After my meeting though, Emily showed actual remorse for her outburst and offered to take me to lunch so we could discuss matters a bit more openly than we could in our little office. It was a welcome excursion. The majority of the morning had been spent brainstorming on how the team should proceed next. Theo and Jean were given new ideas for social marketing, including a giveaway for a pair of tickets, while Dennis, Ryan, and Cynthia were to go through what networks we had and identify people of interest to target for ticket sales. As for me, I was going to be working alone on our last big push — a fancy dinner to convince the wealthy and influential members of our city to not just buy tickets, but to invest in the charity.

Well, I wouldn't be working completely alone.

Despite his assertion that he would be putting more effort into working with the gala team, since they had far more work to do with the event drawing so close, he insisted that I'd need his help with the dinner. It would be an evening filled with very powerful people and considering his position, he was a lot more familiar with those circles than I was. However, I couldn't help but wonder if he was making an excuse to be around me more. Or maybe he just didn't want to work with Colin — undoubtedly Colin would prefer to go without his help as well so he could demonstrate his abilities and earn favor with Tamara now that he was serving as her pawn.

I didn't know what was even going on anymore. We were so far off course with my plans that I didn't even know what to expect from one day to the next. It was all very tiring. I needed a breather and lunch out with Emily seemed like the best way to find some peace.

"I still think something's off about this charity," she said as she swept garlic bread crumbs from her lap. "Yeah sure, there's an office and supposedly people work there, but..."

"Can we just not right now?" I asked as I swallowed down a bite of my panini. "Can we talk about something else? I think we should just let it go." Emily sighed and pushed her pasta around with her fork. After a few seconds, a groan rolled through my chest and I unwillingly put my sandwich down so I could massage my forehead with my hand. "What do you mean by supposedly?"

"I mean," she said, placing her fork down and continuing on with a conspiratorial smirk, "I've visited there a few times and sometimes there are people there, sometimes there isn't. I think that's suspicious."

"What can we really prove though? I mean they're new and it's probably run completely by volunteers. Isn't it reasonable that their office isn't staffed regularly."

"I suppose."

I gave her a shrug and returned to my panini. She also resumed her slow progress on her pasta, but again she only pushed the noodles around instead of eating them.

"What about Carmen?"

"What about her?" I asked, groaning as I put my lunch back down.

"The promotion was unwarranted and it's a strange move."

"We don't work in her department nor do we speak to her regularly enough to know what else was going on. We can't make assumptions."

"Why are you so quick to shut this down? You seemed just as concerned as I am..."

"I just..." I threw my hands up and looked to the little Italian cafe's painted ceiling consisting of faux arches laced with grape vines. "I just have a lot going on right now. Out of everything, worrying about whether or not my company is wielding a charity for evil is not high in priority."

"Sorry," she mumbled, "I know you have a lot on your plate. How was the meeting this morning?"

I sighed and looked back to Emily. "It went well. Alec and I are going to be working on a dinner to reel in some fat checks. Who knows where those checks will be going, but I'll get a free meal out of it."

"So you won't be working on it with the other members of your team? Isn't he supposed to be working with Colin now?"

"No, the team is handling the general public. And yes, he insists he can do both."

"And you'll be okay working with Alec on this?"

"I'm going to have to be."

The conversation ended there and we both enjoyed the remainder of our lunch in silence. Afterward Emily headed out to do some foot work and I returned to the office. As I rode the elevator up, I resolved to bury myself as deep as I could in work. It would be easy to keep our relationship at the proper boss/employee level if I only kept my eyes on the task at hand. Because if I didn't burden myself with all I could then things might get quiet and it was in the quiet that my mind would wander and my memory would conjure up the pressure of his lips against mine. Neither of us needed that.

"Hey, you're back from lunch!"

It took me a minute to realize the words were directed at me since I had just stepped off the elevator. Theo gave me an eager wave, so eager that I thought he may have some how gotten me confused with Emily. However, he was sitting with the rest of the team as they had lunch and I found Jean just as pleased as he was with my arrival.

"Yeah, what's up?" I asked, walking over to the sofas they had commandeered.

"Don't worry nothing work related," chimed in Jean. "Just Theo and I were trying to convince the rest of the team that we deserve a night out."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I mean, you've got that dinner next week, but we're really starting to wrap up here," said Theo. "So we thought we all should go have drinks Friday night to celebrate."

"Drinks?" I said, now understanding why Theo had been so enthusiastic to see me. With Theo being at the spry young age of twenty-two and Jean being not much older at twenty-six, perhaps a night out hitting the bars was an appealing activity to them. Admittedly, I may not have considered myself the most youthful at the age of twenty-eight, but compared to much of our department and especially the remainder of our team, I was still a child. So I could understand why they might have thought I'd be an ally in this endeavor. However, I took care of my drinking days in the first half of my twenties and I wasn't particularly looking for a chance to go back to that.

Still, I glanced over at Ryan, Cynthia, and Dennis, and I could tell that our older members might have been looking for a straw to break the camel's back. Ryan and Cynthia had older kids and just needed someone to push them hard enough to feel all right about going, even though they actually did want to drown themselves in a bottle of whiskey. As for Dennis, he was actually only a few years older than myself. However, he had just recently started a family and he'd aged quite a bit in those first few months of parenthood. He, out of all of us, could use a drink the most.

"Yeah, nothing fancy," said Jean. "Just a bar that my boyfriend and I often go to. Is a pretty chill place, nothing loud or obnoxious."

"I mean, I guess that's not a terrible..."

"All right so Lex is behind it," said Theo, who turned back to face the other three. "That's an even split."

"We could get Radcliffe to break the tie," offered Dennis.

"You...you were thinking of inviting him?" I asked, my lips fumbling upon the words as I failed to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Well, since he's our boss, we weren't sure," continued Dennis. "But, we thought we should at least ask since he's been an honorary team member over the past couple of weeks." He looked over at Alec's office, where our department head sat scrolling through notes on his tablet. Alec had a pen clamped between his teeth which he nibbled on. There was no paper on his desk, the pen had no use, but he still had it there to twirl and click. I had to place a hand over my mouth to cover the little smile tickling my lips.

"It will be fine," said Cynthia who rose up to throw her lunch out. "To not invite him would be rude, let him figure out if it's okay for him to attend or not."

"Does that mean, you'll be there?" asked Jean.

"Yeah, I'll be there."

"I guess I will go too," said Ryan. "The wife's been telling me to get out more."

"I...I can't," said Dennis with a sigh.

"Don't worry, we get it," said Ryan as he placed a reassuring hand on the bleary-eyed Dennis's shoulder. "Just try to get some rest this weekend, huh?"

"It's only Monday," he mumbled in reply.

"It's only Monday," I repeated as I headed back to my office.

***

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