Page 76 of Devoured

"Of course. Just send the photos when you have them."

“You got it. And just so we’re clear, we’re not just talking about a dinner date, right? A picture of her on a date is easy, but it will take me a little more time to figure out who she’s currently fucking and when and where they’re doing it. There’s an art to these things.”

"That's fine. I just need it done."

“What’s the exact time frame?”

"By the end of the week at the latest."

“No problem at all. I’ll email you the pictures when I have them.”

"No, I'll need it hand delivered. I don't want a cyber footprint on this.”

“Will do.”

“Thanks, Max."

There was a knock on my office door.Shit.I hung up the phone.

"Professor Hunter?" Penny said.

I pushed the papers with phone numbers and details about people that I probably shouldn’t have back into the drawer and slammed it shut. Penny didn’t need to knowhowI was finally going to finalize the divorce. She’d just care that it was done. I opened the door for her but didn’t invite her inside.

"So I'm a pressing personal matter?" She smiled up at me.

I’m glad she knew the cancellation email was about her. Everything I did was always for her. "Yes."

She glanced over her shoulder down the hallway. "Your apartment is a lot bigger than I realized."

"Do you want me to give you a tour?" I stepped out of my office and closed the door behind me. I grabbed her hand to lead her down the hall, but she didn’t budge.

"Well, what's in there?" She nodded her head towards my office door.

"It's my office. Nothing fancy."

"I'd like to see that."

"It's kind of messy." I’d been sleeping in there recently. It was the one room in my apartment where her cherry scented perfume hadn’t reached. Not that it really kept my mind from wandering to her. Especially because I watched her through the security feed in there.

"Good, because the rest of your apartment is unnervingly clean." She stood up on her tiptoes and clasped her hands behind my neck. "Please?"

How was I supposed to say no to her when she was staring up at me like that? "It's really not much to see." But maybe that wasn’t true. It was the only room that had any decorations at all. Dr. Clark would want me to show it to her.

"So it doesn't matter if I see it then."

I smiled down at her. I was trying to be more open with her. And that meant inviting her inside my office. Willingly. "Whatever you want." I opened the door back up. She let go of me and wandered into the room.

I folded my arms across my chest as I tried to see it from her point of view. Mathematical formulas covered my whiteboard. My floor to ceiling bookshelves were packed with books. There were papers scattered about my desk. And some crumbled up papers on the ground that I’d missed when I shot them into the little basketball hoop above the trash can. I wasn’t sure what any of that said about me, besides that I was a bad shot.

"You're kind of a hoarder," she said as she walked farther into the room.

"I'm not a hoarder," I said with a laugh. “I actually use all this stuff."

"What on earth do you need this many computers for?"

I looked around at the dozen computers that were spread through the room. I shrugged. They each had their purpose.

"And you do have T.V.s." She stared at the few mounted next to the whiteboard.

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