“Who with?”
“Jeremy Lapham. The CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines.”
“Wow, that sounds important.”
Yeah, it sounds like I’m going to get fired, London thought.
Tia started to move some of the items on the kitchen table.
“I’ll make some room for you right here,” she said.
“Uh, Tia …”
London gestured toward Bret and the girls and the racket they were still making.
Getting the message, Tia said, “Go ahead and take it to the guest room.”
London tucked the laptop under her arm and made her way through the bedlam.
She felt awfully jangled, but told herself that didn’t much matter if all Jeremy Lapham was going to do was give her the ax. It might even be a relief to just get it over with.
Maybe, she thought, sudden unemployment would settle her argument with her sister. Maybe it would make Ian’s marriage proposal seem a lot more attractive.
CHAPTER THREE
London felt apprehensive as she opened up her laptop in the guest room. She really wasn’t looking forward to this video call. If she was going to get fired from Epoch World Cruise Lines, she didn’t know why the company CEO felt that he had to give her the news personally. After all, she was just one among many middling employees, including cooks, cosmetologists, fitness directors, bartenders, and so forth. Surely he wasn’t calling each and every one of them.
But Jeremy Lapham was known for his peculiar ways. London had never met him, but the eccentric, solitary, and shadowy CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines was something of a legend in his way.
I guess I’m about to find out why, London thought.
With a sigh, London clicked open the videoconference program and waited.
She was startled by a sudden blast of sound, but it wasn’t the signal for a call coming through. It was the computer-game warfare out in the family room blasting louder again. Before she could decide what to do about the noise, she heard her sister’s voice call out sharply.
“Girls! Turn the volume down!”
Again came the familiar chorus, “Awww, Mo-o-mmm …”
“I mean, it girls.”
Then London found herself in relative quiet again—and also back in an unnerving state of suspense.
I just want to get this over with, she reminded herself firmly.
After this was done, she could decide what to do with the rest of her life. Not that there was necessarily much to decide, since Ian and Tia seemed to have plotted everything about her life in such excruciating detail. Probably all she really needed to do was take Ian up on his proposed “merger.”
London’s heart jumped as her computer beeped. She accepted the call and found herself face to face with Jeremy Lapham.
Well, not exactly face to face with him.
The CEO’s webcam was tilted oddly. She had a clear view of his abdomen. He was wearing what seemed to be an elegantly patterned velvet smoking jacket. Stretched on his lap was an enormous, extremely fluffy black and white cat, which he was petting with long, slender fingers. The cat’s purring made a slow, steady, rather ominous rumbling over the speakers.
She could see the man’s neck and his cleft chin and a pair of thin lips. The top of the screen cut off the image just above his nostrils, so she couldn’t even see his eyes. But it quickly occurred to her—maybe this was exactly how he wanted her to see him. It certainly lent him a certain mysterious aura.
Now those lips moved and Lapham spoke quietly.
“Hello, Ms. Rose. How are you today?”
London felt a brief impulse to just be honest and tell him exactly how she felt.
Kind of lousy.
I really want to get this over with.
But she didn’t want to sabotage her chances of leaving Epoch World Cruise lines with the sterling job references she knew she deserved.
“I’m just fine, Mr. Lapham,” she said instead. “How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you.”
At that moment the bedroom door swung open. London turned and saw little Bret come into the room. He walked over near her chair and stood there silently, gazing up at her again.
Although Bret wasn’t within range of her webcam, and she knew Jeremy Lapham couldn’t see him, London knew it would be impossible to ignore the large-eyed boy staring at her.
She silently made a shooing movement with her hand, but he didn’t seem to get the message and didn’t move a muscle.
Then Stella and Margie rushed into the room, complaining in loud whispers.
“You’re not supposed to be here!”
“Mom said you couldn’t come in here!”
Their scolding didn’t seem to make an impression on the boy, who didn’t even look at them. What followed was a flurry of half-whispers and whined complaints as the girls took their little brother by the hand and escorted him out of the room.
When the door closed again, London saw that Lapham’s cat was tilting his head luxuriously backward so that his master could scratch him under his chin.
“I wasn’t aware that you had children,” Lapham said.
“I don’t,” London said.
“No? I could swear that I just heard …”
“Those are my older sister’s kids,” London said. “I’m staying at their house for a few days.”
“So you have no children of your own?”
“No.”
“And you’ve never been married?”
“No.”
London felt a bead of sweat break out on her forehead, and her palms felt suddenly clammy. Probably without meaning to, Lapham had touched on a topic that pushed her buttons, especially today.
“One of these days your biological clock alarm is going to go off,” Tia often told her. “Then you’ll really be sorry.”
London didn’t like being reminded of that.
“I was just having a look at your curriculum vitae,” Lapham continued. “You’re an interesting young lady, London Rose.”
London squinted with surprise.
“Uh, thank you,” she said.
The cat rolled over on his back and Lapham began to stroke his stomach.
“I’ve read your employee evaluations,” he said. “Your supervisors have nothing but wonderful things to say about you. Which is all very remarkable, considering your modest beginnings. You don’t even have a four-year college degree.”
London felt a twitch of defensiveness. Her lack of much formal schooling was something of a sore spot for her.
But Lapham continued, “And yet you seem to be extremely well-rounded, with a rich understanding of culture, history, art, and music. You also have a keen business sense. In fact, your supervisors say you’re as knowledgeable as many people with advanced degrees in liberal arts and languages and business. You’re even fluent in several languages. How have you managed to make so much of yourself?”
London felt a little dizzy at this last question.
Just now her sister had criticized her for not wanting to grow up.
But this man was praising London for things that Tia couldn’t possibly understand or appreciate.
It felt good, but puzzling.
What’s going on? she wondered.
“Well,” she answered cautiously, “I do have a two-year Associate of Science Degree in Hospitality and Restaurant Management from Ketchum Community College right here in New Haven.”