Neanderthal Seeks Human

“You keep sighing- I can hear you in my room.” Elizabeth came around the couch and flopped down next to me, stretching her arms over her head as she did so; “What happened with Jon?”

I shrugged and unthinkingly expelled another loud breath; “I emailed him. I don’t really want to talk to him right now.”

“You need a cell phone-”

“No. If I had a cell phone then I’d have to talk to him. Since I don’t have one I get to put that conversation off until I’m ready to have it.”

“Fair enough.” Elizabeth lifted her hands as though she surrendered, “I don’t want to talk about old soggy pants anyway.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes; Elizabeth started calling Jon soggy pants when he sat in a wet seat at a movie theater once, accidentally, and spent the whole movie with wet pants after confirming the liquid was soda.

“So...” Elizabeth wagged her eyebrows at me, “I have something for you.” She pulled a card out of seemingly thin air and squealed as she forced it into my hand, “Look! It’s Quinn’s card! He gave it to me last night before we left the club.”

I stared at it for a minute before I responded, “Oh. Are you going to call him?”

Elizabeth frowned at me then hit me on the arm, “What? No! You left the club so fast. He stopped me and asked me to give it to you.” She nudged me with her shoulder, “He wants you to call him. Ah! Janie and McHotpants, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g and f-u-c-”

“Wait-” I cut her off, “No, no- he gave you the card because he wants to help me find a job. He thinks there might be an opening with the security firms he works for.”

Elizabeth smirked, “Oh, reeeealy? That’s preposterous! What would give you that idea?”

I pulled an identical card from next to my laptop and handed it to Elizabeth; “Because he gave me one too; he wrote the name of a business manager on the back and told me to apply for a job.”

Elizabeth looked from one card to the other, briefly speechless, then demanded, “Wait- when did he give you this?”

“This morning.”

“When did you- ok, start from the beginning. What happened? When and where did you see Quinn this morning?”

I proceeded to tell her about going back to the club last night and everything that proceeded: the black out, the waking up in Quinn’s sister’s apartment with no clothes on, the fact that he’d wanted to be sure I knew he didn’t make a move on me, breakfast and the business card. Elizabeth listened- frowning in disapproval, surprise, or confusion mostly- and didn’t interrupt even when I knew she was anxious to get to the origin of my matching business card.

“So...” she contemplated me for a moment after I finished, “So did you pick up the test? To see if you were drugged?”

I shook my head, “No, I meant to but-” I sighed, let my head fall back to the couch, “When I got home I was so tired.”

“Oh! Thank God Quinn found you!” She squeezed my hand with hers, “Wait- did anything happen? How did he find you? When did he bring you home? Did anyone... are you ok? Did you go to a doctor?”

“Yes- I mean no.” I sighed again, “Yes, I am ok. No, nothing happened. No, I didn’t go to a doctor. I think Quinn found me before anything happened.”

“Oh.” She squeezed my hand harder then let go and rubbed her eyes, “This is a lot to process. I’m exhausted. I can’t believe you went back to the club. He obviously likes you- he was flirting with you. Why would he take you to his sister’s place? Who does that? And what was with the reserved seating at breakfast? Did this waitress woman really have a unibrow? I’m really glad you’re ok.”

I could tell she was tired because her usually well-ordered thoughts were bouncing all over the place. I smiled at her, “You need sleep, we can talk about it in the morning.” I pulled her up and she gave me another hug.

“I am glad you’re ok. Jon really scared me.” She released me from the hug and held my shoulders as she pinned me with her pale blue eyes, “If something happened to you who would help me finish the pitcher on mojito Mondays? Who would be my partner in Trivial Pursuit? Who would clean my bathroom?”

We both chuckled as I pushed her towards her room, “You did just fine cleaning your bathroom before I moved in.”

“No, I didn’t. I hadn’t cleaned it in several months before you moved in. I told everyone it was my bacteria wet-lab.” Elizabeth yawned, “Goodnight, Janie. I love you.”

