She slipped out of bed and turned the knob.
The bathroom floor was cool under her bare feet. She didn’t turn on the light, feeling her way along to the toilet. It was ugly, cracked on the rim and stained in ways her mother couldn’t scrub away. Better to pretend it was okay than to see that it wasn’t. She had finished her business and reached for the handle to flush when she heard it.
Heavy footsteps stopped before the bathroom. Not Mom.
“Ms. Appleton?”
Shay jerked upright and twisted in her seat toward the opening of her cubicle.
Perry Deshezer, entrepreneur and owner of Logital Solutions, stood there in a dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves, cords, and Nikes, his standard office attire.
“You okay?”
Shay blinked. The solid world disappeared for a nerve-racking fraction of a second before returning. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Good.” He sounded unconvinced. “How was your vacation? Catch any fish?”
“What?” Shay focused on the items on her desk. In my cubicle. In my office space. Grown-up Shay is here. “Oh, I don’t fish.”
“But you enjoyed yourself?”
“Yes. Why—” She glanced up into his slight frown. Then she remembered what Angie had said about the bags under her eyes and used the same excuse. “I, ah, lost Prince.”
“Oh no, Shay. What happened?”
She gave him the sanitized version of Prince’s return to his rightful owner. By the end of it he was shaking his head. “That reeks.”
She looked away, feeling a little ashamed for having manipulated his sympathy. “I just need time to get over it. To work.”
“You’re in luck. Halifax Bank’s IT customer service person went on maternity leave last week. It’s way beneath your skill set but they asked for you by name.”
Shay had begun to recoil at the beginning of his speech, her stomach clamping down hard on her coffee-only breakfast. “They asked specifically for me?”
He nodded. “I told them you were out until today. They said they’d wait. You must have impressed the hell out of them when you worked there last year.”
“Un-huh.” Shay avoided his eye, her stomach roiling.
Eric was a regional manager for Halifax Banking Corporation. They’d met while she was temping as a techie at the main branch. Now Halifax Bank had asked for her again. Coincidence? Or part of Eric’s new scheme? “Who exactly asked for me?”
“The HR person.”
Shay glanced guiltily at the brochure sticking out of her wastebasket. “No one came in person?”
Perry chuckled. “Who would send a messenger to hire a temp?”
“I just wondered.” She looked up. “I’d rather not take this one.”
He crossed his arms. “Shay, you’re one of my best workers but that doesn’t benefit either of us unless you’re earning an income. We don’t have anything else that fits your skills at the moment.”
“Right.” Shay looked away from him. Perry was a stellar boss. He tolerated a lot, but when it came to the work ethic, he was all business. As for Eric …
She felt good old reliable anger coiling inside. Eric worked out of the main branch in downtown Raleigh but his position as a regional manager kept him on the road. She might not even see him. And if she did, it would be in a public setting.
You don’t have to be afraid. James saw Eric in action. Eric won’t want the police involved again.
Of course, Eric wouldn’t know getting in touch with James was the last thing she planned to do. But more than that, she needed to prove to herself that she was once again in control of her life. She couldn’t do that by hiding.
“I’m just bummed. The job sounds like a bore.” She gave an elaborate shrug and rolled her eyes. “Sorry.”
Perry glanced at his watch. “You can start today, then, say by 10 A.M.?”
Her gaze strayed to her computer where the time displayed was 8:41. “Sure.”
He gave her the once-over, taking in her jeans and sweater and unmade-up face. “Enough time to stop by home and change?” He never missed a thing.
“On my way.”
“The paperwork is done. It’ll be at reception. Just sign it on your way out.”
“Oh, I have a new phone number. I lost my phone.”
Perry frowned as she handed him a slip of paper. “Isn’t that the third time this year?”
Shay shrugged.
As he walked away, Shay grabbed her tote, the tremor in her hand the only giveaway of her state of mind. All she had to do was sit before a computer and talk to customers on the phone all day for six short weeks. She wouldn’t even interact with most of the other employees.
I can do this.
The shiver working its way down her back was only anticipation, she told herself. Then her gaze slipped sideways to the brochure.
Eric had set this job up. She was certain. That meant he had something in mind.
So what?