“Yes, I saw them yesterday when I went out to stretch my legs. Thank you.” Kylie watched LJ walk back to her office, then stood, picked up her bag and drink, and headed out the door. Perhaps the other museum employees could give her some insight about her boss.
†
When Kylie came to the picnic table, a short, round woman said, “Well hello there.” A woman with bleached hair who looked to be in her sixties was sitting next to her. “I’m Marie Wilkerson, and this is Corrine Barber. Marcus Dunleavy should be joining us soon.” Marie smiled warmly. “Take a seat. You must be Dr. Evans’s new worker bee.”
Kylie sat down. “I’m Kylie Wilcox, and yes, I work for Dr. Evans. How did you know?”
“Bless you,” Corrine said. “She’s had so many people come and go over the years that I’ve lost count. Nothing gets by us oldies.” She grinned. “Besides, we all received an email along with your photo saying you’d been hired. Poor Sally Johnson who worked for her last year would go home every single day crying. She finally had enough and quit. I’m glad because I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown.”
Why is she telling me this?
Kylie looked at the two women and frowned.
“The woman is a heartless bitch at the best of times,” Corrine added.
A tall, dark-haired man sat down next to Marie and smiled at Kylie. “Hi, I’m Marcus Dunleavy. You must be the new assistant in archaeology.”
Kylie smiled. “Yes.” She held out her hand. “Kylie Wilcox.”
“Pleased to meet you,” he said, shaking it. “I bet you’re all talking about the resident witch.”
Everyone but Kylie laughed.
“Do you all remember Jack Tremble? He was a really nice guy, but that woman managed to run him off in less than two months,” Marcus said.
“I heard she hates everyone and goes around at night changing displays to her liking.” A small, younger man slid into the seat next to Marcus. “Hi, I’m James O’Malley. I hope you have a thick skin.”
Kylie took a bite of her sandwich that LJ had ordered and paid for. What these people were saying about her boss didn’t compute with what she’d seen so far. Although LJ did come across as cold and had behaved inappropriately during Kylie’s interview, she certainly wasn’t heartless or dispassionate.
That certainly isn’t a dispassionate bitch.
After listening to other museum gossip for about five more minutes, Kylie rewrapped the rest of the sandwich she’d taken a bite out of and put it back into the bag with her salad. “It was nice meeting you all. I need to get back to work.”
“She won’t give you more than fifteen minutes for lunch? You’re supposed to get at least a half an hour.” Corrine frowned and looked at her with expectant eyes.
“I get forty-five minutes, but my work is so interesting I’m anxious to get back to it.” Kylie turned to leave.
“She’ll take advantage of you if you don’t take all the time you’re allotted,” Marcus said.
“Don’t worry. I can take care of myself.” Marcus made an additional comment that Kylie didn’t hear as she entered the building. She decided that she’d listened to all the horror stories about her boss she cared to hear. One day was enough to solidify her decision to take lunch inside by herself from then on. From her limited knowledge of LJ Evans, Kylie knew the doctor would never allow any of those people to get close to her, and she resolved to break the mold and get to know who her boss was.
“I can’t believe that those people spoke about her that way,” she muttered to herself. “Who do they think they are? They don’t even know her. Jerks!”
After eight days, Kylie had fallen into a suitable work routine that was not only satisfying but interesting beyond her wildest expectations. Her interaction with Dr. Evans was practically nonexistent. When she brought Kylie’s lunch to her, Dr. Evans would occasionally take the opportunity to give her some information about the particular object she was working on at the time. Other than that, LJ’s usual cool and distant personality stopped Kylie from trying to speak with her.
She recalled trying to engage LJ in conversation the day after eating outside with the other employees. As always, she was friendly and respectful when she asked where LJ had gone to school. LJ only shook her head before turning and walking away. After that, Kylie kept her replies to yes, no, and okay, keeping her focus on her job and not her boss. She finally accepted that LJ Evans was never going to be anything more than what she was—tight-lipped.
It was now Friday, and the week had gone by quickly now Kylie had found a rhythm to her work. While waiting to hear the familiar footsteps enter the room, she thought about the upcoming evening with her friends. While she was married, her friends had often asked her to go on a girls-only night out, but Ted always came up with a reason for her not to join them. Now that he was gone, she realized how much she’d given up, and the irritation she should have felt back then bubbled up now. “What a fool I was,” she mumbled.
“What did you say?”
Kylie looked up to see LJ’s blue eyes gazing at her in question. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Obviously.” LJ sat the now-familiar lunch sack on a stool before walking around the table. “Any problems?”
“Everything today seems straightforward.”
LJ picked up one of the artifacts and inspected it. “I see you made some progress.”
