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“We’ll explore that later, Leanne. I do believe you owe me lunch and don’t hold this against me, but I think I’ll pick you up for dinner this time. I’ll stop by your desk in…” he glances at his watch, “two hours and we can discuss our evening plans, then.” He unlocks the door and opens it, no doubt smirking over the top of me at the heads quickly ducking out of sight. I turn to glare at him, but he is indeed smirking. Then he caps it off with a quick kiss on my cheek. “Proud of you, baby,” he growls in my ear before turning away.
Dom
My friends are a gossipy bunch with clearly not enough work to do. There’s been an endless parade of them in and out of my office since Leanne said her piece.
“Does she know you’re a spook?” Lance asks with a smirk.
I shrug in response. I’ve no idea. It’s not what I do now, except for the study group research, so why should it matter? Ainsley regards me quietly. “She knows, or at least some of it.”
“How do you figure?” I ask curiously.
“She’s not asking questions. She’s smart and cautious. Her translations are exceptionally well annotated. But she’s not asking around about you. At least not here.”
I nod, filing that one away to ask Leanne about later.
“So how’d you meet, anyway? It was instant attraction across a conference room?” North on his endless quest to find a girl of his own.
I snort. “Cass picked her.”
That gets me a few looks. I shrug. “Cass went looking for a woman who likes to read and isn’t into princesses, although she’s softening on the last one lately. Anyway, she decided Leanne fit the bill, which put me in an awkward position until I heard her speak French and…” I realize I’m blathering about the same time as the rest of the guys.
“I think we can make this debrief the top agenda item for Friday night,” Dean says with a twinkle. “Since you’re hardly going to spill your own secrets in a book for the rest of us. Paisley’s doing another girls’ night this week. Want her to invite Leanne?”
I shake my head no. “She’s got a date with my sock drawer. But I’ll ask if she’s open to the next time.” That earns me more disbelieving looks and a few chuckles.
I ignore the knowing looks from the men that have fallen and the sympathetic ones from those still single. North just looks glum.
“Sam? You sign up for any of those classes at the university yet?”
He shakes his head. “Still deciding.”
“Well, fucking pick something or we’ll do that as a group on Friday too,” Waverly chimes in with an overly enthusiastic arm over North’s shoulders. “Do they have any baking classes?”
Everyone groans and they finally troop out of my office. I check my watch and decide it’s not too soon to go collect Leanne for lunch.
“I told you this was a bad idea,” she whisper shouts when I stop in the opening of her cubicle. I can feel the eyeballs invisibly trained on us, ears tilted for maximum gossip capture.
I shrug and tug her out of her chair. She mutters while we walk down the corridor, but I like to let silence talk to those listening in. At the elevator, Leanne finally glances over at me. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing to say I want overheard.”
Leanne rolls her eyes. “And whose fault is that? Nobody cared what I said until you got all high-handed. Why did you anyway? Lélé’s not that exciting.”
“Who’s Lélé?” I ask, my curiosity captured.
“My inner French girl. That’s Pierre’s nickname for me. My friend Keiko calls me Lenny, but we only share English in common.”
“Who do you want to be?” I inquire quietly as the doors part in front of the already crowded cafeteria.
Leanne sighs. “All of them? Or a mix, I guess. There are parts of Lélé I adore and it was definitely Lenny who found the courage to stare you down.”
That makes my lips quirk. “Leanne couldn’t manage that?”
She shrugs with a half smile. “I don’t have a personality disorder, if that’s what you’re asking. But no, that’s not my regular response. Necessary, though,” she muses as we grab trays.
“How long is the staring going to go on?” she whispers to me as we take a table in the middle of the cafeteria’s dining area. There’s really no point in hiding.
“A week or two is my guess. Once they see a ring on your finger and that nobody’s job is being affected, they’ll move on.”
