Page 16 of Nefarious
Besides Anthony has been very flirty. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asks me out for this weekend. (I swear I’m focusing on the work more than anything else.)
I’m taking care. I don’t know what you’re worried about.
How did you manage to get a cat past the RA? I don’t want to sound bitchy, but you might have asked me before agreeing to take it in. Honestly, you’re a stickler for rules until one cat needs a temporary home. I would have said no, but you’ve always been so sweet.
Hugs,
Selena
Val leaned against the door frame, observing the interns hard at work on a cooperative task. Anthony and Selena sat head to head, laughing. Confident she’d created some kind of connection between the two of them, she considered her next step. It would take a little more work, but if she could get Selena to trust Anthony, she might be able to coerce him to do the job Dane had refused to do. At least the first part of her new plan had clicked. Together, Anthony and Selena performed better than any of the other pairs. But they were both socially challenged, and at the rate of their tentative flirtation, it would take them months to forge the sort of bond Val could exploit. And she didn’t have months.
Val drummed her fingers against the wall.
She let her mind drift back to when Dane and she had been like a well-oiled machine, always anticipating the other. Her lip twitched, recalling the day after graduation when Dane’s father had insisted he get a proper job and stop fooling around with that amateurish start up. She told Dane not to pay it any mind, but Dane owed his father for the education he’d received, and his dad was sure to let him know. It was possible that the venture with Dane might have burned out in the months after they left school. They might have grown bored. Ironically, Dane’s father’s intervention was the best thing that could have happened to their company. More determined than ever, they kept in touch, worked long distance, through long nights, over chat windows and cell phones. There was an urgency and excitement to their forbidden activity.
That might do the trick.
Back at her desk, she drew up the list of intern teams. She printed it out and drew new lines between pairs. With a completed list, she returned to the training room and got the interns’ attention.
“I apologize for neglecting to re-arrange you all earlier today. I’d like to make sure you have a chance to get to know each other better and so for the rest of the day, I’m going to pair you with a new partner.” She caught the furtive glance Selena threw at Anthony. If he felt any disappointment, she couldn’t read it. He’d mastered the art of sucking up and kept his eyes on Val until she gave them permission to move around the room. But just before he stood, he scribbled something on a piece of paper and slid it to Selena. Whatever it was caused Selena to blush.
Val leaned against the table only slightly pleased. Planting the seeds of a romantic entanglement would barely move her closer to her goal. She really needed Dane to bury the land mines that would detonate in time. Anthony would be a weak substitute, but Val used the weapons at her disposal.
When the kids had managed to pick up where they’d left off at her interruption, she prepared to leave. As she approached the door, she had the uncanny feeling of being watched and turned to find Anthony’s head lifted, but his eyes darted back to the computer monitor so fast, Val couldn’t be sure he’d ever looked elsewhere. Val cast a glance back at where Selena presented the picture of innocence. She narrowed her eyes. Without Dane, she’d need a year to destroy that girl.
Pssst - Selena. Sucks we got separated. I can totally still see you though. :) When we get a break, you wanna go get a coffee?
Anthony
The raucous clatter of the training room air conditioner completely obscured theclick clackof fingers across keyboards. Dane peered through the door and observed the interns. It was a part of his high profile “Dane’s in the building” campaign. He didn’t want Noelle to forget he faced the quotidian struggles of the newly tobacco-free, so he paced the halls, fetched coffee, chatted with co-workers, and observed interns. By all appearances, he was shaking off the jitters of addiction.
The training room happened to be on the same floor as Noelle’s office, so he figured it was in his interest to make an appearance. Maybe he’d give them some friendly advice. Although he didn’t want to appear too friendly. After all, giving up cigarettes should make him more irritable. He ought to be taking advantage of that.
But he found himself amused by the theater of budding romance before him. While most of the interns kept their heads down, focused on the task of creating a loan bucket that matched some target dollar amount, that gawky kid Anthony kept lifting his eyes and casting dark, haunted glances at Selena on the far side of the room.
Dane chuckled. Val managed to create this drama in less than a week. Amazing. He pulled a chair up next to Anthony and checked his work. “You’ve gone over.”
Anthony blushed and shook his hair into his face. “Oh, God.”
“It’s okay. Look.” Dane dragged some numbers back across the screen. “Start again. It’s not always about getting the fewest loans. You just have to meet collateral with whatever you have at hand. But you never want to go over.” He let out a short burst of air. “One time, we were short on collateral and had to throw cash into the bucket.”
Anthony’s eyes were saucers. “I didn’t think you could do that?”
“You can’t do it in the software. We had to get creative.”
Focused now on his screen, Anthony worked quickly and found a solution that was close enough. The numbers would never be exact. He clicked through to the next screen and sighed. “There’s so much more to learn than I expected.”
Dane placed a hand on the Anthony’s shoulder. “Yeah, but you’ll get it.” He leaned in closer. “At least when you’re not distracted by a pretty girl.”
If Dane hadn’t been sure the kid was harboring a crush, the speed with which Anthony’s head swiveled up and his eyes flew over to the girl and back to Dane would have confirmed it. His shoulders dropped. “Is it that obvious?”
“Only if you’ve ever been there.”
“Val?” Anthony sat up straight. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. God. I’m an idiot.”
Before the kid hurt himself, Dane shook his head. “No, you’re right. I had a crush on Val for a long time in college. She was always so poised and confident, and there I was—this big nerd.”
“You were never a—”