“I did. As you can see, that piece”—she pointed to on the one in LJ’s hand—“is a vase. It was so exciting when I put the last piece in place and found that it was all there. Does that happen often?”
“It depends on the site and whether it was looted or the elements and time took a toll. I remember one place where everything we found was in pristine condition.” LJ shrugged. “That is the exception rather than the rule.”
“That must have been so exciting for you.”
LJ bent slightly to look at the pottery. “There’s that glyph again.”
“Is it significant?”
“To the Wari’ it was. It is the
Staff Deity, a god associated with the sun, which they worshiped.
This one is holding a staff in each hand, which is normal for this figure. What isn’t normal is the sun above the image. The ones we’ve found have a sun around their heads.
” She raised her eyebrows. “I’ve never seen it depicted like that before.”
Kylie smiled at her.
This was the first time LJ had had a meaningful conversation with her. “That is incredibly interesting. Should I expect to find
the Staff Deity
again?”
“Yes. They used it on their pottery and textiles.”
Kylie moved so she was standing next to her boss.
LJ straightened, took a step away, and
nodded. “Enjoy your lunch.”
Kylie could hear
the warmth in her voice but it became
cold indifference before LJ turned and left her without so much as a
see you later
. Every time she thought the doctor was thawing, LJ seemed to close down and walk away. Kylie shrugged and pulled the sandwich out of the bag. In a little over four hours, she’d be heading home to get ready for the night out with her friends.
†
LJ closed the door behind her when she entered her office. She needed to create a barrier between herself and Kylie Wilcox. Over the last week, she would often find herself standing in the doorway of the workroom watching Kylie concentrating intently on what she was doing, apparently unaware that someone was watching her. Each day lunch would arrive and her stomach would do a flip at the thought of taking the bag to Kylie. It was becoming harder to keep her distance and not interact more. Often she’d find her mind wandering to the workroom and the woman there and would have to squelch the feelings the image evoked.
“Why did she have to stand next to me?” she asked the empty room. Kylie’s perfume was intoxicating, and whenever LJ smelled it, she became lost in pure desire. Her body’s reactions to the woman were unacceptable, and her efforts to control them weren’t working. She was unnerved by how easy it would have been to sit and talk with Kylie all afternoon about the Wari’ tribe. Instead, she’d made a hasty retreat, but not before seeing the look of confusion on Kylie’s face.
She felt a pang of guilt about inflicting that kind of emotion on Kylie. When she’d realized after working with Kylie for two days that she was attracted to her, LJ’s first inclination was to fire her. But if she let her go, she would need to give Rob a plausible explanation, particularly because she had no actual complaint about Kylie’s work.
“I need to take myself out of the equation,” she reasoned. “The only problem with that is I need to work with her and teach her.” It was a no-win situation. LJ had gone through enough assistants to know what a find Kylie Wilcox was as an employee. She had no choice. Somehow, she would have to control her ever-increasing attraction to the woman.
She looked at the clock. If she resisted going back into the workroom for another four hours, Kylie would be gone.
The afternoon flew by. Before she knew it, LJ heard, as she did every afternoon, her new assistant scurrying down the corridor on her way out of the building.
LJ was restless. “I need to get laid,” she muttered. “That’ll do the trick.”
†
Kylie hurried home so she could get ready to go to the Rusty Nail with her friends. She’d already arranged for her parents to pick up Ryan from school and keep her overnight, and Ryan was excited about spending time with them. Ryan could always count on her grandmother baking chocolate chip cookies and her granddad setting aside time for a playdate. Kylie, meanwhile, could count on her doting parents letting their granddaughter get away with things her mother would never allow.
After putting the finishing touches on her makeup, she looked in the mirror and smiled. She was happy to go out with her friends, especially since she’d always had to find an excuse not to spend time with them when Ted was alive and her new job had renewed her sense of self-worth and given her a purpose outside of what had become her comfort zone. She reveled in this newfound freedom in spite of the enigma of LJ Evans.
Kylie had to admit working for the woman wasn’t a bad thing. She was puzzled to find something about LJ compelling in a way no one had ever interested her before. For all of her adult life she made plans and rarely veered off the course she had set. Now she found herself wanting more than to do her job and go home. She wanted to get to know LJ Evans, and that did not fit in with her neatly constructed plans for her and Ryan’s life. Her mind wandered back to the dinner she’d had with Rob and his wife several nights earlier.
“How do you like the job so far?” Rob had asked her.
“I like it very much.”
“And, Dr. Evans…is she treating you okay?”
Kylie saw Rob’s concerned look and nodded. “Yes, she does. Tell me about her. She seems awfully young to be the museum’s chief research archaeologist.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s brilliant, and like most very intelligent people, she’s a bit quirky.”
Kylie laughed. “She is at that. What’s her background?”
