Neanderthal Seeks Human(84)

Likewise, when I got to work this morning I set my phone to automatic voicemail. When Keira arrived at my door, indicating that Mr. Sullivan was on the phone, calling from New York, and needed to speak with me, I told her I was just about to go into a meeting and promised to call him back. I’d done this three times.

It was true, I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t know how to talk to him. In my sleepless examinings last night I realized that he’d never exactly lied to me about being my boss. But, he was the Boss and everything was now different.

I ignored the implication that I’d been dodging Quinn’s calls and I thought about how to answer Olivia’s question truthfully without including real details, “I met Mr. Sullivan at my old job.”

“Did he recruit you away from there?”

“No.”

“Hmm.” Olivia seemed to contemplate me for a moment with a sideways glance before she said, “Carlos hired me. I’m the only person at the company who wasn’t recruited by Quinn.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that.” I was distracted by all the revelations of the past week, tempted to succumb to the pleasant void of apathetic numbness, and just couldn’t seem to muster enough energy to feign interest in what she was saying.

“I think-“ she leaned closer to me and lowered her voice to conspiratorial whisper, “I think I make him uncomfortable.”

My brow lifted on its own accord and I regarded her with open confusion, “Who? Carlos?”

Olivia laughed lightly and flipped rolling sheets of chocolate brown hair over her shoulder, “Quinn, of course!”

I tried not to grimace when she used ‘Quinn’ instead of ‘Mr. Sullivan’. “Why do you think that?”

“Well, other than Carlos, haven’t you noticed that everyone Quinn hires is so… so…” she looked upwards as though trying to search for the right word, “you know, so plain. So ordinary looking.”

I didn’t miss her meaning; in fact, her words hit the bull’s-eye in my stomach. I was discovering more and more recently that I was not so immune to the scorn of pretty people as I thought. I blinked at her but said nothing; I wanted to say, “You are a nibling.”

Nibling being a new word I’d found on Urban Dictionary. I hadn’t yet said it out loud but I found myself liking the way it sounded in my head.

She continued, “Carlos has insinuated that Quinn is really a terrible flirt.” Her pretty mouth curved into a knowing smile, “I think Quinn purposefully hires women who are plain so he’s not distracted at work. At this point he must be desperate. I bet he’s even flirted with you.”

I gave her my best imitation of a smile but was pretty sure it looked like a dog baring its teeth, “That’s an interesting theory.”

“Hm.” She said again, leaning back, “Has he flirted with you?”

I shook my head and looked at the portfolio on my lap, “Not unless you call kissing flirting.”

Olivia’s eyes opened very wide for a split second; then she laughed, “You’re funny!” she tapped my leg with manicured nails then flipped her long, shiny, straight hair over a slim shoulder. “Well,” Olivia audibly sighed, “it’s a good thing he’s not attracted to you otherwise he likely wouldn’t have hired you in the first place.”

I kind of wanted to stab her in the neck.

“Janie, are you two finished yet?” Steven’s form appeared at my door and I immediately jumped up from my seat, thankful for the murder-attempt-distraction and the chance to escape. I crossed to my expansive desk in order to improve the distance between Olivia and the pen in my hand.

“Yep. All done. I think Olivia has what she needs.”

“If I have any questions I’ll just stop by later and ask.” She stood from the table as well then gave Steven a friendly, toothy smile.

Steven shook his head; his lips were pursed; “Olivia, Janie doesn’t have any more time to work on this with you. She needs to get ready for next week and that report needs to be done by tonight. You better have all you need from her.”

Olivia’s eyes met mine and her smile widened, “Yeah. I think I got everything I need.”



~*~



I worked in the office over the weekend, enjoying the solitude. It allowed me the space I needed to avoid thinking about anything confusing and/or unpleasant

I didn’t really need to go into the office over the weekend. I could have accomplished just as much on my laptop in the comfort of my slippers at home. Though, in all honesty, avoiding Elizabeth was the intentional byproduct of my industrious two days away from the apartment. I hadn’t yet told her about Kat’s knit-night revelations or finding out that Quinn was the Boss or that Jem and Jon had engaged in colitis-extremeous. I didn’t know how to tell her and it just felt like too much and I didn’t actually feel ready to talk about it and I knew she would make me talk about it.