Page 22 of Phishing for Love
“I don’t need another outfit.”
“Uh, you totally do.”
“Thanks, Mev, but I’m okay.”
I hurry over to Dana before Mevia can come up with any more insane notions. Enya is running late this morning and texted me earlier to pick up Calvin’s card ideas folder and start going through it. Apparently, the folder is with Dana.
I receive a diluted scowl when I enter Dana’s domain, which means she’s in a reasonable mood and won’t bite my head off.
“Morning, Dana,” I say in greeting.
Without replying, she holds up the folder.
“How’s Sonam?” I ask, taking the folder from her.
Sonam is Dana’s cat, a grumpy Persian who Dana plainly adores.
I watch Dana struggle for the briefest instant before I sense an infinitesimal softening in her. “She’s good. Ate all her breakfast this morning.”
“That’s great!”
Sofia asked me once why I try so hard with Calvin’s bad-tempered assistant, and the answer lies in the delicate pearl brooch Dana wears to work every day. That little piece of prettiness is so at odds with Dana’s armored personality and drab outfits that I can’t help feeling there’s more to the office matriarch than meets the eye.
Just then Sofia breezes in and says, without preamble, “I need to see Calvin.”
Dana levels a frosty look at her. “Calvin’s not here.”
Sofia narrows her eyes at Calvin’s closed office door. “Last time you said that Calvin was hiding behind his desk.”
“He wasn’t hiding,” Dana denies, bite to her voice. “He was looking for the pen he dropped.”
I have to hand it to Dana, she’s fiercely, if misguidedly, protective of Calvin, and it’s no huge secret that Sofia makes Calvin nervous.
Sofia taps a finger against her trousered leg and subjects Dana to a long, cool stare. An unspokenI don’t believe youhangs in the air between them.
I’m itching to back away slowly, but I don’t want to draw attention to myself.
The moment stretches out. Then Sofia, her eyes full of trouble, starts exploring Dana’s office area, looking behind a potted plant, peering around a filing cabinet, checking behind the two-seater sofa where Calvin likes to make people wait.
“It must be here somewhere,” she says idly.
“What are you looking for?” Dana demands in aggravation.
“Your broomstick. Where do you hide it?”
Dana snorts, not missing a beat when she fires back, “If I had one, I’d use it to cast a disappearing spell on you.”
A delighted laugh bursts out of Sofia. “And here I thought humor was a recessive gene with you,” she says gaily. “Say hello to Calvin for me.”
With an exaggerated hair toss, she exits Dana’s domain.
Clutching my folder, I make my excuses to Dana and retreat to my cubicle. I spend the rest of the morning wading through Calvin’s ideas, working though my emails, and suffering through the online introductory security course, grumbling under my breath at Aaron because this is an unbelievable waste of my time.
At lunchtime, Kenzie pops her head over my cubicle to ask if I want to join her and Sofia for lunch.
“I can’t,” I say regretfully. Thanks to that compulsory course, I’m behind on my work and have to use my lunch hour to catch up.
Later that afternoon, I make my way to the breakroom. I need coffee, and I think I have some yogurt tubs and fruit stashed in the fridge, which will have to do for my lunch.
