London’s heard her cell phone ring.
It was a notification of an item on her schedule.
Meanwhile, the girls had started playing their video game again, filling the air anew with the sounds of explosions and gunfire.
London knew she’d never be able to carry on a conversation, much less deal with the setback she was expecting.
She said to Tia, “I’ve got a video conference scheduled for right now.”
“Who with?”
“Jeremy Lapham. The CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines.”
“Wow, that sounds important.”
Yeah, it sounds like I’m going to get fired, London thought.
Tia started to move some of the items on the kitchen table.
“I’ll make some room for you right here,” she said.
“Uh, Tia …”
London gestured toward Bret and the girls and the racket they were still making.
Getting the message, Tia said, “Go ahead and take it to the guest room.”
London tucked the laptop under her arm and made her way through the bedlam.
She felt awfully jangled, but told herself that didn’t much matter if all Jeremy Lapham was going to do was give her the ax. It might even be a relief to just get it over with.
Maybe, she thought, sudden unemployment would settle her argument with her sister. Maybe it would make Ian’s marriage proposal seem a lot more attractive.
CHAPTER THREE
London felt apprehensive as she opened up her laptop in the guest room. She really wasn’t looking forward to this video call. If she was going to get fired from Epoch World Cruise Lines, she didn’t know why the company CEO felt that he had to give her the news personally. After all, she was just one among many middling employees, including cooks, cosmetologists, fitness directors, bartenders, and so forth. Surely he wasn’t calling each and every one of them.
But Jeremy Lapham was known for his peculiar ways. London had never met him, but the eccentric, solitary, and shadowy CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines was something of a legend in his way.
I guess I’m about to find out why, London thought.
With a sigh, London clicked open the videoconference program and waited.
She was startled by a sudden blast of sound, but it wasn’t the signal for a call coming through. It was the computer-game warfare out in the family room blasting louder again. Before she could decide what to do about the noise, she heard her sister’s voice call out sharply.
“Girls! Turn the volume down!”
Again came the familiar chorus, “Awww, Mo-o-mmm …”
“I mean, it girls.”
Then London found herself in relative quiet again—and also back in an unnerving state of suspense.
I just want to get this over with, she reminded herself firmly.
After this was done, she could decide what to do with the rest of her life. Not that there was necessarily much to decide, since Ian and Tia seemed to have plotted everything about her life in such excruciating detail. Probably all she really needed to do was take Ian up on his proposed “merger.”
London’s heart jumped as her computer beeped. She accepted the call and found herself face to face with Jeremy Lapham.
Well, not exactly face to face with him.
The CEO’s webcam was tilted oddly. She had a clear view of his abdomen. He was wearing what seemed to be an elegantly patterned velvet smoking jacket. Stretched on his lap was an enormous, extremely fluffy black and white cat, which he was petting with long, slender fingers. The cat’s purring made a slow, steady, rather ominous rumbling over the speakers.
She could see the man’s neck and his cleft chin and a pair of thin lips. The top of the screen cut off the image just above his nostrils, so she couldn’t even see his eyes. But it quickly occurred to her—maybe this was exactly how he wanted her to see him. It certainly lent him a certain mysterious aura.
Now those lips moved and Lapham spoke quietly.
“Hello, Ms. Rose. How are you today?”
London felt a brief impulse to just be honest and tell him exactly how she felt.
Kind of lousy.
I really want to get this over with.
But she didn’t want to sabotage her chances of leaving Epoch World Cruise lines with the sterling job references she knew she deserved.
“I’m just fine, Mr. Lapham,” she said instead. “How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you.”
At that moment the bedroom door swung open. London turned and saw little Bret come into the room. He walked over near her chair and stood there silently, gazing up at her again.
Although Bret wasn’t within range of her webcam, and she knew Jeremy Lapham couldn’t see him, London knew it would