“Last Sunday.”
“And you’re just now telling me? You asshole.”
He didn’t think he’d ever seen her this angry, which was saying something. “I wasn’t taking any chances that you’d interfere with this meeting.”
“I didn’t intentionally interfere with the last one.”
He stepped over that bald-faced lie. “Anyway, like I was saying, I don’t know how long I’ll be, so go ahead and eat dinner without me.”
“What about Jacob?”
“What about him?”
“Will I have to pick him up from preschool?”
She said that like it was the world’s most taxing chore—and a huge inconvenience.
“No,” he answered blandly. “You won’t have to pick him up.”
“Well, who’s picking him up, then?”
“Not your problem, so don’t worry about it.”
He grabbed his car keys and headed for the back exit, opening the door. “Obviously you’ll need to stay here until 5 p.m. and then close up,” he told her, before closing the door behind him.
When he arrived for his ‘appointment’ with Paige, he was greeted with a frown by the hot Edna Mode receptionist he’d met the last time he was here.
“You’re Paige’s ex-husband,” she said, obviously remembering him.
Slightly taken aback at her less-than-friendly attitude, he nodded. “Yes. Is there a problem?”
She gave him a stern look, making her look even more like the cartoon Edna. “I don’t know. What are you here for? And it better not be for a wedding reception consultation, because if you are, that would not be cool. Dig?”
“I dig,” he returned, deadpan. “And I’m not here for a wedding reception consultation.”
“You’re not?”
“No.”
“You better not be.”
“I swear I’m not. Scout’s honor … and I was a Boy Scout,” he added. “I didn’t make Eagle Scout because girls started taking up a lot of my time, but you can still trust me.”
“Hmm.” Her expression evened out. “Okay, then.”
She called Paige and announced his arrival. A few seconds later, Paige appeared in her doorway and motioned him into her office, closing the door behind him.
“Andrea has supersonic hearing,” she explained, her voice low even with the door shut. “And whatever it is we’re going to talk about, I want her hearing as little as possible.”
He took a seat. “I take it Andrea’s the receptionist who looks like a hot Edna Mode?”
“She’s my assistant, actually. And yes, that’s her,” Paige said with a short laugh as she walked around her desk and sat down as well.
“I noticed the resemblance the last time I was here. It’s crazy.”
“The funniest part about that is when I told her that’s who she looked like, she didn’t even get the reference. She didn’t know who Edna Mode was.”
“Who doesn’t know who Edna Mode is?”