Accidentally Yours (20 page)

“
Uh-oh. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“
I don’t know what you’re thinking. All I know is that I like him. He’s witty, he’s charming, he’s handsome...”

“
He’s a doctor,” Glenda concluded.

She shrugged.
“You’ve got to admit that doesn’t hurt.”

“
Well, you’ve got an ideal opportunity here. He’ll be your prisoner for two more days yet.”

“
It’s a little more complicated than that, Glenda. He’s so popular with the ladies. You should have heard him at the hospital. He makes no secret of the fact that there are women who’d jump at the chance to marry him. It’s hard to compete with that…and I’m not sure I want to.”

“
Come on, Viv. Do you really want to have a man nobody else wants? At least let him know you’re interested. It doesn’t mean you have to give up any other invitations you might receive. Especially if you know he isn’t.”

“
Speaking of which, you’ll never believe who asked me to lunch. Timothy Golden. The auditor.”

“
That old guy? His first job was probably keeping records for Noah, making sure only two of each species got on board the ark.”

“
Come on, Glenda. He’s not that ancient.”

“
He’s fifty if he’s a day.”

“
Maybe. Do you know anything about him?”

“
Not really. I’ve never worked with him. He does the important stuff, corporate balance sheets, accounts payable, things like that. Payroll is easy to audit, so they assign me the newbies, the kids right out of college with the dumb nicknames. This year I had Whitey.”

“
Whitey!”

“
Yeah. He’s one of those people who are so fair they’re almost colorless. He told me that when he was a kid his hair was so blond it was almost white. I’m sure he’ll learn soon enough that he’ll have to drop that nickname in favor of the one he was given, or else the only star he’ll be is on the firm’s softball team.”

Vivian thought about Glenda
’s advice after returning to her office. Technically, Zack was a captive in her apartment. She decided the best thing she could do was spend as much time as possible with him while he was staying with her. It was clear from the way he kissed her the night before last that he found her attractive, but she also knew he was cut off from his usual social connections. He had probably never gone so long without female companionship, and she had to consider a possible connection between that and her suddenly looking good to him. Still, it warmed her heart when he said he had gotten a taste of what he was missing. She was going to do her best to drive that point home, show him how good it could be if he was willing to settle down.

At a quarter to five she had her hand on the receiver when someone called out her name. She removed her hand and forced herself to sound jovial.
“Hi, Jim. What can I do for you?”

“
I wanted to talk to you about getting my son a summer job. He’s a junior in high school and has expressed an interest in chemistry, and I think it might be a good experience for him to work in the lab.”

“
I’m sorry, but we don’t allow any kids to work in the lab since the explosion that Mr. Arndt’s son caused two years ago.” The man appeared a bit taken aback; she wasn’t certain if it was because of the news itself or the way in which she delivered it. She probably should have forced a solemn note into her voice instead of sounding so cheerful about an incident in which employees could have been hurt, but at least he made a hasty retreat. Good, she thought. He should be able to figure out that if one of the VP’s kids had done major damage to the lab, his own son didn’t stand a chance of being hired. She grabbed the phone and began dialing, anxious to hear Zack’s voice. “It’s me. Everything okay?”

“
Fine. You won’t be late, will you?”

Was she imagining it or did he sound like he was eager to see her?
“No.”

“
I forgot to tell you. I went down to visit with the Hugheses for a little while last night while you were out. Mrs. Hughes insisted we have dinner with them tomorrow night. Can you make it?”

“
Yes. That was sweet of her. I’ll bet they were surprised to see you all banged up.”

“
And even more to learn I’m staying with you. But don’t worry, I explained we’re not having a torrid affair.”

She laughed, in spite of the sudden flush of heat in her face.
“I’m calling to ask if you want to go to the supermarket with me. I know it’s not very exciting, but at least it’ll get you out of the apartment. If not, I’ll stop on my way home.”

“
I’ll go. After being in the house all day it’ll be fun to hang out in the produce department and sample the grapes and the cherries.”

She laughed.
“It sounds like I’ll have to pretend I don’t know you.”

“
Even if somebody notices me they won’t say anything. People treat you different when they think you’ve been hit by a speeding bus.”

She was still smiling as she straightened her desk in preparation for tomorrow
’s work, but she frowned when her line rang at five minutes to five. If there was anything that made her clench her teeth more than people who didn’t tear their coupons out of the sale circular until after their totals had been tallied at the register, it was people who called just before she was getting ready to leave for the day. She grabbed the phone and tried to keep the irritation out of her voice as she greeted, “Human Resources. Vivian St. James.”

The female voice on the other end was breathless.
“Oh, Vivian, I’m so glad I caught you.”

She frowned.
“Who’s this?”

“
I’m sorry. It’s Sharon from the lab.”

“
What’s up?”

“
I don’t know how to tell you this…”

She no longer tried to conceal her frustration. All she wanted to do was go home.
“Tell me what?” she asked impatiently.

“
The technician made an error. Dennis Chin is clean.”

“What!”

“I’m so sorry, Vivian. Has he been let go?”

