A crack popped through Cassidy’s spine as she twisted in the chair in her hotel room, and she let out a long and relieved, “Aaaahhh.” It’d been all day in hard seats, followed by an evening hunched over her laptop, eating Twizzlers and caramel M&M’s for dinner. The pop in her back was the only source of happiness for her then; the breakthrough she thought she’d had in the “Where’s all the money?” case was a dead end. Turned out all the bills that had been sent out to the insurance companies were mailed about three months too late—and she had a real good idea who was at fault with that one—and now those deliveries were going to be a headache and a half to get payments for.
But that wasn’t the biggest issue. A foreign code stared at her from her screen—one that as far as she could tell wasn’t in any of the system books or coding classes. And the sucker appeared almost in every major billable procedure. C-section, deliveries, D&Cs, ultrasounds… the list went on.
The most confusing part was the code was always logged in under her name, and Cassidy hadn’t used it in her life.
She rubbed her eyes and slammed her forehead on the table with a thud. Julie shuffled from her bed on the other side of the room.
“You okay?”
“Advil.”
“I have extra strength Tylenol.” Julie scooted across the bed and picked up the drink menu. “Or, if you prefer, access to booze.”
A hangover during another day of classes was the last thing she needed. Though, today’s classes weren’t so bad… not with Jon in most of them. She ran a finger over the stain on her hand from all the comic practice she got earlier. Jon had gotten a kick out of Sexy Stan, her sexual harassment super hero she’d created an entire backstory for in their first class. His story evolved throughout the day, and Cassidy grinned to herself over the small, accidental brushes of his arm against hers, how he chose to sit next to her during breakfast, classes, and lunch. She’d also relived the maze in her daydreams, all good things, not the scary stuff as per usual.
“The Tylenol will do.” Cassidy flipped her laptop shut and called it a night. Losing her job over the weird code wasn’t the worst thing crossing her mind; turned out this was a theft in a grand scale, going unnoticed over several years. The hammer having a party against her skull was all about how to avoid going to prison.
“Feel like telling me something good?” Cassidy practically begged as she took the Tylenol from Julie’s outstretched hand. “I’ll be dreaming in code all night long.”
Julie laughed through a yawn, stretching and scratching her mess of black curls. She took off her millions of rings—one on each knuckle—and set them in a Ziploc next to her bed. “You want to talk about the elephant in the room?”
“What? Where?” Cassidy teased with little luster, pretending to look for the animal. Julie rolled her eyes and grabbed some lotion.
“A certain doctor, maybe? One you’ve been flirting with all week.”
Cassidy tried to look shocked. What audacity! But she could hardly deny the attention she’d been giving Jon over the course of the week. Come on, the guy looked like a freakin’ super hero, and he delivered babies. Boss? Yes. Westley? No. Probably not. Most likely not.
She tried to laugh it off. “I’m just being friendly. The whole office teases and… I guess flirts with each other.”
“Some more than others,” Julie bit out, mostly to herself, but Cassidy’s hearing was excellent for how late it was.
She pursed her lips; the worst part about working in an office of mostly women was the gossip train; how she hated it and wished it didn’t happen, but there were those few who fed into the drama. Julie wasn’t the worst offender, but she was the hub of the rumor mill, being at reception and dealing with every department. Cassidy was already dealing with the gossip of her dating around. She didn’t want to deal with the whole “seduce the boss” drama, too.
Cassidy sucked in a huge breath through her nostrils, hoping to clear the sinuses so her voice didn’t sound as hurt as she felt. “Gotta make a call,” she said, picking up her phone.
“Hey, I’m not trying to be mean. Just saying… Dr. Bateman is a doc. There haven’t been any rules about interoffice relationships between docs and staff, but it’s probably not the best idea. People aren’t going to be happy; they’ll talk and spread shit around. I’m throwing it out there so you’re careful.”
Cassidy tugged on her pajama top. “Okay.”
Julie put her lotion down and stuffed her feet into the bed. “Night, Cass.”
Cassidy never really minded that nickname, but she found that she was slowly preferring Marvel Girl. “Night.”
She ducked out into the hall, letting the door click closed harder than she would’ve if she wasn’t so ticked off at her roommate. If Jon had been serious about the offer, she’d be messaging him right now so she could spend some time with Paul Rudd in a suite made for a queen.
