Gallagher drummed the desk excitedly and let out a little whoop. “How about we do this? We should go out for a bite to eat and discuss this more. I can fill you in on all the details, and we can get to know each other a little better outside the office. You choose the spot. Wherever it is, it won’t make a dent on the company credit card, which you will get too when you take the promotion.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d sooner talk to my friends and get their feedback.”
“Whatever you need to do, but don’t leave me waiting too long,” Gallagher said through gritted teeth. “Now, I have some paperwork I need to get to, so I shall talk to you on Monday.”
“Um, I have next week off,” Kayleigh mumbled as she rose from the chair.
“The Monday after then. That should be more than enough time for you to make a decision. Make sure you close the door behind you, Miss Barnes. Some of us still have work to do. Enjoy your time off.”
Stopping by her desk, Kayleigh grabbed her purse and jacket and headed for the elevators. A few stragglers waved and wished her a happy weekend, but she blew by them, desperate to be as far away from Gallagher as possible. After his first couple of attempts at trying to land a date, Kayleigh figured he had given up or moved on to a new target, but she knew then that was not the case. She was good at her job, but was also only twenty-four. If she were to get the promotion, she would be the youngest member of the management team by a country mile. Kayleigh also knew that if the job did become hers, everyone would assume that she had fucked Gallagher for the position.
The elevator doors opened onto the lobby with a loud ping. Fishing in her purse, Kayleigh plucked out her security ID and flashed it at the guard, who buzzed her through the exterior door without looking up from his phone. She walked out into the sunshine and felt genuinely relieved to see April and Sean waiting for her in the designated outdoor smoking area.
“So?” April asked.
“So, I can confirm that our boss is a high-level creeper. How are you doing, Sean?”
Sean took a long drag on his vape pen and pushed his long, curly hair away from his eyes. “Okay, I guess,” he said, exhaling a massive plume of smoke that smelled faintly of weed.
Kayleigh looked at her roommate and wondered for the umpteenth time how he and April had ended up together. Where she was chatty and outgoing, Sean was the quiet type, his black nail polish and goth band T-shirts somehow mixing with April’s bright appearance. The couple was inseparable, though, and Kayleigh knew that Sean was one of the good guys. They were great roommates and even better friends, so she was glad that opposites found a way to attract.
“Tell me all about it, and don’t leave out any of the more disgusting details,” April said.
As they walked to her car, Kayleigh recounted the details of her conversation with Gallagher, eliciting grunts of disgust from her friend.
“So, are you going to take the job?” Sean aked?
“Are you high? No way. I don’t need the entire company looking at me and thinking I blew the boss for a promotion.”
“Understood. And yes, I’m a little high.”
“Don’t you dare Bogart that thing,” Kayleigh said, motioning toward the vape pen. “Give me a hit of that bad boy.”
The three of them settled into a comfortable silence as Kayleigh pulled out of the parking garage. Turning on the satellite radio, April tuned it to the hits station, eliciting a groan from Sean in the back seat. Kayleigh wasn’t a fan of the station either, but she enjoyed seeing her friends engage in a battle of dueling radio stations every day. It was a fight that April always won, mostly because her man was too laid back to put up much of a struggle.
Sean plugged in as the girls sang along to the songs playing on the radio, the sounds of The Cure serving as the perfect way to drown out the caterwauling from the front seats. Pulling into a vacant parking spot at the Sugarmill Mall, Kayleigh killed the engine just as April was straining to match notes with Sia, a task at which she was failing miserably. “Jesus, April, it sounds as though you are hanging from a chandelier with that note,” Kayleigh teased.
Her friend flushed bright red, but she still managed to grin at the joke. “It’s a good thing I’m cute.”
The girls hopped out of the car and waited for Sean, who was taking his sweet time to get moving as usual. He was an absolute whiz at his IT job, fixing issues in no time at all. As soon as he stepped outside of the office environment, though, his world slowed to a snail’s pace. It was a source of real frustration for Kayleigh, who was a get things done immediately type, but since he did so much to help with her social media stuff, she tried her best, not always successfully, to let it slide.
Staying silent was not an easy task for Kayleigh. She had been a hothead as a kid, a character trait that only seemed to get worse with each passing birthday. What Kayleigh saw as being strong and opinionated was usually seen as being bitchy by others, not that she cared what anyone else outside of her little circle thought about her. If she had to deliver a little attitude to get to where she wanted to go, Kayleigh was more than willing to do so.
Sean finally stepped out of the car, stretched, and took another hit from his vape pen. Barely stifling a yawn, he said, “So, what’s the plan?”
“Haven’t we been over this like twenty times already?” Kayleigh said.
“Just making sure nothing has changed.”
“For someone so smart, you sure play dumb sometimes, Sean.”
“It’s part of my eccentric genius.”
Before Kayleigh lost her cool, April jumped between them and linked arms. “Okay, kids, let’s go do some shopping.”
“Can we get some coffee first?” Sean asked
“We might need to bathe you in it to wake you up,” Kayleigh muttered under her breath.
THE FOOD COURT WAS quieter than usual, so they had no problem finding a table that wasn’t smeared in ketchup and covered in fast food trash. They were also able to sit far enough away from the large carousel that sat in the middle of the space, cranking out circus music at an ear-splitting level.
Kayleigh took a long chug of her iced coffee and let out a contented sigh, while Sean pretended to look for a dropped item under the table, where he took another hit of his vape.
“Do you have a list of things that we need at the electronics store, babe?” April asked.
“It’s all up here,” he replied, tapping a finger against his temple. “All pretty basic stuff.”
“For you, maybe. You’re a genius,” April said, leaning over to plant a kiss on her boyfriend’s cheek.
Kayleigh groaned, the sight of her friend's public display of affection turning her stomach. In truth, she envied them and their relationship. She’s had several boyfriends over the years, all of whom had proven to be a waste of space. Kayleigh hadn’t given up on finding love, but she wasn’t actively seeking it out either. Right then, it was all about growing her online presence, which she believed would happen with what she referred to as CreepyKaylz 2.0. “Are you sure you can get all the stuff we need within my budget?” she asked.
Sean nodded, his unkempt curly hair falling back over his green eyes as he did so. “Bob is my man.”
The Bob he referred was the proprietor of Captain Bob’s Electronic Shack, a store tucked away in the furthest reaches of the mall, right beside the toilets and the door where mall employees went to take out the trash. It was a place that people other than geeks avoided like the plague. That Sean referred to it as his slice of heaven was somewhat disconcerting to Kayleigh.