Page 13 of A Matter of Time

I looked down and counted to ten so I wouldn’t tell him where to go. He could be so insufferable, so very arrogant that sometimes just thinking about telling him off made it almost impossible not to. When I looked back up, he was staring at me with the dark scowl he held the patent for. After a minute I squinted at him, making his head small, thinking how easy it would be to crush. How satisfying if his eyes bugged out when it exploded.

“You’re doing that thing with your eyes.”

“Pardon?”

“The thing,” he grumbled.

“What thing?”

“That thing you do where you make my head small and then think how easy it would be to crush it.”

I grunted. He knew me too well.

“Listen, just tell Miss Lawson that I’m sure she’ll be happier elsewhere. Also,” he added, pulling an envelope out of the top drawer of his desk, “give this to Miss Warner when she comes by. I don’t have time to speak to her.”

I took it and got up to leave.

“Don’t you want to know what it is?” he asked slowly. “You’re usually so inquisitive.”

He meant nosy.

“Jory?”

“You mean nosy,” I said flatly.

“Is that what I said?” He was back to clipping his words.

“No.”

“So do you plan to be surly all day, then?”

“No.”

“I see.” He nodded, taking a breath and getting up to go to the window of his office. “Tell Miss Warner that in lieu of my attendance at the bachelor auction next week, I’ve given her a check for ten thousand dollars. That’s far more than she would have gotten had I participated, so she should be well pleased.”

It was an AIDS benefit, and in my opinion, he was selling himself short. I could just see Miss Therese Warner and Miss Lacey Collins waging the battle of the pocketbooks over who would have my boss as a dinner companion that night. I was sure it would go well into the thousands, much more than ten. Therese would see this as her opportunity to talk to him and convince him he was wrong about breaking it off with her, and Lacey would be in defense mode, trying to keep all other women away from her man. She was the flavor of the month, and she did have Dane Harcourt, after all. For the moment.

“What are you thinking?”

I looked over to where he was and noticed he was staring at me again. “Nothing.”

“Tell me,” he ordered, walking back to his desk and passing me the roses. “You think it’s not enough? I’m not doing all that I can? I should do more for AIDS research?”

“Everyone should, but that’s not it.”

“Well then?” He waited, and his gray eyes were back to mine.

“I just think you’d raise more money if you went.”

“Why?”

I smiled in spite of myself. He sounded like he was fishing for a compliment. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me.”

“Okay, I see it starting off with everybody bidding, and then finally it’ll come down to Miss Warner and Miss Lawson duking it out for the privilege of your company.”

“Do you?”