Page 116 of Love Is Brewing

“I’m not sure I could work with Elias.”

“I think you two would be fine,” Kayla said. “He’s laid back too. But he’s always running all over the place. It’s not like you’d see much of each other.”

“Nope,” she said. “We’ve got a good thing going.”

“Yeah,” Kayla said. “I’m jealous. Aside from the relationships out in the open, there are always those cheating too. As if they think no one would find out.”

“Around here, I’d bet it doesn’t take long before everyone knows and the guilty party is just deluding themselves.”

“Exactly,” Kayla said. “My friend Beth. She’s married, but she’s cheated on her husband a few times. She says she hasn’t, but I know the signs. I did when I worked there. She was always flirting and then going to lunch with people. Long lunches. No one is an idiot.”

“They leave and have sex on their lunch hours?” she asked.

“You should see your appalled face,” Kayla said, laughing. “You have to know that happens. You deal with divorce cases. We had one just recently that the guy was sleeping with his secretary. So cliché.”

“Very,” she said. “And you’re right. It happens all the time.”

“It happens more than people think,” Kayla said. “Especially there. People work all sorts of crazy hours and overtime and it’s easy to say they are working late when they aren’t too. Anyway, lots of people have done it or I suspected it.”

Phoebe shook her head. No reason to ask more.

Around here people looked for the guilty rather than standing up for the innocent.

She had enough to at least pass this to Elias, but she was positive that he would know those things anyway.

“You aren’t going to see staff doing that here,” she said. “At least I hope not and we are all women. Which of course means nothing.”

She was putting her foot in her mouth.

“Don’t worry about me,” Kayla said. “I don’t have a high opinion of anyone who does that. Doesn’t mean I can’t be friends with them, but I wouldn’t do what they do either.”

“No,” she said and went to her office and shut the door.

She texted Elias to call her when he had a minute.

That minute came an hour later.

“Sorry,” he said. “Things are hectic here.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “I was just talking with Kayla. Remember, she used to work there.”

“Yes,” he said. “Were you gossiping?”

It was the humor in his voice since he knew how much she hated gossip.

“Not really. More like I was snooping.”

“That’s gossiping,” he said, laughing.

“Well, maybe I found something out that would help you as I was snooping. Or inquiring.”

“What’s that?” he asked. “Because I’m not getting anywhere other than several people said that Skip was on the floor when his card was used. I had to ask in a way to not let on why I wanted to know. Then Foster verified Skip on other cameras on the floor.”

“Did you know there are many people having affairs with each other that work there?”

He laughed again. “That happens in most places,” he said. “I don’t get in the middle of it.”

“Is Skip single?” she asked.

---