Page 6 of So Not My Thing
We all rose as she admonished us to be sure to grab some of the refreshments. I held my satchel across my chest as I made my way out, trying to angle my body so that Miles saw even less of me before I left.
I dropped it at my desk and beelined for the restroom. I’d almost made it when Brenda called my name from the conference room door.
“Elle, can you come join us, please?”
I half-turned. “Yeah, in a second.” I had to get this powdered sugar off first.
“We don’t want to keep Miles waiting.” Her voice was firm and a touch cool.
I hesitated, debating whether I should leave the sugar as it was or try to brush it off.
Brush if off, I decided. At least they would realize I knew it was there.
I made a few ineffective swipes at it as I headed toward the conference room, smudging it as badly as I expected to. “Sorry about this,” I said, looking down at the mess so I wouldn’t have to meet Miles’s eyes.
“Been there,” he said, and I glanced up at the note of humor in his tone. “Not sure who even orders beignets for a business meeting anyway.”
“I did,” Brenda said even more stiffly than she’d called my name.
Crap. I didn’t want to get on her bad side. “My fault for eating them. I should have known I didn’t have the skills to outsmart a beignet.”
“You sure this is the agent you want?” Aaron asked.
“Ignore him,” Miles said.
“Um, what?” I wasn’t totally sure I’d heard Aaron right.
Brenda offered me a professional smile. “Seems Miles would prefer to work with you on finding the right property for his club.”
“Oh.” I quit brushing at my boobs and let my hands fall to my sides. “That’s not the way to go here. Like I said in the meeting, Brenda knows this market better than anyone. You’ll be in excellent hands with her.” I gave him the same professional smile Brenda had just given me.
“It’s true,” Brenda confirmed. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’ve been at this for twenty years, and I’m happy to help you find the perfect location.”
“I need to...” I gave a vague wave toward my sugar situation. “Good luck with your search.” I hurried to the bathroom, wondering if anyone would notice if I hid in there the whole day.
The mirror revealed a hot mess, darker dots where the sugar had landed trailed by smears where I’d tried to wipe them off. Pathetic.
I dabbed it away with seventeen billion wet paper towels. At least it dissolved with water and the black fabric didn’t show the wet spots.
I eyed my reflection again, wondering how she’d betrayed me after such a promising start this morning. My lipstick had worn off a little, but the rest of my makeup looked okay, and my hair was still behaving at least. I had to straighten it every other day with a flat iron to keep it under control because it was neither straight nor curly on its own, and the New Orleans humidity translated the in-betweenness into some epic frizz. But the dark brown strands were behaving themselves.
“Too bad you ruined it with your sugar shenanigans,” I told my reflection. She stuck her tongue out at me.
I dawdled to give Miles plenty of time to clear out, but when I walked out to my desk five minutes later, he was leaning against it, scrolling through his phone while Aaron stood off to the side, talking too loudly on his.
I shot a look at Brenda’s office, but she’d shut her door and was staring intently at her computer screen.
“Can I help you?” I asked, approaching Miles the way I would a skunk in my alley.
“Brenda agreed that you’re the better agent for me,” he said, sliding his phone into his back pocket. He straightened and studied me, like he was evaluating everything from the cut of my suit to the shine of my watch. It wasn’t in a creepy way, but I still didn’t like it.
“She said that?” I glanced at her office again, and this time she was watching me. She gave me a slight nod.
“Yeah.”
“Did she say why?”
“I think you’ll probably have a better sense of what I want.”
