“Margot!”
“What? You look like hell. You’re so uptight with your personal life. I gotta juice you up so you’ll tell me the good stuff.”
“I told you when I went on a date with Vince!” I objected.
“Yeah, and look how far that went.”
“With good reason,” I said, grabbing my latte from the bar. “I think the detail you’re missing is that my life is a little bit boring.”
“About that,” Margot said, getting her cappuccino and heading toward a table. “You do need to get out more.”
“As a scientist saying that to another scientist, this somehow feels like a knock knock joke, and the punchline is something about neither of us seeing the sun.”
Margot chuckled, settling into a seat facing the window. The other seat glowed with the last rays of autumn sun on it. “There, take the sun seat. Then I can say I made you see the light.”
I sat and held my mug, letting it and the sun warm me. “You’re really on one today. How much caffeine have you had?”
“One of the other moms gave me one of those fancy energy drinks at soccer. I’m just now coming off it. Shit’s miraculous. I feel like I could touch the damn sky.” She crossed her legs and sat back. “Anywho. Tell me about your scandal.”
Words caught in my throat. “I take it you saw the video?”
“That is correct. Good for you, kid.”
I pinched my eyes shut. “What do you mean, good for me?”
She flipped her hand and shrugged. “You were actually out and about. Can’t complain about that.”
I chuckled. “Right, but . . . at a college party. Underage drinking.”
“Not ideal, sure,” she said, taking a pensive sip of her cappuccino.
“Can’t I get fired? We work for the university, in a roundabout way.”
She lifted a shoulder. “Not if I have anything to do with it. Ididn’t drag you from Boston to have them fire you over what you do in your spare time. Didn’t they already take down the video anyway?”
“They did,” I said, idly stirring some sugar into my drink.
“Alright, well. We just won’t say anything. And if it comes up, I’m fighting like hell to keep you.”
I pressed my lips together. “Thanks, Margot.”
“How’s Jonesy in all of this? He in trouble at work?”
I grimaced. “I think at least a little. They’re not happy with him, but it’s also their job to protect him. He’s not used to being in that kind of trouble, though.”
“What are you doing here? Why don’t you go cheer him up?”
I flicked a glance at my watch. “He’s leaving for the road soon. They’ve got a long road trip. And I just saw him this morning.”
Margot wiggled her eyebrows. “Oooh, you did? Leaving the morning after?”
I let out a heavy sigh and stood. “And just like that, my personal life dossier is closed once again.”
As I headed for the door, Margot called after me. “Actually, if you want to keep your job, you have to tell me everything!”
I laughed as it was the emptiest threat I’d ever heard. “Fire me then.”
Still, Margot had a point. Colt seemed super stressed out when we talked. He’d leave in a little less than two hours. That meant I had time to pull off something special.
