Slipperless(7)

Now this.

Bastard.

Frustrated, my worried state shifted a bit. As I listened to him speak,  the reality was that if I hadn't had the experience I did with him, I  wouldn't see him as anything other than what he was in the moment.

The boss.

Gone was the barfly playboy. In his place, a confident, articulate  leader who was more than qualified to be in the position he was stood  before us. Whether it was rehearsed or spontaneous, an excellent,  well-reasoned description of the work ahead of us flowed from his lips.

Yet through it all, I didn't dare look up.

Instead, as Gabe spoke, I scribbled in my planner, taking notes about  things I didn't yet understand and would have to ask Colin about later.  But as the seconds ticked by, I noticed him circle around behind the  people seated across from me until he stopped in place.

Swallowing, I drew my eyes up towards Gabe without lifting my head.

Without so much as an awkward pause, the icy blue of Gabe's eyes locked  mine for a fraction of instant. In the very next, he glanced down  towards my planner, then back towards me with a slow nod.         

     



 

And if I wasn't mistaken, he winked.



GABE

A few hours after my meeting with the lab team, I sat in my office  thumbing through a stack of briefs related to the Link Protocol.

Still, she kept popping into my head.

I smiled at my good fortune she'd interviewed for a lab position. Not  that it would have mattered much. I would have spent time in pursuit no  matter where she worked, but with everything going on right now, I would  have been delayed at a minimum.

But no matter. The way was clear now.

And the look on Fiona's face when she sat at the conference table. I  have to say keeping my identity a secret had been well worth the wait.  I'm sure if anyone noticed me noticing her, she would have been  mortified.

The idea of it brought a smile to my face.

But as I sat there thinking about the situation, it occurred to me I  hadn't gotten Fiona's last name yet. Not only that, but I really didn't  know anything about her beyond our brief interactions. And when it came  to my romantic interests around the office, I preferred to have every  bit of information at my disposal.

You see, the restraint I applied to Holly didn't apply to everyone else.

In other words, I fished in my own pond on occasion.

And why not? After all, I'm single. They're single. We're all adults.

I had some rules of course, boundaries if you prefer. Most of them  revolved around the woman's expectations. I mean, I enjoyed an office  dalliance as much as anyone, but the last thing I wanted was to get  embroiled in some big misunderstanding or even worse, deception on her  part should she try to ensnare me.

Even so, in spite of making my terms clear, some of them lied to me  along the way. And lying, well, it's just not something I can tolerate.  The results of those situations resulted in termination. Like I said, I  make my demands well known. In the end it's up to them to decide whether  or not they want the same thing.

The best thing about being lied to by a woman is it helps you understand  what you really want. You know? In a way, it makes you smarter about  people and in the position I'm in, being knowledgeable about the people  around you is a must. And while I'd gotten smarter about liars and  catching them, I still wanted to know as much as I could without having  to depend on the words coming from the woman's mouth.

Trust but verify, as is often said.

And so with that in mind, I took a short walk down to Human Resources to  see what information I could gather about my latest addition to the lab  team. I visited Mrs. Jameson, the head of the department, to get the  help I needed. After a brief greeting, we got right down to the reason  for my presence.

"What can I do for you Mr. Hawkins?"

"I'd like to see the file on a new hire in the lab."

Mrs. Jameson nodded as she grabbed her tablet from her desk. Swiping it  on, she continued, "Certainly sir. One second while I open the database.  What's the employee's name?"

"Um, Fiona is the first name. Don't know the last one. As I mentioned, she's in the lab and reports to Colin Doyle."

Mrs. Jameson pursed her lips for a moment as she typed and just then her face lit up as she remembered something.

"Oh yes, Fiona Matthews. She completed orientation this morning. One moment … "

I preferred pretty, smart women. And the prettier and smarter, the better.

Few things turned me on more than a beauty with wits to match. I  suspected Fiona was a diamond in the rough in both regards, and while I  waited for Mrs. Jameson to bring up her information, I considered how I  might go about unearthing those qualities in her. A few seconds later,  she finished typing and spinning the tablet in my direction, Mrs.  Jameson offered the device to me.

"Here you are, sir."

"Great, thanks," I said with a nod of my head, as I took the tablet from her.

Soon enough, I'd scanned through the record. But aside from a few  details about her schooling, where she lived and the fact that her  grandmother was listed as the beneficiary on her retirement plan, I  didn't have much more knowledge about her than I did when I walked into  the HR office a few minutes earlier.

"Anything else I can help you with, sir?" Mrs. Jameson asked, as I perused the data.         

     



 

I rubbed the corner of the tablet between the tips of my fingers as I  looked at her. Thinning my lips in concentration, I extended it back to  Mrs. Jameson, "No, that will be all."

She took the device from me with a gentle tug. "All right, sir."

After thanking her, I turned to walk back to my office, and as I did I  realized I'd need a different sort of help to get to the bottom of my  questions about Fiona. The simple fact was it was rare for a hire in her  position to slip through without me knowing much about them. And  judging by the information in her file, this was especially true of  someone with an academic pedigree like hers.

You see, despite my business being worth billions, the industry itself  was a relatively small world in terms of the people working in it. In  other words, there are a lot more short order cooks on the planet than  theoretical physicists, and so I'm usually well-informed about the  available talent pool, especially when it's local.

Yet, I'd been consumed with the Link Protocol, so the bottom line was I  was playing catch up when it came to Fiona. But that's okay. I had a  secret weapon. And so it was that just after four later that day, I  placed a call to the one person who could help. Leaning back in my  chair, I ran my fingers through my hair and grabbed a handful of it,  holding it in place as she answered.

"Well as I live and breathe, Gabe Hawkins."

"Danielle, my love, how are you?"

"Much better now," she cooed.

Danielle Wilson once worked for me. But her true calling was academia.  After I made a particularly large grant, I lobbied hard for her to take  over as head of the Physics Department at the state college. While I'm  sure my contribution helped, in the end she was the one who got the  position. She was a brilliant researcher and a beauty as well.

And no, we didn't …  if that's what you're wondering.

I chuckled at her melodic greeting. "And how is Mr. Wilson? The kids?"

"Oh he's fine. They all are. How are you, handsome?"

"Excellent. Never better, actually."

"Oh, well, that's good to hear," she said. Danielle let out an exhale as she finished her reply. "What can I do for you?"

"What makes you think I want to do anything except spend the rest of my day talking to you?"

Danielle chuckled. "I wish."

"In truth, I could use your help with something."

"All right," she replied. Her voice grew deep, even throaty as she continued. "You know I'd do anything for you."

Smirking, I stood from my chair, stretched and got down to my request.  By the time I'd finished, I stood near a wall of windows on the opposite  side of my office, overlooking downtown. The late afternoon sun warmed  my face as I stared into the distance.

"Can you hold for a sec?" she said. "I'll see what I can find out."

"Sure."

A few minutes later, Danielle returned.

"Okay … " she said, as she began to speak once more. She hummed a bit as  she looked through the records, just loud enough so that I could barely  make out the sound of her flipping through pieces of paper.

"Anything?"

"Hmm, no," she replied. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Terrific student.  Looks like you've got yourself some serious talent, Gabe."

"Mmm, hmm. Okay. No unusual details, though?"

"Umm, no. I'm not seeing anything here … " her voice trailed off for a  moment. I almost interrupted her to cut the call short. But then, she  spoke up once again. "Wait, here's something."

"What?"

"Well," Danielle said as she began to summarize snippets of text from  the file. "It looks as if she received treatment for depression and  anxiety at various times while she was a student here. She also  experienced a good bit of illness which forced her to complete some of  her classwork from home."