Her back was in need for a stretch, so she walked up and down the hallway, flicking through her contacts on her phone and debating on whether or not to text Shellie about the code. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to think about right now. And though she shouldn’t be concerned about office gossip, she was. Her reputation had been pretty much non-existent before the Halloween party, and now…
She stopped at Steven’s name and hit the message icon. Was I a flirt in high school? She sent it off without thinking about it, knowing Steven wouldn’t ask why the question came out of nowhere or why she was asking it. They’d been in and out of conversations since the night she’d asked him to frisk her apartment. It was starting to feel like old times, for sure. Without the whole love thing, of course.
Ha! I think you were too much of a geek to be a flirt. But I liked that ;)
Wasn’t that the truth. Cassidy spent too much time arguing over whether Marvel or DC was better instead of batting her eyes. She did that to win over Steven in the first place. He said her nerdiness was what he liked about her, and she liked that he liked it.
Now she was drawing comics and tossing notes. Jon seemed to like that about her.
Crap. She was totally flirting.
Her phone vibrated, and she glanced at Steven’s text. Your mom keeps texting me. She says to call.
Cassidy wrinkled her nose, thoughts of the last encounter with her mom still fresh in her mind. Why?
Thanksgiving plans.
Ever the prepared person, her mom. Halloween was in a week, but she was ready for Thanksgiving. Her mom always planned Fourth of July in April, too. Cassidy flicked to her mom’s name, took a preparatory breath, and called.
“I knew you’d listen to Steven,” her mom said without a hello. “I text you a thousand times with no response—”
“I haven’t gotten a message from you, Mom.”
“Well, I meant to. Thanksgiving. You coming this year?”
Cassidy stopped at the end of the hall and randomly pushed the buttons on one of the soda machines. “Is Dad?”
“He hasn’t told me yet.”
“Then maybe.”
She huffed. “I’m putting you down for a yes… with a date.”
“And who would that be?”
“That man you’re in love with that you won’t admit.”
Cassidy groaned, and a thud landed in the bottom of the soda machine. Wow, a free Dr. Pepper. Something can go right tonight.
“’Kay, Mom, I’ll let you know.”
“Always in a rush to get off the phone.”
“I’m at a conference in Olympia.”
“Oh, that’s right! Sorry, get some sleep, love ya, bye!”
Cassidy smirked at her phone, grateful for the distraction, even if it didn’t do anything to take her mind off of dating. At least she was now more focused on Westley. That’s what she should be thinking about anyway; not Jon, necessarily, but ruling him out as a suspect. She’d done that with nearly every other guy in the office. Why not him? She had to be thorough after all.
Her phone buzzed, startling her, and she expected her mom again, but it was Steven.
I’ll be your date, if you want.
There he went, being her knight. She didn’t need one, though. She didn’t want one. She wanted a pirate.
Or a doctor.
I’ll let you know. I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
Her heart pounded in her throat as she pulled her Facebook app up and hit Jon’s name. Okay… just texting the boss. She took a selfie with him the other day; this should be easy.
But her fingers shook, and she was sporting some lovely sweat stains now.
Hey! What kind of car do you drive?
It was random, but she was random, and she prayed he liked that, whether or not he was Westley.
Steven’s text popped up, and her heart frowned a little that it wasn’t the doc. You sure? I’m in town indefinitely now. Thought maybe we could hang out more. Get to know each other again.
She shook her full head, too tired to deal with this on top of the money issues and finding her Westley and falling for her boss. She swiped out of Steven’s texts and pulled up Jon’s message bubble.
The little dots showed up, and her feet bounced in tune with them, anticipation running hot and cold up and down her arms.
F-150. Seeing if I’m like every other doctor? BMW seemed a bit too obvious ;)
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to smile and enjoy the fact that he was writing back so late, that he was joking with her, but her heart sunk low in her belly, and she couldn’t find it in her. She knew it had been a long shot; he’d even said he wasn’t going to the party, and he was far too serious a guy to be the fun Westley she’d spent her night with, but it had truly felt like she’d found him for a while there.
She licked her lips and messaged back a lame excuse for her curiosity. Just looking for super mobile ideas for my next Sexy Stan comic.
Go with a Hummer.
A loud laugh burst from her gut automatically, and it felt good… before the wash of disappointment slipped over her again. After sending him a laughing GIF, she shut off her phone and drank her free Dr. Pepper, ready for that Tylenol to kick in.