The Pen Pal Who Turned Out to Be My New Boss novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: Collar
Dear Lark,
My best friend noticed I was in love before I did.
She says I hum, but I'm not a humming person.
Should I tell her the truth, or let her keep guessing?
Humming in Hartford
Dear Humming,
Tell her.
A friend who guessed right is waiting to be trusted with the rest.
Lark
Gordon did not stay in the glass office long.
Marguerite stood up from her desk very slowly, and every inch of her seemed to get taller.
"Mr. Rainsford," she said. "The reporting line is a policy I put in writing, for every staff member in the building. If you have a concern about it, you can put that in writing too."
"I'm only saying."
"You are saying it in my office with the door open and a junior editor present. That's a different thing."
Gordon looked from her to me and back.
"I'll be in my office," he said, and left.
We both stood there with our hands at our sides and let our breath out.
"He doesn't know," Marguerite said. "He guesses."
"That's worse."
"Yes."
She did not touch me, because the walls were glass.
I went back to my desk on legs that did not feel like mine.
On Tuesday morning, Robin put a cup of coffee on my desk and did not say good morning.
She looked at my collar.
She looked at it for a long time.
"Come with me," she said, and walked off toward the back of the floor.
Robin's darkroom was at the end of the hall behind a heavy black door.
Inside it was the size of a closet, with a red bulb, three shallow trays of chemicals and rows of prints pinned up to dry.
She locked the door behind us and pointed at my neck.
"That," she said, "is a smudge of plum lipstick on the inside of your collar, and there is one person on this floor who wears that color."
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