Page 14 of A Matter of Time

“I do,” I told him. Hell, he’d asked. “And maybe Miss Palmer and Miss Smythe will want to bid too. It’ll be a feeding frenzy.”

“I see.”

“Don’t you think so?”

“We’ll never know, will we?”

“Guess not.” I shrugged, putting his car keys that I still had in my hand down on his desk.

“Also, should Mr. Reid come by, he is to be removed at once. I’ve already made my feelings perfectly clear to him on the subject of any unsolicited visitations to this office, so he should be aware of what reception to expect if he shows up here. You should alert building security at once. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good.”

“He called me last night,” I threw out, remembering having seen the familiar number on my cell phone when I was on my way over to Anna’s to get George.

“Who?”

“Mr. Reid.” I reached the door.

“Wait,” he ordered before I could open it. “When did he call? After work?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes.”

“Yes,” I repeated, rolling my eyes.

“He called your cell?”

“Yes, but I didn’t actually talk to him. I was supposed to call him. He left a number.”

“And were you going to call?”

“Yes,” I almost snapped at him. “I have to tell him not to call me again, because if you’re not talking to him, then I’m certainly not going to. It’s none of my business whatever it is he wants to discuss with you.”

“You’re dying to know what that’s all about, aren’t you?”

He could be so conceited. Here I’d had this huge event transpire in my life and I wasn’t going to tell him, but he thought I was just burning up with a need to know why Mr. Caleb Reid had basically stalked him for the last three weeks.

“Jory.”

I looked back at him. “You’re right. I used to want to know.”

“But you don’t anymore.”

“Now it doesn’t matter so much.” And even as I realized how irrational I was being, I was still annoyed. Logically, being mad at him for not caring about something I’d never told him was ridiculous. Unfortunately, I got a D in logic in college. I only passed because I had tried so hard and my professor knew it. I could still remember her shaking her head, asking me how in the world I couldn’t grasp the material after spending time with both her and the grad student who was assisting her in class. Half the problem had been that her so-called teaching assistant had been much more interested in sleeping with me than in helping me learn anything, but I really was so seriously right-brained that it was a wonder I could walk a straight line. Time had done nothing to remedy the problem.

“Jory.”

“Hmmm?”

“You’re a million miles away. What’s going on with you?”

This was my opening to come clean. “Nothing.”

“Why don’t you care about Mr. Reid anymore?”