Page 62 of Base Block

It seemed like only a few moments later that Victoria came in, carrying her son. He had his head on her shoulder and looked cute but also miserable. “Oh, hi, Rainey,” she said. She looked sick and miserable herself, and like she hadn’t bothered to shower in a while.

“Daddy,” the little boy said, picking up his head.

I wanted to offer to hold him but I didn’t want to catch anything—not because I was worried about myself, but to prevent it from passing along to Callum. “I’m sorry you’re sick,” I said.

She sighed. “He’ll feel better soon, right, buddy?” She started to walk into Beau’s office.

“Victoria, he’s not there. He went to lunch,” I called.

She stopped dead and swiveled on her heel. “He went out to eat?”

I felt the need to explain. “I think he was just grabbing something to bring back here, not to sit down.” I looked at the time on my laptop and tried to remember when exactly he had left. “He should be back soon.”

She and her son continued into Beau’s office and luckily, he returned only a few minutes later. The door was open so I heard a somewhat tense conversation going on between them, where they were both obviously trying not to fight in front of their son while also wanting to yell at each other.

“You were supposed to text me, remember?” Victoria asked, speaking slowly and carefully.

“I did,” he told her. He enunciated just as strongly as she had. “I did text you. You never answered. Was I supposed to read your mind instead? Come here, Fin. How are you?” He had sounded normal when he directed those words to his son.

“His fever was up one degree,” Victoria answered. “I didn’t want to have to drag him here but since I didn’t get an answer—”

“I did answer,” Beau bit out.

This place was small and there was nowhere that I could go to avoid their conversation. I looked at my screen instead of his open door but it wasn’t like I could turn off my ears. Maybe they realized that because they switched to whispering (which also sounded angry to me) and then Beau walked out, carrying his sleepy, sad son.

“I need to leave for the day. Can you handle—” He broke off, frustrated. “Can you handle everything?”

I nodded. I would try, anyway, but there were several things on his calendar…then Victoria was kissing her son and he and his father were heading into the parking lot.

“This has been an absolutely shitty week,” she said. She touched her hair and then frowned. “How bad is it if I go to work right now?”

I looked around for a hat or a scarf, because her hair situation wasn’t great, but we didn’t have anything here. “I think people will understand. Maybe just close your shirt,” I suggested.

She looked down. “Damn it. I went into the drug store for his prescription, too.” She jammed the buttons into their holes so that her bra wasn’t showing anymore. “Beau looked perfect, as always.”

I felt the need to defend my boss again. “He was also worried about Finley.”

“It’s just hard to manage this stuff with us in two households. Like, I couldn’t find Fluffy Bear, and Fin can’t sleep without Fluffy Bear, and I’m sure he’s at Beau’s house or in his car.” She yawned. “I have to get to work.” But she didn’t move and actually, she looked like she might fall asleep where she was standing.

“Do you want to bring a coffee with you? Beau just got new travel mugs with the business logo.” I got her one and she thanked me.

“This is delicious,” she also said. She took a huge drink and closed her eyes for a second. “I needed it.” Then she looked at the logo on the black mug. “I thought he should have come up with a cuter name.”

“Get Beaud,” I said, which had been my idea before, and she nodded.

“That would be better.” She sipped again and also yawned again. “I’m dreading going to work. I don’t even want to look at my inbox and I’m so tired, I don’t know how I’m going to get anything done. And I have this coworker I hate who spends his time kissing our manager’s ass and trying to start problems.” She looked unhappily toward the door.

I remembered Heidi’s problem coworker and felt grateful that I had Beau as my colleague, despite the problems we had. “I’m sorry,” I told her.

“Well, you know how it is. That’s what happened to you, right? One of the women you used to model with tried to smear you with old pictures,” she said.

“Right. I know how it is,” I echoed. “I’m glad that’s over.”

She nodded, sipped, sighed, and said bye. I hoped that she was right, and that it really was over.

Chapter 13

“Anara, I don’t think you should do that,” I told her. I tugged on her orange sweatshirt, which she had insisted on wearing even though both Demitrious and Callum and told her not to, and I had repeated it. They hated the Woodsmen in Racer Stadium and they hated their fans, too, which meant us. Callum had said not to wear orange, not to cheer too loud, and not to call much attention to myself in general.