Libby
35
Some stray pieces of foil-wrapped hard candies elude me under the table in the middle of the conference/break room. Finally, I give up trying to be graceful about it and crawl under there to retrieve them. I guess I could leave all this for Talia to clean up on Monday, her first solo day as the office’s admin, but it would seriously piss me off if someone did that to me. Plus, I have nothing better to do while I wait for Jude to finish up his latest phone call with Gary (I swear the man has a crush on my boyfriend). And the candy’s under here—along with a few scattered scraps of confetti—because of my going away party, so it’s only fair that I clean it up.
“Now that’s an enticing sight,” Jude says, his voice dangerously close to my raised rear end.
“Get away!” I screech laughingly after bumping my head and trying to pull my skirt further over my butt.
Instead of honoring my request, he moves in closer, laughing and poking his finger past my hand. “I see London, I see France…”
I kick back with one foot, almost catching him in the face with one of my stilettos.
“Oi! Oi!” he cries, but he crawls out backwards and sits on his heels.
I scramble through to the other side of the table, candy and confetti in hand, and pop to my feet. “You’re a pervert,” I accuse playfully, pitching one of the candies at his head.
He ducks, and it misses him by a long shot. “And you’re abusive! Elizabeth.”
“No hanky-panky in the office,” I remind him sternly, ignoring his pointed use of my real name, which he’s been obsessed with since seeing it on my passport when he finally snuck it out of my purse to get a peek at it. Hearing him call me the name no one has called me since my parents were killed actually bothers me a lot less than I’d thought it would. It almost sounds… right.
“But it’s your last day. And everyone else is long gone.” He stands and walks around the table, grabbing me around the waist before I can move out of his reach. “What would it hurt? Just a little slap and tickle. So we could say that we did.”
As he kisses my neck, I close my eyes, but I say weakly, “No… especially not in here. All it would take is for someone to dial into the videoconference, and it’d be instant porn in the Chicago office.” But I don’t push him away.
He freezes but keeps his lips pressed against my neck. “Hmm. Right.” Loosening his grip, he straightens and pats my butt. “Well, I s’pose I enjoy receiving a paycheck, so that won’t do.”
“Exactly.” I turn to face him, tapping the tip of his nose with my finger. “Thanks for my party. The piñata was a nice touch. Until Marvin crushed it to smithereens.”
“Yes, well, we encourage his youthful exuberance. Keeps us all on our toes.” Surreptitiously, he glances at the clock on the wall over my shoulder. “Speaking of your last day, I have a leaving present for you.”
My heart skips. “Oh? How fun!” I turn to lead the way to his office, where I assume the present is waiting, but he grabs my hand.
“Actually, it’s in here.” He reaches for and snatches the videoconference remote, punching in the numbers for the system in Chicago.
“Aw!” I groan. “I thought we were done with work!”
Before hitting the green button to connect the call, he raises an eyebrow at me. “You’ll like this; trust me.” He perches on the edge of the table and presses the button. After a few beeps, the videoconference room in Chicago appears before us, revealing Zoe and Lisa, sitting at the end of the conference table closest to the camera.
Lisa shouts, “Hey! There they are. Finally! We’ve been waiting for you for ten minutes!”
“Apologies,” Jude says, sounding completely unapologetic. “Lost track of time here.”
“I’ll bet,” Lisa replies knowingly. “I wonder what we would have seen or heard if we had called you instead of waiting here patiently.”
Zoe waves her hand frantically. “Hi! Happy last day!”
“Hey, guys!” I bounce a little with excitement. “Oh, my gosh! It’s so good to see you!”
“I told you,” Jude mutters under his breath, then grins at me.
Lisa and I both try to talk at the same time, then stop and simultaneously say, “Oh, go ahead,” and laugh.
“This delay is the pits,” Lisa gripes. “Anyway, what I was going to say was, we didn’t want to miss your real last day. How’d it go? Talia sounds nice so far. But she has a big bra—I mean, big shoes to fill.”
This is high praise from Lisa, but I try not to get too serious or I know I’ll get choked up. “Yeah, yeah. I’m awesome. But she’ll do. My last day was a lot of fun. We had a big party.”
Zoe pipes up, “When do you start touring the rest of the U.K.?”
“Monday, bright and early.” I glance at Jude, who’s looking down at his leg, which is swinging casually from his perch on the edge of the table. “But we’re not talking about that in front of Jude.”
“You’ll be fine, you big baby,” Lisa cajoles. “Honestly. Men!”
“What about your cat?” Zoe asks, getting back to business. It feels like she has a mental list of questions she needs me to answer. I’m surprised she doesn’t have a notebook in front of her.
Amused, I answer, “Sandberg and Jude are going to be swinging bachelors for two weeks while I’m gone.”
Lisa gapes at the camera. “You trust him with your beloved cat?”
“Absolutely!”
“I’m more than capable, thank you,” he defends himself.
“I think I have to worry more about what Sandberg might do to Jude than the other way around. Lying on his face in the middle of the night, tripping him on the stairs… there are all kinds of ways Sandberg could
