* * *
When I got to the office, Carl and Liz were just arriving, and I was immediately bombarded with questions. I would've given just about anything to develop a power that made them forget I'd gone on a date.
We sat down at our desks as the grilling started. I made a note to never mention any future dates to the two of them, because dealing with Frannie was bad enough. Having even more people question me made me want to lock myself in my apartment and throw away the key.
"So, how was the date?" Carl asked with a wicked grin that I could tell spelled trouble for me.
"A better question, knowing Avery, is how was the game?" Liz chimed in.
"Both were very nice," I replied with a sigh. I doubted they'd take any hints from my body language that I didn't want to talk about it. "Nate was actually pretty interesting and we ended up exchanging phone numbers. The game was awesome, as any game tends to be when the boys win."
"Pretty interesting, huh. What kind of background information did you get on him?" Carl queried and I was happy he didn't have Nate's last name, not that any of us always needed that important information.
I wasn't making any plans with Nate, but I preferred to do my own research, if I thought it was needed. I got the feeling Carl wouldn't mind digging up every bit of dirt ever known about Nate, just to prove he could.
"He's from Chicago and is an insurance salesman currently between jobs because of his desire to get some traveling in." I replied, giving the majority of the information he shared with me as far as personal details.
"An insurance salesman? That doesn't sound too fun. Did you even get his last name?" Liz asked while starting up her computer.
"Nope, no last name, and he seemed to enjoy his work so I left it at that. It's not like my cover of research assistant sounds like the most exciting thing in the world either," I replied as my email popped up.
Nothing of interest there, so I switched over to my tracking program to see if there was progress finding the funds we were looking for. I was a little surprised to see the word complete in green capital letters across my screen. I almost felt like standing up and doing a little dance.
"Yes! We have the tracing done on the Schwartz money. It's going to an account in Zurich. Now all I need to do is see who's getting the money after it hits that point."
As I start entering in the new commands, I heard the door open and in walked Mr. Irving with a person I could only assume was the FBI agent we were going to be working with.? When the bossman moved out of the way, I was stunned to see Nate standing there in a sharp-looking suit.
It was so clich? and seemed straight out of a bad romance novel. I rubbed my eyes for a second, just in case my mind was plopping Nate's face where it shouldn't be. The rubbing didn't help, and I decided I was having a very bizarre dream. I hoped the part about me tracing Schwartz's money ended up being true.
Nate quickly glanced at me, and then turned to look over at Mr. Irving. Clearly ignoring the fact that we spent about three hours together the night before was the order of business that day, and I was all for it. I could only imagine what my coworkers would do if they knew he was the man I'd gone to the game with.
Mr. Irving cleared his throat before starting in on introductions. I was all ears to hear exactly who Nate was, if that was his real name. Knowing he worked for the government, I wasn't sure what to believe.
"This is Agent Barnes. He'll be your FBI contact for finding out more information on these emails. Based on an informant they have, they believe the emails are going to someone in Chicago where Nate here calls home.
"They've done some initial tracing, but decided to let us have a crack at it. He'll give you any background and other relative information you need for completing the task." With that little speech out of the way, he turned and walked out the door.
It got a little bit awkward because Mr. Irving didn't bother to introduce any of us to Agent Barnes. Not wanting to speak up, I was glad when Liz stood and reached out her hand to Nate.
"Hi, I'm Liz," she said, giving him the once over and apparently liking what she saw. "This is Carl and Avery," she added pointing to each of us.
After watching her generous perusal of our new friend, I was surprised she even bothered including us in the conversation. I couldn't blame her, but at the same time it made me want to growl.
"Good morning, everyone. Since we're going to be working together, you can call me Nathaniel.??Why don't we get right down to it," he said way too business as usual for my liking. "I have this flash drive with the emails we want you to look into. They are from a Viktor Agapov, who is already being monitored by agents.
"They go to a person who is only known as Jimmy. We don't know if that's a real first name or an alias that is being used to try to hide his identity. It's really important that we find out who is on the other end because the last few emails have mentioned a large illegal arms deal that we definitely don't want to find within our borders."
