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Somehow he brought out the argumentative side in me. I cracked open my egg to find it perfectly done. I dipped the first sliver of toast into the creamy yolk.
“How’d you come to eat your breakfast this way?” he asked.
I dipped another slice. “I had it once while visiting London, and it stuck with me.”
He smiled over a spoonful of egg. “Interesting.”
“How so?”
“You’re able to change after all.”
I chose to take the high road and ignore the comment. “Thank you for making breakfast.”
He stretched his shoulders with an obvious grimace. “My pleasure. I’m always up for learning something new.”
I hazarded a guess. “Stiff?”
“A little.”
“Now who’s not being honest?”
“Okay, more than a little. I’ll get used to it.”
I scooped some of my egg out with a spoon. “How is lunch supposed to work?”
“You can’t go out alone.”
“What about out to the food trucks out front?”
“Is that your normal lunch?”
“Tuesday and Thursday, yes. The other days I either microwave something to have at my desk or go out with some people from the office.”
He put his coffee mug down. “Make today a microwave day then. You’ve got a new diet—soup only, something like that.”
“I’m not on a stupid diet.”
“You are today. That way you have an excuse not to go out with anyone. Tomorrow I’ll meet you for lunch, and we’ll figure it out after that. Does that work?”
This was feeling less like protection and more like prison. “I guess.” I’d have to find a suitable, boring, diet soup to bring, but it was a workable idea, I supposed.
We finished breakfast with only a few more words between us as I contemplated how he’d committed to sleeping on the floor without complaint.
* * *
Adam had drivenme in to work in my car after backtracking north to get gas.
Hal checked his watch as I slid my handbag over for his x-ray perusal. “You’re early today.”
I shrugged. “It happens.”
Upstairs, Mr. Heiden’s office was open, but Kirby and Evelyn’s cubicles were both empty as I passed by.
After retrieving my phone and putting away my purse, I ventured to open the first interoffice mail envelope in the stack on my desk. It was from the National Zoo. I took the time to read the contents well enough to know they’d included everything I’d asked for.
The next two were both from Air and Space.
The fourth, though, had OPS in thefromcolumn. I let out a relieved breath when I released the red string and out popped the normal access logs I’d expected.
