Her Unexpected Admirer Page 0,27
she told herself.
Yep. She was going to figure this one out on her own and her father would have to give her some kudos.
So instead of giving in to the feeling of being overwhelmed, she took a deep breath and took the first file off of the stack. One after the other, she went through the files and eventually, she understood this office’s process. It should be the same across the company, but since humans ran the process and not robots, everything would have a slightly different flavor wherever she went.
By six o’clock that night, she felt like she was in a groove. She could pull a file off of the stack and line up the costs with the data on the spreadsheets. Kate was pretty proud of herself, but she still hadn’t found any evidence of embezzlement. Everything looked pretty normal.
“You’re still going at it?” a strange voice asked from behind her.
Kate glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice. It wasn’t Davis, of that she was sure. Davis’ voice was deep and sexy. This one was obviously male, but not nearly as deep. Nor did it make her toes curl with desire, like Davis’ voice always did.
She smiled up at the younger man who was standing in the doorway. “Hello.”
The man smiled and stepped closer, extending his hand. “I’m Tom. I work in the accounting department with Marcy.”
Kate dropped her pencil onto the desk and turned around to shake Tom’s hand. “Kate,” she replied. “How are you Tom?”
He flushed when she smiled, shifting nervously on his feet. “I’m good,” he said, blowing out a bit of air and looking more nervous than when he’d first stepped into the office. “Well, I was just wondering…” he blushed and his hand came up to wave his statement aside, “actually, all of us were wondering if you wanted to join us for a drink.”
Kate blinked, not sure what he was asking. The people in her office back in Boston regularly went out for happy hour to the bar across the street but she’d never been invited. She’d always been left back at the office, hearing the groups of people hurry out of the office, happily talking about “relaxing with a beer” or some other sort of drink.
“A drink?” she asked, trying to clarify.
Tom shifted again, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Yeah. It’s just a small group. But you’re here late. And none of us really have anything to go back home to. All the married people have already left for the day but we’re just sort of hanging out. And we’re going across the street.” He looked around at the stacks of files, just noticing them for some reason. “But if you’re too busy, I understand. I’ll just let the rest of the group…”
Kate heard him backing out of the invitation and jumped to stop him. “No! Really, a drink would be nice,” she said hurriedly. The thought occurred to her that Davis might be looking for her after work, but he hadn’t said anything to her. It was after six o’clock and if he’d wanted to speak with her, he should have said something. She ignored the sharp pang of disappointment at that realization and brightened her smile towards Tom.
Tom’s eyes widened with surprise. “Really?” he gushed. “Well…um…yeah, that would be fun. What time are you going to pack up here and call it a night?”
Kate looked around at the stacks. She could go for a drink and then come back to get more work done. Or maybe she could just bring some of the work back to the hotel. It suddenly occurred to her that she actually had no idea where she would be staying tonight. She’d left her suitcase on the plane, too intent on letting Davis know that they wouldn’t be having a physical relationship to worry about anything other than getting her point across.
It was a very odd sensation to not know where one would be sleeping. Perhaps he thought she would be getting her own hotel room. Wow, she really didn’t understand how this kind of project worked. The devil was in the details, her father always said. She should have asked about hotels back in Boston.
“How about if I just finish up this one issue and I’ll meet you guys over at the restaurant? You said it was just across the street, right?”
Tom’s cheeks and forehead flushed and he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Yeah. So far,