“
You’re damn right he has! The man was crying in my office. He kept repeating it was a mistake, and now you’re telling me it was, even though this morning you were sure it wasn’t.” She stopped to count to five in an attempt to control her temper. “How could this happen, Sharon?”

“
It was an error in labeling.”

“
Has this ever happened before?”

The answer came fast
. “No, never.”

“
You realize he could sue you for this.”

“
He seemed like a nice young man. I’m hoping he’ll be content to just get his job back. You will offer it to him, won’t you?”

“
I don’t know. It’s his boss’s call. And if word’s gotten out that he was terminated for testing positive for illegal substances he might not
want
to come back.” But she doubted this was the case; Mel Norris wasn’t the type to feel he owed explanations to his subordinates. “I need to reach him right away. I’ll let you know what’s happening tomorrow.”

After an acknowledgment from Sharon, Vivian clicked over to an available line and poked out Mel
’s extension with her index finger. “Mel, Vivian St. James. You’re not going to believe this. The lab just called me. They made an error labeling Dennis’s specimen. He’s clean.”

He voiced his displeasure with a grunt
.

“
I’m sorry, Mel. It’s not like it was my fault; the lab did it,” she quickly pointed out. “I feel like a fool, having fired him. I need to know if you want me to offer him his job back.”

“
By all means. There should be no problem. I don’t think anyone except my secretary even knew he was gone.”

She
exhaled in relief. At least Dennis wouldn’t have to contend with endless jokes from his coworkers about the mishap. “I’ll call him right now.”

There was no answer at Dennis
’s home phone. Vivian declined to leave a recorded message. This simply wasn’t the type of message one left on someone’s answering machine. She wrote the number down and put it in her purse. She’d try him later, from home.

When she got home Zack was in the kitchen, sitting
on a stepstool in front of the stove. “Hi. Ready to go to the store? I want to go now so I can make something for din—” she broke off, noticing the four small beef mounds in a shallow baking dish atop the stove at the same time a hint of barbecue sauce drifted toward her nostrils. What’s this?”

“
Dinner. It’s meat loaf, my specialty. All I have to do now is add the dry potato mix to water and milk and mash them. I didn’t want to do that until you were ready to eat. We can go to the store after.”

“
You are amazing, you know that?”

“
I must confess, I’m a man of many talents. How was work?”

“
You don’t want to know. I fired someone this morning because he failed his drug test, and then the lab called back this afternoon and said they goofed.”

“
You’re pulling my leg, right?”

“
I wish. I’m trying to reach him to let him know they made a mistake and we’d love to have him come back.”

Zack shook his head.
“And I thought
my
job was stressful. Those people you work with are downright nutty.”

“
Not really. It’s just that everything seems to be going wrong this week.” She put down her purse and pulled out silverware and glasses for the table. “You’re spoiling me, having dinner ready as soon as I walk in the door.”

She tried without success to reach Dennis after dinner. Maybe he was somewhere venting, even though he
’d had all day to do that.

Zack turned on the television to the news as she hung up, and suddenly she panicked. What if Dennis had done something crazy, like gone to the lab armed and taken hostages?

She took a seat next to him on the sofa. “Any big stories today?”

“
Nothing that would make you want to pack up and leave the area.”

Her shoulder muscles slackened.
“Good.” She always watched this station. Skye Audsley was her favorite reporter, and tonight he was anchoring. He was handsome in a movie-star way, and he wore no wedding band.

“
I see Skye’s got the anchor desk,” Zack remarked. “I know he’s happy about that, even if it’s only because the regular guy’s on vacation.”

“
You know him?”

“
We got kind of tight after we showed up at some of the same functions. About a year ago he was engaged to Austin’s old girlfriend.” He chuckled. “Lucky for him he came to his senses and called it off.”

“
What happened?”

“
He just realized how superficial his intended could be. She would have made him miserable. She would have made Austin miserable, too, or any man. She’s just that type of woman.”

“
What happened to her?”

“
I think she moved to Atlanta. She’s big on image, and hers was ruined when Skye dumped her.”

“
Too bad, but from what you say she had it coming.”

“
That she did.”

When the sports segment came on she went to clean the kitchen.
By the time she finished, Zack was ready to go.

They went to the gourmet supermarket, at Zack
’s insistence. As soon as they arrived he got behind the wheel of an electronic scooter with a built-in wire basket in front, zooming off with a jaunty wave in her direction. Vivian tried to catch up, but he moved too quickly. She walked past each aisle, looking for him and occasionally calling, “Zack?”

She found him by the butcher block, ordering steaks.
“There you are. I was looking all over the store for you.”

“
Sorry about that. This thing really moves. They ought to reduce the speed. A lot of older people use these things, and in the wrong hands it can really be dangerous.”

“
Are you all right, sir?”

Zack nodded to the teenager who wore a polo shirt with the store
’s name and logo sewn over the left breast.

“
Please be careful. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

She looked at Zack, not understanding.
“What was that all about?”

“
Oh, nothing. I had a little mishap. No big deal.”

She watched the employee walk past several aisles, eventually joining a few of his coworkers who were picking up rolls of paper towels from the floor, restacking them in a pyramid-style arrangement at the end of the aisle.
“Was your little mishap running into that display?”