Abbey leaned back in the chair and sighed. "Office in chaos, is it?"
Tarken laughed lightly. Abbey knew him well enough to know it was fake. "Now, why do you think that? No, I just want you, you fool. I love you. I made a mistake with Melinda, a huge mistake."
"Too late, Tarken. A lot's changed in two days, and I wouldn't take you back if you paid me. And I'm so poor, that's not a statement you should take lightly. Got it? Now, unless there's something else, I'm going. I've got some serious drinking to do with Lucy."
"Wait! Abbey, don't go."
"Tarken, I'm busy. I'm helping Lucy with a big case she's working on."
Tarken paused on the other end of the line and she could almost hear his brain contemplating that piece of information. He'd be thinking that she wasn't so dependent on him after all, that her life was already moving ahead. Abbey smiled at the huge dent that realization would make in his ego.
"Who was that guy you were with last night?" he asked.
Abbey felt her heart thump as she thought about how Damien had defended her honor despite his inappropriate dress. Another thing that didn't fit the profile locked away in Lucy's filing cabinet. The Damien Vane she'd read about was a duplicitous two-timer, not a defender of women.
"None of your business," she snapped into the phone.
"He reminds me of somebody..."
"Well, that's nice to know. Good bye."
"Wait! One more thing."
"Yes?"
"That report by Driscoll-what would it be filed under?"
Abbey slammed down the phone. "How did you ever let me go out with that creep?" she asked Lucy.
Lucy held up her hands. "I didn't, remember? You insisted. You know, you should listen to me more."
"I should listen to you less. That way I wouldn't be in this mess with Damien Vane."
"What mess? I don't see a mess." Lucy came round the desk and placed an affectionate arm around her friend's shoulders and squeezed. "All I see is a woman and man having great sex together. Leave it at that, Abbey. Forget about him now. We got what we wanted."
Abbey nodded. "Yeah, I'm over-reacting, I know."
"You always were the sentimental one."
"I'm surprised you even know that word exists."
Lucy grinned. "Don't ask me to spell it."
They laughed and gave each other a hug.
"Come on," said Lucy, "lets go out for a drink."
"How are we going to pay?"
"I've got a little left over from the last job."
"But you might need it," Abbey protested.
Lucy shrugged. "We'll get the money from the Vane job soon, so don't sweat it. There's enough to last. It's only money."
Abbey stood and placed her hands on her hips. "Tomorrow I'm going to hit the interview path hard. And when I get a job I'm going to buy you drinks every night for a week."
Lucy grinned. "Sounds good to me."
She closed the office door and they walked down the corridor arm in arm.
Lucy's office was located in a rundown part of Richmond, in an old warehouse converted into tiny offices in desperate need of repair. Besides Lucy's P.I. office, there was a clinic specializing in male sexual problems, a debt collection agency, and a lawyer who'd just gotten out of prison after spending two years inside for fraud.
Not exactly the company Abbey liked her friend to mix with on a daily basis, but so far Lucy had had no trouble from her neighbors. And if she did, Abbey hated to think what would happen. Lucy had a black belt in Tai Kwon Do and judo. She'd seen her flip a man twice her size. Few people stood a chance when Lucy set her mind to something.
They hopped down the stairs, careful not to step on the broken one or touch the splintering balustrade, and opened the door. Outside, the heat hit them like a blast from a furnace.
"We'll take my car," said Lucy. "Days like this call for little sexy sports cars."
Abbey agreed. Lucy's car was a red convertible, just the sort of thing to be seen in on a hot day. At the beach.
"Let's go to St. Kilda," Abbey suggested.
"Great idea. We'll go for a swim then head to the Stoke House for a drink."
They got in the car and zoomed off. She wasn't dressed for swimming, but for once Abbey didn't care. Her short summer dress with the buttons up the front would dry quickly enough in this heat. She'd spent the last two nights doing things she wouldn't normally do, so why worry about a little thing like not wearing a swimming costume?
Lucy was dressed for anything, as usual. In her sexy, tight black shorts and white shoestring strapped top she would blend in with the cool rollerbladers, body builders and poseurs on St. Kilda's foreshore.
They both wore mandatory dark sunglasses and Lucy always kept a bottle of sunscreen in the glove box, so there was nothing they lacked for an afternoon at the beach.