“That’s progress,” said a brunette named Lori, slicing a butternut squash ravioli neatly in half.
“Can we go after lawyers next?” Brennan-not-Brendan said, taking a sip of his cola.
“Easy, comrade,” Marco said. “My partner is a lawyer.”
“Where did you train, Jessica?” asked a serious, glasses-wearing Arjun between bites of a chicken parmesan sandwich.
“I went to med school at University of Arizona, Tucson,” she said.
“I thought you were from Minnesota,” said tiny, otherwise silent Janet.
“Jon said you did your residency at Mayo,” Arjun said.
“Yes, but in Phoenix,” Jessica clarified.
The simultaneous ohs and informed nods suggested they were disappointed she hadn’t come from the Minnesota campus. She resisted the urge to rattle off the various papers she’d coauthored, including a particularly noteworthy study about childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia—or name-drop anyone from the lab at Mayo where she’d done research.
An attractive woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and an obscured name tag had been tracking their conversation as she approached the table and sat down. “Jon announced he was creating the position, and the next thing we knew he was raving about you, the perfect candidate he’d found to fill it.”
“Isn’t she pretty?” whispered Philip loudly from Jessica’s left. He was an unusually tall, odd-looking man who could have been anywhere from thirty to fifty.
“Very,” Jessica whispered back, simultaneously weirded out by his unprofessional observation and bothered by how attractive the woman actually was.
“You’re just out of residency, right?” the woman continued.
As everyone quieted in anticipation of Jessica’s answer, she fought the impulse to blather out the details of her fortuitous meeting with the brilliant, disarmingly handsome Jonathan Wright III, MD, PhD. Instead, she focused on the advice she’d read: Lunch on your first day is a critical time to build relationships. Your past experience is not as relevant as you think it will be. “I was headed to an oncology fellowship at Duke, but nanotechnology is the future of medicine. It just made more sense to join this team and be part of history than to do anything else.”
The group nodded in agreement.
As the blonde woman’s badge popped into view, identifying her as Kate, Philip once again whispered into Jessica’s ear. “You’re pretty, too.”
“Thank you,” Jessica mumbled awkwardly.
“You have almost no wrinkles.”
I’m only thirty-four, she didn’t say, wondering how old Philip thought she was. “Good genes, I guess.”
“Philip is absolutely brilliant but definitely marches to his own beat,” Marco whispered from her right side. “We’ve got a few others like him. But don’t worry. You’ll get used to ignoring his intrusive questions and odd comments before you know it.”
Jessica made her way back to her new desk and was wondering what, exactly, had just happened when a text alert pinged.
Nice job navigating the lunch bunch.
Jessica couldn’t help but wonder who exactly was reporting on her to Jon. Marco? Kate?
Says who? she responded.
You’re a perfect fit.
I’m not sure that’s true.
Well, you have a point. I’m thinking of Philip here.
Why didn’t you tell me I was the first?
If I did, I’d be lying, now wouldn’t I?
Ha! Seriously. I’m the first director of medical monitoring and consulting?
Seriously you are brilliant, beautiful, and I knew from the moment we met that you and your big brain belonged at Cancura. Near me. With me.
You’re not even here.
Oh, but I am.
Meaning what?
Look in your bottom left desk drawer.
She tugged open the drawer. There was a long rectangular box inside with a bow on top.
Close the door to your office before you open it.
What’s inside?
Just do it.
She got up and quietly shut the door. She questioned the abundance of caution when she opened the lid of the box and saw a lab coat bearing the Cancura logo and JESSICA embroidered on the breast pocket.
When she lifted the jacket out of the box, however, a tissue-wrapped gift sealed with an Agent Provocateur sticker slid to the floor. She peered through the glass wall beside her door to make sure no one was nearby and tore open the paper to find a stunning, sexy white silk bodysuit with an intricate floral design—size 34C.
OMG! she typed back. I can’t believe you did that!
We have a very specific dress code for our first ever director of medical monitoring and consulting.
So I see.
Looking forward to seeing that myself!
Jessica hung the lab coat on the hook behind her door, wrapped the bodysuit in the tissue, and tucked it into the oversize leather tote the magazine article had deemed crucial for carting home the first-day paperwork and corporate swag.
She only wished there had been advice on how to manage first-day-on-the-job arousal due to unsolicited—but very welcome—advances from the boss.
Chapter Six
HOLLY
Hold your enemies close but romance your allies.
—“How I Lied about My Name and Discovered My Truth,” a TED Talk by Jon M. Wright
Holly acknowledged Theresa and Larry Yadao with a curt nod and a tight smile before taking her seat in the front row on the opposite side of the aisle in the Village Hall. She wished the attendees of this meeting of the zoning board of appeals would behave like guests at a wedding and choose sides based on who they were there for, because that would have made it so much easier to read the room. Still, despite being a relative newcomer to Barrington Hills—she’d lived there only fifteen years, unlike some of her second-generation neighbors—she felt confident that the recently arrived Yadaos were more like a groom whose out-of-town family couldn’t all be bothered to show up.
Fairly confident, anyway.
Truth was, this was a pivotal meeting for the bridle path extension behind Chez Yadao. One year ago, the equestrian commission had approved the proposal, and a few months later, the plan commission had also approved it and kicked it up to the board of trustees for a vote—which would have been a rubber stamp had not the Yadaos, recently closed on their home, suddenly taken an interest in village affairs and requested a delay until they could mount an appeal. Never mind that they should