Carl was our email expert, so he quickly asked for the flash drive to start working on it. It might have been more of a demand, but either way he got the drive. I went back to my desk, doing my best to avoid the giant pink elephant in the room between Nate and me. He seemed fine avoiding me, as Liz chatted him up, asking about how he liked the city and if he'd seen any of the sights yet.
I tuned them out and checked email again. An email from Frannie had come in, so I figured I could spend a few minutes avoiding the weirdness I felt in the room.
Hey Peaches,
So how was it last night? I don't know about you, but I had a great night. The two new diamond and sapphire earrings gracing my ears say hello.
Jelly Bean
Why we agreed to those nicknames, I'll never know. As I was getting ready to reply I heard Liz's voice saying my name
"Isn't that right, Avery?"
I looked up to see her expectant face. "Um, what was the question?"
She looked annoyed that I hadn't been listening to their conversation, which was odd since I distinctly got the impression she was trying to make it as private as possible. I wasn't the best at reading a situation, but Liz didn't seem to be hiding her intent.
"I was just telling Nathaniel here that you love hockey too and went to the game last night," she said, looking back at Nate with a little flutter to her eyelashes.
"Oh yeah. Hockey is my favorite sport," I replied. "A friend happened to have a ticket she couldn't use last night and let me go in her place."
"Not only that," Liz added, "she was set up on a blind date with an insurance salesman. Even though she said he was very interesting, I can't believe how bored she must have been. Now that I think about it, didn't you say his name was Nate? What a coincidence; that's a short form of Nathaniel. There's no way I'd ever picture you being an insurance salesman, though."
I felt my face start to heat up as Nate finally decided to add his two cents. "I happened to be at the game last night, too. Very similar situation, but my date had an even duller job than that. I seemed to make it through the evening in one piece. Do you think I can set up my laptop somewhere to check emails and maybe get a little work done?"
Liz, clearly not believing that Nathaniel was my Nate, quickly cleared off some space in her area and set him up with a chair. I schooled myself not to show any response to the move. I didn't think I could've handled being stuck next to him all day anyway.
The morning paced by relatively quickly. I found I had to mentally slap myself for trying to make eye contact with Nate. He kept his head down all morning and occasionally made conversation with Liz, which I got the feeling he only did to be polite. At lunchtime, Liz had the great idea of us all taking Nate to our usual spot.
"Hold on just a sec while I run to the little girls' room," I said, wishing I had a legitimate reason to get out of the lunch. For some reason, the idea of appearing rude was something I had trouble with.
After spending a few extra minutes making sure my eyes weren't telling a story
I didn't want told, I walked out of the bathroom and I saw Nate standing there looking at the floor.
"Oh hey, Avery. This is a pretty fancy library you got going on here," he said with a frown.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure you understand why I can't say where I really work, Mr. Insurance."
He didn't appear to enjoy having the situation thrown back on him. I didn't think he was really mad, but the circumstances of our second meeting were more than just a little tricky.
"I think we need to have a quick discussion. As much as I enjoyed last night, we're working together now, so any kind of non-work based relationship isn't going to happen."
I wasn't expecting a relationship to begin with, which made his words not hurt as much as a regular rejection. I still felt a little uncomfortable when my chest started aching, but I tried to pretend my empty stomach was somehow causing it.
"I wouldn't expect anything else. Just remember that when Liz tries to take you out for drinks tonight." With that I walked back to my desk and grabbed my wallet.
Lunch went smoothly, with Liz flirting horribly and Nate trying to avoid her by talking with Carl about their shared love of cars. The rest of the day zoomed by pretty quietly, each of us busy in our own little world.
As predicted, Liz asked if Nate wanted to go out for dinner and drinks, and wisely Nate said he had other plans. I decided a visit to the gym was in order and spent thirty minutes beating up a poor defenseless punching bag, then an hour jogging around the indoor track.
After eating a tossed together chicken Caesar salad for supper, I settled in to read whatever romance novel I happened to select, not really paying much attention to the story. Just before going to sleep I decided I should probably email Frannie back to make sure she didn't try to call. After getting to the screen I typed:
Date was interesting. Even though the night wasn't horrible, I don't plan on seeing him again. So until next quarter my dating life is on hold :). We should get together this weekend and do something. Do you have any plans?
CHAPTER 4
The shirt says it all, Bite me