Page 15 of Love Is an Art
I’m not ready to go that far yet. I’d say that Arthur will not be unhappy if I do. And FWIW, I also don’t recommend dating an office colleague.
No office colleague romance either. Has Mr. van der Zee ever thought that maybe he’s too straitlaced to date an artist?
And this one is to his boss. It’s a follow-up to his previous email, worrying that the Mexico investment was too risky for their investors. Kudos to him for raising that, even if his boss definitely did not appreciate his concern.
To: Arthur Ross
From: Zeger van der Zee
I’ve looked further into the Mexico investment. The upside is good, and I think we can mitigate the risk.
Good job at backtracking, Zeger.
I finish this batch of emails and notify Paul. I click on the documents Ken sent over about the housing case and review them.
And now I can finally check out what this Mr. van der Zee looks like. Probably looks like a clone of Stuffed Shirt. A starched shirt that can probably stand up by itself. Good-looking if you don’t need some humanity.
I do a Google search of Zeger van der Zee. His picture pops up on my monitor. And my mouth drops open.
It’s Zeke from last night.
No.
Chapter four
Tessa
Istareatthephotograph of Zeger van der Zee on my monitor, my thoughts completely jumbled.
How could it be the same guy?
“I’m so screwed,” I say as Lakshmi walks back into our office, dropping a legal pad on her desk.
“What’s wrong?” She plops down in her chair and turns her computer on.
“The guy I met last night.”
“The one you really liked?”
“It’s Zeger van der Zee, but I guess he goes by the nickname Zeke.” My shoulders drop, and I sink into the back of my chair.
“The guy managing the fund we’re defending?”
“The very same. What are the chances?”
Lakshmi shakes her head. “You really know how to pick guys who don’t like workaholic lawyers.”
“Right?” I stare in disbelief at his photo on the Capital Management website.
“Didn’t you discuss your jobs?”
I put my head in my hands, wincing. “I was pretending to be an artist to be the bait for this scammer guy.”
“Of course you were.”
At least Lakshmi is no longer shocked by Miranda’s and my crazy schemes. Nope. Now she looks forward to hearing about our escapades. She’s swiveled her chair to face me straight on, one side of my L-shaped desk between us.
“There’s some guy scamming struggling female artists. He pretends he has all these connections. He also sells them painting lessons. Miranda met someone who’d paid him thousands of dollars. He’d said he needed it to frame her work properly to show this dealer.”
