Page 81 of Love Decoded

I rap lightly on the door. Her brisk, “Come in,” makes me smile for the first time today.

Do I hallucinate the way she lights up when I enter? She said she wanted everything to stay casual last week when this thing between us started, but we have spent equal time watching movies and blowing each other’s minds. Is it possible she’s actually started to like me?

“Hey,” she greets. And that’s definitely an I liked last night kind of smile. Thank God. “What’s up?”

I collapse in one of the chairs, fully at ease for the first time today. “Nothing. Just wanted to say hi. You busy?”

She shakes her head, pushing away the paper she was looking at and leaning back in her chair. “Not really. I’m just re-checking some of the files while my program loads, hoping something will jump out at me.”

“Anything pop after yesterday’s undercover escapade?” I ask.

Before she can answer, my phone buzzes with a text. I put myself on DND when I told Samantha to hold my calls, so whoever is trying to reach me right now is someone who can’t usually be ignored.

I glance at the screen. My boss.

Muting the notification, I turn back to Charli.

She glances down at my phone for a half-second, then focuses on me for her answer. “Nothing concrete, no. I ha—” she cuts off as her eyes dart to me. “I, um, researched some of the executive team and started digging into their backgrounds⁠—”

My phone buzzes again.

Wincing, I mute it again. “Sorry. Busy day. Continue.”

“Um, I started comparing their backgrounds to the company’s current values and goals, just to make sure things appear aligned. Sometimes when there are sudden or giant goal differences, they⁠—”

Another notification, this time a call.

Charli looks pointedly at my phone. “It sounds like you should answer that.”

I wince again, embarrassed at this point. But she’s right.

“Sorry,” I murmur, swiping my phone open. “I’ll make it quick.” I answer my boss’s call with a curt, “Bryan. What’s going on?”

“Harrison is refusing to settle. No matter what I say, he keeps insisting that he didn’t fire that woman because of her pregnancy. The idiot is going to lose thousands because he can’t get his head out of his ass!”

The headache that’s been lingering at the edge of my subconscious starts to pound against my temples. How did this become my life?

“I need you to go over there and convince him to stop being an idiot. I’m not losing this case and then having him make my life a living hell when he blames it on us.”

“Okay, I’ll go see him tonight. I need to⁠—”

“Now, Lucas. This settlement offer ends tomorrow.”

That headache explodes.

“Alright, alright, I’m leaving the office in a little bit. I still need to close the loop on the Dickerson case first.”

“What’s going on with the Dickerson case?”

I lean forward and put my elbows on my knees so I can rub my temples with both hands. We discussed the Dickerson case this morning. Then, it was enough for my boss to hear I’ve got it under control. Apparently, the additional stress has changed his opinion.

“His ex-wife says she can prove he made the verbal promise to give her the company. So, I’m pulling the security tapes from the bar that night to prove he was intoxicated to the point of incoherence, and therefore could not understand the nature and consequence of the verbal agreement.”

A pause. “In that case, thank God Dickerson is an alcoholic. He probably put away half a dozen doubles even on a normal night.”

I wince. That sentence should not exist in the English language.

But instead, I say, “Yeah, that’s what I told him. Either way, we should be fine. I’m just waiting on the tapes so I can update the ex-wife’s lawyer.”