messages back-and-forth.” I laugh nervously. “I don’t know why we thought it was important to keep them coded or why we thought they wouldn’t be able to break our code. It was very Parent Trap of us, I suppose.”
He looks down at the paper again. And then back up into my eyes. “The first letter of each word to spell out a word. Punctuation indicates a new word. Easily deciphered. It’s a childish code.”
I chuckle, and this time it’s with genuine amusement, because that’s what worries him about this? My lack of cryptography skills? “Well, we were children.”
“So you sent your sister my name in code so that she could dig up information on me and report back to you?”
“No. Not yet. I couldn’t figure out a way to make your name into a sentence that wasn’t obviously gibberish.”
“Isn’t the obvious gibberish the point? How would she know it was a message if it was a sentence that made sense?”
His tone is harsh, like he’s more upset about my lack of originality than he is with my snooping. I’d like to see him do better with his crappy name.
I bump up my chin and meet his gaze defiantly. “I never sent the message. I haven’t violated my contract. You have no reason to fire me and no reason to withhold the bonus.”
“I’m not going to fire you.” Something about the way his eyes flash when he says it makes me think he’s surprised that he admitted that out loud.