“Goodnight, Elizabeth. I love you too.”

CHAPTER 7

Bing, bang, boom- I got a job.

To my surprise and, quite frankly, utter disbelief, I received a return email from Carlos Davies, the Director of Business Operations at Cypher Systems, Sunday morning followed by a rapid-fire series of events: Carlos responded to my message and requested that his secretary, also included on the email, arrange an appointment for Monday morning. His secretary, Olivia Merchant, responded Sunday afternoon requesting that I be at the office by 10AM.

Olivia also included in her email directions to the office, an informational packet on benefits, and instructions for my arrival. I immediately noted that Cypher Systems was located in the Fairbanks building, the same building as my previous job. I responded Sunday evening confirming my appointment for Monday at 10AM.

The benefits package sent by Olivia contained a salary offer for the position of ‘Senior Fiscal Project Coordinator’ which I read three times before I actually comprehended the number was real and not me misreading the placement of the decimal point in relation to the zeros. I tried to Google Cypher Systems but, other than a very slick, graphics heavy web page facade and an inquiry form for potential clients, the search results were unhelpful.

The lack of information available left me feeling pensive and unprepared for the interview. If they asked me why I was interested in the position I didn’t feel I could answer the question as I didn’t know anything about the company, other than that they provided security for the Fairbanks building and club Outrageous and the position apparently paid twice my previous annual salary.

Oh, and they hired supermodel security guards ala Quinn Sullivan.

Cypher Systems was located on the top floor of the Fairbanks building. The instructions given to me by Olivia indicated that I should check in with security on the lobby level and that I would be escorted to their offices.

It seemed one needed quite a lot of escorting experience in order to be a security guard for Cypher Systems.

My escort’s name tag defined him as “Dan” and he was shorter than me, especially as I was wearing sky blue silk stilettos. He appeared to be my age or a few years older, stocky, and thick necked with swirling tattoos just visible beneath the blue collar of his uniform. Dan gave me a plain once over as he walked me to an elevator and placed his palm against a glass screen. The screen retracted to reveal keypad. Dan then punched in a series of numbers and he said-

“You’re very big.”

I gave him a cursory smile, “Yes. I ate all my vegetables as a child.” This was my standard response when someone remarked on my size. For some reason it always irked me when people felt it necessary to draw attention to my height as though I wasn’t aware of my larger than average stature. I once responded: “Yes, and you’re very small.” but that didn’t go over very well, even though in that situation it was true.

Dan chuckled at my canned response and waved me in the elevator. I realized I’d never noticed this lift before. When we walked in I further noticed there was only one destination button. Dan was quiet the rest of the ride even though his eyes continued to move over me in unhidden appraisal and the corner of his mouth curved in a friendly, lopsided smile. I was also silent and had to half-yawn in order to pop my ears as we traveled upward.

The elevators opened to an impressive view of the city behind an all glass reception desk. The light was almost blinding; I swallowed nervously and smoothed my free hand down the h*ps of my beige tailored jacket and skirt as I stepped on to the landing. My other hand gripped the letter sized portfolio at my side which contained copies of my resume and letters of recommendation from college professors.

Dan didn’t leave the elevator but rather spoke from behind me, “Keira at the reception desk will take care of you.”

I turned to thank him but the doors had already closed. Straightening, I walked to the glass desk and paused before it. The woman, who I presumed to be Keira, was on a phone call.

She lifted her brown eyes to mine, raised a single finger, and said into her headset, “Just one moment, let me track him down for you.” then pressed a series of buttons on a very high-tech looking phone. The first thing I noticed about Keira was that her black hair was in such a tight bun it looked painful. It seemed to pull at the corners of her eyes and mouth, giving her the appearance of a perpetually smiling cat.

She turned a Cheshire grin on me and said, “May I assist you?”

“Uh, yes. I have an appointment with Carlos Davies.”

“Oh? An appointment? And what is your name?”

I swallowed again, my mouth was very dry, “I’m Janie Morris. I’m here for an interview.”