Neanderthal Seeks Human(27)

I stared at it for a minute before I responded, “Oh. Are you going to call him?”

Elizabeth frowned at me then hit me on the arm, “What? No! You left the club so fast. He stopped me and asked me to give it to you.” She nudged me with her shoulder, “He wants you to call him. Ah! Janie and McHotpants, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g and f-u-c-”

“Wait-” I cut her off, “No, no- he gave you the card because he wants to help me find a job. He thinks there might be an opening with the security firms he works for.”

Elizabeth smirked, “Oh, reeeealy? That’s preposterous! What would give you that idea?”

I pulled an identical card from next to my laptop and handed it to Elizabeth; “Because he gave me one too; he wrote the name of a business manager on the back and told me to apply for a job.”

Elizabeth looked from one card to the other, briefly speechless, then demanded, “Wait- when did he give you this?”

“This morning.”

“When did you- ok, start from the beginning. What happened? When and where did you see Quinn this morning?”

I proceeded to tell her about going back to the club last night and everything that proceeded: the black out, the waking up in Quinn’s sister’s apartment with no clothes on, the fact that he’d wanted to be sure I knew he didn’t make a move on me, breakfast and the business card. Elizabeth listened- frowning in disapproval, surprise, or confusion mostly- and didn’t interrupt even when I knew she was anxious to get to the origin of my matching business card.

“So...” she contemplated me for a moment after I finished, “So did you pick up the test? To see if you were drugged?”

I shook my head, “No, I meant to but-” I sighed, let my head fall back to the couch, “When I got home I was so tired.”

“Oh! Thank God Quinn found you!” She squeezed my hand with hers, “Wait- did anything happen? How did he find you? When did he bring you home? Did anyone... are you ok? Did you go to a doctor?”

“Yes- I mean no.” I sighed again, “Yes, I am ok. No, nothing happened. No, I didn’t go to a doctor. I think Quinn found me before anything happened.”

“Oh.” She squeezed my hand harder then let go and rubbed her eyes, “This is a lot to process. I’m exhausted. I can’t believe you went back to the club. He obviously likes you- he was flirting with you. Why would he take you to his sister’s place? Who does that? And what was with the reserved seating at breakfast? Did this waitress woman really have a unibrow? I’m really glad you’re ok.”

I could tell she was tired because her usually well-ordered thoughts were bouncing all over the place. I smiled at her, “You need sleep, we can talk about it in the morning.” I pulled her up and she gave me another hug.

“I am glad you’re ok. Jon really scared me.” She released me from the hug and held my shoulders as she pinned me with her pale blue eyes, “If something happened to you who would help me finish the pitcher on mojito Mondays? Who would be my partner in Trivial Pursuit? Who would clean my bathroom?”

We both chuckled as I pushed her towards her room, “You did just fine cleaning your bathroom before I moved in.”

“No, I didn’t. I hadn’t cleaned it in several months before you moved in. I told everyone it was my bacteria wet-lab.” Elizabeth yawned, “Goodnight, Janie. I love you.”

“Goodnight, Elizabeth. I love you too.”





CHAPTER 7




Bing, bang, boom- I got a job.

To my surprise and, quite frankly, utter disbelief, I received a return email from Carlos Davies, the Director of Business Operations at Cypher Systems, Sunday morning followed by a rapid-fire series of events: Carlos responded to my message and requested that his secretary, also included on the email, arrange an appointment for Monday morning. His secretary, Olivia Merchant, responded Sunday afternoon requesting that I be at the office by 10AM.

Olivia also included in her email directions to the office, an informational packet on benefits, and instructions for my arrival. I immediately noted that Cypher Systems was located in the Fairbanks building, the same building as my previous job. I responded Sunday evening confirming my appointment for Monday at 10AM.

The benefits package sent by Olivia contained a salary offer for the position of ‘Senior Fiscal Project Coordinator’ which I read three times before I actually comprehended the number was real and not me misreading the placement of the decimal point in relation to the zeros. I tried to Google Cypher Systems but, other than a very slick, graphics heavy web page facade and an inquiry form for potential clients, the search results were unhelpful.