Rob shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “My position at the museum demands that I not gossip about the employees. I will tell you that she’s a very private person, and I doubt you will ever get her to open up.”
“I wasn’t gossiping, I just wanted to know more about her.”
“I know.” Rob patted her hand before handing her a glass of wine. “If you want to find out more, why don’t you look her up on the Internet?”
Kylie snorted. “I already did that and found very little. I would have thought there’d be more, given what a high-profile job she has.”
“Some people just don’t want to share their lives that way.”
Kylie looked in the mirror one last time. “I’ve wasted enough time trying to figure her out. She obviously wants anonymity. So be it.”
The phone rang, and she hurried to answer it.
“Hello. Kylie, am I interrupting?” her mother asked.
“Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, dear. I just wanted you to know we picked Ryan up, and she convinced her granddad that we needed to have dinner out.”
“Don’t tell me. You’re at Sonic and she’s having chicken strips and tater tots.”
“Exactly. She’s even talked your dad into a getting her a chocolate milkshake.”
Kylie laughed. “I guess junk food once in a while is okay.”
“You don’t mind?”
“No, not at all. She loves being with you guys.”
“Have a great time tonight. You deserve it.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good-bye.”
“Bye.” Kylie ended the call and smiled. She stepped into the garage, pressed the door opener, and got into her car. “Tonight is going to be fun.”
†
Lynne, Jodie, and Kylie went to The Rusty Nail Dancehall, which had been one of their favorite haunts during their years at the university. Entering the place was like going back in time—swinging saloon doors opened to a room with a twenty-foot mahogany bar complete with brass rail, spittoons, and a large mirror with a tantalizing nude painted on it. A dozen tables surrounded by chairs filled the room. Another archway led to the dancehall, which had numerous long tables and benches in the middle with others lining the side of the room. There was a large stage at one end with a dance floor in front of it. In another section against the far wall were two pool tables. The band, a group called Cassie and the Cassettes, was setting up against the wall on the other side of the bar. A section cut out of that wall allowed the bartenders to pass drinks through to the dancehall for the waitresses to pick up.
Lynne returned from a trip the bar and placed three bottles of beer on the table. “Wow, this is great. It’s just like old times, isn’t it?”
“Know anything about the band that’s playing tonight, Lynne?” Jodie asked.
“I heard them play when Tim and I came here a few months ago. They have a decent sound, and the lead singer can really belt out a song. I think they’re probably regulars.” Lynne laughed. “Guess you will find out for yourselves soon enough.” She nodded toward the area where the band was going through a sound check.
Kylie’s heart hummed with excitement. “This place hasn’t changed at all since I was here seven years ago.” She grinned. “I can’t remember the last time I went out just for fun. With Ted, it was always about being where everyone would see him, and he wanted to rub elbows with all the right people. This”—she waved around the room—“is my kind of fun. I love it, and it still looks like a great place to people-watch.”
“I’m glad you decided to come with us, and you’re right about people-watching. See that guy over there?” Lynne pointed to a man who was about six feet tall with brown hair that was obviously a toupee. He was dressed in jeans and t-shirt and had a bulging beer belly. “I’ve seen him here before. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women and hits on them all the time. Never gets lucky though.” Kylie and Jodie laughed, and Lynne joined them.
“Look at that guy over there; now he’s a hunk. Want me to see if we can fix you up, Kylie?” Jodie asked.
Lightly slapping Jodie, Kylie shrieked, “
Noooo
,” before laughing again.
“How is the job going? Do you like it, Kyl?” Lynne gently touched her hand.
“I love it. It’s so interesting….” She pensively stared off into the distance.
“What’s the matter?” Lynne asked. “That look tells me you’re regretting something. Do you think you made a mistake taking on a job?”
Kylie looked into Lynne’s eyes. “No. Not a mistake. I just can’t figure my boss out. But I will. You know me. I can always charm them in the end.” She smiled, then gave her friend a quick hug.
“Hey, guys, look over there at the table near the door. Every time I’ve been here, I’ve seen that woman sitting in the exact same place. She usually drinks a few beers and then leaves. Oh, look, the stud man is going to try his luck with her.” Jodie was laughing again.
Kylie looked at the man, who was straightening his back and attempting to suck in his beer belly. She watched as he walked in the direction of the doorway, and when she saw the woman he was heading toward, her jaw dropped in surprise. LJ Evans was sitting at the table. When the man approached her, Kylie could tell by the way she was acting that his advances annoyed her—she’d seen the look before. She watched in fascination as LJ’s cool exterior turned to ice as she rebuffed him.
“You go, girl!” exclaimed a laughing Jodie. “Looks like Stud Man lost again. I can’t believe he actually thought someone like her would have anything to do with him.”