“Which brings up the question, what were you doing in the parking lot before, if you weren’t eating lunch over here?”
She shrugged and brought her burger to her mouth once again. “Why do you assume that I don’t work around here?”
“Because you’re dressed in a sleek, red dress with a black and white checkered coat with peep toe red heels.”
She looked at her outfit, and shrugged. “ And?”
“And….” He said as he pointed to her purse, “your purse is too sophisticated.”
“What’s wrong with my purse?” she demanded.
“Nothing is wrong with it, but it proves that you don’t work in this area.”
She looked around and noticed that there weren’t any large businesses. Only small store fronts with antiques and restaurants, the occasional jewelry store. “Maybe I own one of the stores.”
“You don’t.” And he took another bite of his sandwich.
“What makes you so sure?”
“If you worked around here, you wouldn’t have been trying to rush off to get back to work, you wouldn’t have parked behind the restaurant and the engine of your car wouldn’t still be warm, indicating you’d been driving for a significant amount of time before parking. Owning a store in this area would mean you’d have your own parking space behind your shop and no need to move it during the day since this section of the city is pretty small and isolated. Instead of driving, you would have simply walked back to your store.” He took a sip of tea and watched her carefully. “So are you going to tell me where you work?”
She burst out laughing, genuinely impressed with his logic. “And my outfit? How does that fit into your deductions?”
His eyes moved down, then slowly up her figure once again, obviously enjoying the view and her squirm as she tried to sit still during his perusal since she’d prompted it with her curiosity. “This is more of a hippy, grunge area. The store owners in this section of the city go out of their way to wear earthy, toned down clothes and artsy kinds of jewelry. You definitely don’t fit that image.”
If she hadn’t been dating Gary, she might even be attracted to this man.
That thought stunned her so much she broke off the laugh and leaned back, embarrassed when his sharp eyes caught the movement and sharpened. To hide the heat flaring up her neck and cheeks, she took another bite of her burger.
“You’re not going to tell me what you do, are you?”
She swallowed painfully, then looked up at him. “Why do you want to know so badly?”
He watched her as he said, “Before we sat down for lunch, I was contemplating having you investigated you for criminal hacking, breaking into my company’s databases for some reason, the answer for which I haven’t yet discovered but soon will know the whole truth. But now that we’ve been talking, I have other plans for you.”
Claire almost dropped her glass of ice water. Instead, she carefully placed it on the table and put her now shaking hands under the table where he couldn’t see them. “Why in the world would you think I was a hacker?” she asked and cleared her throat since it sounded like she’d just swallowed a frog. “And what makes you think you can make any plans for me, no matter what you think of me?”
He finished off his sandwich and washed it down with ice tea, her fascinated gaze watching the muscles of his neck move while he swallowed. After he’d put his now empty glass down, those penetrating grey eyes moved right back to watch her, making her squirm as she waited for his answer. Then he said simply, “You’re going to come work for me. The code you wrote was exceptionally good. I want you working on my team.”
She stared back at him as if he’d grown a second head. Of all the things she’d anticipated him saying, that was not even on the list of possibilities. “I’m not sure I understand.”
He shrugged and signaled to the waitress for the check. “It’s simple. You’re going to tender your resignation today at whatever computer company you’re currently employed with. And then you’ll come work for me but you’ll be working in an area that will be a bit more challenging than what you’ve currently been doing.”
“What makes you think my work isn’t challenging?”
“Because if you were challenged, you wouldn’t be hacking into my personnel files.”
Claire’s entire body when hot, then cold with the realization that he’d accurately zinged her. “You don’t have any proof.”
He smiled slowly. “Are you sure? Should I track that last hack back to….maybe the café across the street? The same place you bought a cup of coffee and some internet time? Probably with your personal credit card? I’m guessing you have the data in your purse somewhere, probably on a flash drive?” At the telltale biting of her lower lip, he continued, “There was some hidden code in the last batch. Are you challenging me?”
She only stared back at him, unsure what to say.
“I thought not.” He tossed some bills down on the table and stood up, reaching for her hand and tucking it into his arm as he pulled her out of the restaurant. “Give your boss your resignation, with one week notice and meet me in my office next Monday morning at eight o’clock sharp.”
They were walking back to her car, her fingers numbly holding onto a business card he’d handed to her. She was too terrified to read the words, sunshine and fear were making her eyes blurry.
When they reached her car, he stopped her, turned her around to face him. “Are you okay to drive?”
She automatically nodded her head but she wasn’t sure of anything.
He watched her and then shook her head. “No you’re not.” He took her keys and led her to the passenger side. “Come along. I’ll drive you to your office. I actually think there’s a way to make your transition even faster.”
“Why in the world would you want to do that?”
He handed her into the car and leaned down. “Because I suspect that, working for me is the only way to keep you out of trouble.” And he slammed the door closed.
A few seconds later, he slipped into the driver’s side and revved her engine. “Where do you work?” he asked, waiting patiently for her answer.
Claire looked at him in the tiny confines of her tiny car, a Mini Cooper wasn’t the best choice for a man of his size, but he actually fit, amazingly. He didn’t look particularly comfortable, but nor were his knees up around his ears.