Her Unexpected Admirer Page 0,32
be present. “Dinner?” Her mind immediately thought about that tall, dark, obnoxious man and their tense dinner the previous evening. No, she wasn’t going to think about Davis at this point. Davis was off-limits. Davis was the client. She could not think about Davis in a sexual way anymore or she would incur the wrath of her father. She’d finally earned a vote of approval from him last night, she couldn’t mess it up by acting silly. Davis was a client. Nothing more.
“Some of the other members of the team go out for dinner on Friday nights, just the ones that don’t have anything urgent to get home to, like a family. You know, just an informal gathering of people. We never know who’s going to show up and who is not.” He shifted nervously on his feet. “So if you wanted to join us, perhaps just come along for dinner or just appetizers, I could introduce you to some of the other team members.” He looked down at the papers that were in his hands, “but if you don’t want to come that’s fine too. It isn’t anything special. It’s just informal. Same place we were last night.” Tom nudged the glasses higher up on his nose and looked at Kate hopefully.
Kate realized that Tom was almost painfully shy, but he had stepped out of his comfort zone and asked her out. It might only be to an informal dinner with a bunch of other people, but he still made the effort. “That sounds like a lot of fun. What time should I be ready?”
Tom’s breath released in a whoosh and he smiled giddily down at Kate. “Oh, there’s no special time that everyone meets. Like I said, it’s just casual. So, why don’t you just come by my office or call me when you’re finished and I will walk over with you?”
Kate readily agreed to that plan. “I think that I will have to call you. This place is too big, and there are too many people around for me to be able to find you. These offices tend to be a little bit like a labyrinth to someone who doesn’t know where she’s going. Like me,” she said with a self-deprecating smile.
Tom eagerly nodded his head. “Okay that sounds wonderful. That’s great. That will work out perfectly.” He seemed to understand that he was rambling and looked back down at his papers, forcing his mouth to stop moving. “Anyway, my extension is five-six-three. Just call me whenever you’re ready, and I’ll come pick you up.” He looked like he was about to say something else, but he closed his mouth, nodded and turned. Walking quickly down the hallway away from her office.
Kate smiled fondly as the man disappeared down the hallway. It sounded like a very nice night. Completely uncomplicated and relaxing. Unlike her previous evening where Davis had been sitting across the table from her, looking amazing and virile and oh-so-appetizing.
Good grief, couldn’t she stop thinking about the man for just a few minutes?
She turned back to her papers, back to the stacks that surrounded her lately. She was getting into the groove of this forensic accounting stuff. It wasn’t that she actually liked the work, but she had established a pattern of checking, balancing, validating and going through everything one more time to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. She was even starting to learn a few things as well. This would never be her passion, accounting was just a bit too dry for her taste, but at least she was feeling like she was accomplishing something.
She saw the message come through on her cell phone, and knew that it was from her father. He had checked in often throughout the day, as if he knew that she needed some sort of guidance. But after the past couple of hours, she wasn’t going to let him disturb her rhythm. So instead of jumping on top of any messages that he might be sending her, she simply ignored her phone and continued working. She knew that she would have to check in with him before the end of the day, but right now he was simply messing up her concentration. He kept feeding her instructions, things she was already doing or things she knew that she needed to do once she had finished a specific process.
It occurred to her that she knew more than she thought; that she had absorbed her college coursework and was able