Neanderthal Seeks Human(37)

“He was arrested.” He answered matter-of-factly.

I couldn’t cover my surprise as I gaped at him; “He was arrested?”

Quinn nodded. His expression was neutral, unreadable.

“But, do I need to do anything? Should I file a report?”

“No. He wasn’t arrested for drugging you. He was arrested for something else.”

“Oh.” I frowned then sighed as I thought about that. “Who is he? What was he arrested for?”

“Just some guy. Don’t worry, he won’t have the opportunity to bother you again.” With that Quinn turned and left my office.

I stared at the door, confused and relieved and… confused, not really sure what to make of the last part of our exchange. Before I could dwell on it with any exactness Olivia Merchant stepped into my office. She wasn’t looking at me but rather down the hall in the direction of Quinn’s departing form.

“Was that Mr. Sullivan?” Olivia sounded as befuddled as I felt.

I’d interacted with Olivia, as Carlos’ administrator, a number of times. She didn’t strike me as good or bad or stupid. She wasn’t terribly efficient with her work but seemed to make a good show of it whenever Carlos was around. I didn’t mind her, I just needed to figure out a way to improve her responsiveness to my requests or discover a work-around for her work-lethargy.

“Yeah. That was him.” I stood next to my desk and leaned against it, somewhat dazed. If I hadn’t been so dazed it might have occurred to me that this was the first time Olivia had ever gone out of her way to speak to me.

“What was he doing here?” She turned to me, placing her hands on her hips. Again, if I hadn’t been so dazed, I would have noticed the accusation and suspicion lacing her tone.

“Taking lunch to Betty.”

She straightened and let her hands fall to her sides; “Oh. Well, that was nice of him.”

I nodded. It was nice of him. It was nice of him to sit with me at the deli, it was nice of him to walk me back to work and indulge me in my silly philosophies. He didn’t exactly look safe or nice or approachable but Quinn Sullivan was a nice guy.

He was a good guy.

Olivia distractedly mumbled something to me as she left, something about checking in with Keira, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was excited, nervous, and disoriented.

I would be spending some part of tomorrow with Quinn.





CHAPTER 9




I ran home to tell Elizabeth my news and engage in what I surmised to be completely typical female behavior: nit-pick every detail of my conversation and time with Quinn Sullivan, aka – McHotpants. Alas, when I arrived home, I found a note indicating that she would be gone at the hospital for an unexpected shift and that I should start looking for reasonably priced two-bedroom apartments.

Instead of indulging myself in girl-talk, I had to settle for watching a chick flick period drama on BBC America and shifting through craigslist for new living arrangements. Truth be told, I wasn’t in any real hurry for us to vacate her current place. I liked sleeping on the couch, it felt like every night was a sleep over. I liked the non-permanence of it.

The next day I was racked with excited nervousness. I woke up way too early and left the apartment late after trying on every piece of clothing I owned. Finally I settled on scooped necked white shirt, dark blue pants and matching high heels. I felt I’d achieved my goal of business-professional-not-trying-too-hard but I worried, as I waited for the train, that I’d not tried hard enough.

I worried that I looked boring.

Almost immediately I pushed the thought out of my head. I reminded myself again: Quinn- Herr Handsomestien- Sullivan is my co-worker and isn’t interested in me and doesn’t care or notice what I am wearing. The reminder made me feel both better and slightly worse.

When I arrived at work I stopped by Steven’s office to ask for more details about the training; if I should prepare or bring anything.

Steven only shrugged, about to get on a conference call, and shooed me out of his office as he said, “No. Mr. Sullivan didn’t tell me much about it. But then, he’s not much of a talker, is he? He’ll probably just show you one of the properties and have you back within the hour.”

Thus, I waited all morning for Quinn to call. I stayed within ear shot of my office phone and jumped every time I heard someone else’s phone ring. Around three o’clock I glanced at my wrist watch and found myself frowning for the forty-second time that day.

Still no call and it was past lunch and I hadn’t eaten since my two hardboiled egg breakfast at six. Additionally, I had to be on the south side in three hours for my Thursday night tutoring session. I decided to bury my disappointment in an Italian beef sandwich from Smith’s deli.