Office Play: Freaky Geek Series (18 page)

“Got something?” he asked, taking her by the elbow and walking more out of earshot and prying eyes.

“Not sure. I just watched a lady take an order from start to finish. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I think.”

She went over
from the beginning how the lady took the order. “No, nothing out of the ordinary. We write it down, put it in the computer and have them submit. It’s like triple checking the order.”

“Where is the final placement?”

“To our vendors.”

“Oh man. That could be a lot.”

Adam thought a moment. “Actually it isn’t. We deal with two office supply stores and five art supply stores, two electronic places and one rent a car. That’s where we get the company cars from.”

“Hmm, that’s not too bad. I can have their records audited. I need for Sam to authorize what dates to have looked into. That’s something I’m used to do from my mob audit days.” Jeanette smiled.

“I have to ask you about those. I’m sure you have some interesting stories.” Adam brushed his hair out of his eye. “I’m now curious about what Renee and Noah will find out.”

“Oh yeah, they’re putting there heads together for a late dinner.”

Adam smiled. Yes, they were brothers. Renee was just a beautiful as Jeanette. She wasn’t as statuesque and didn’t have the sexy maturity that Jeanette had, but she was still a looker. And if he knew his brother, he wouldn’t let that slip through his fingers without making a move.

He just hoped he did get knocked in the jaw. Renee was a private investigator, they can rough up some people.

“Is your brother anything like you?”

Jeanette’s question interrupted his thoughts. “No. He’s a gentleman.” He winked at her.

“Really.”

Jeanette went to walk off, but he grabbed her by the arm. “You have nothing to worry about. Noah is all business when he needs to be and he knows that she’s your cousin.”

“Good.”

“Now, now. Afraid they might hook up?”

“I just want to make sure Renee is not side tracked.”

Adam smiled to himself. No one was immune to the Strathmore brothers. Well, Jeanette seemed to be, but that could be taken care of if he got her to overcome her fears and concerns about an office romance.

“Not to worry, she’s in good hands.”

“Humph. That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Hey you two, my wife called and wants to go out tonight, want to come along?”

Adam turned and saw Kevin walking towards them. He gave him a wink.

“How nice, love to,” Adam quickly answered.

“But—”

“We’ll just leave straight from here and join you. Where is the place?” Adam asked, ignoring Jeanette tugging at his sweater sleeve.

“Just a little bistro about five blocks from here. It’s next to that puppet store.”

“Oh yeah, I know the one, we pass it coming here.”

“But—”

He wasn’t going to let Jeanette respond. “What time exactly?”

“Seven.”

“Perfect.” He watched Kevin as he left and returned his attention back to Jeanette. “That was nice of him.”

“This is no time to socialize.”

Think fast Adam.
“We won’t really be socializing. We can…pick their brains about things, maybe get a lead.”

He saw Jeanette thinking it over. She was not going to get out of this.

“Hmm, yeah. You’re right and he is head of the purchasing department.”

“See, I’m always thinking of the task at hand.”
Which is getting closer to you.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was close to the end of the day, and Jeanette didn’t find anything suspicious happening. She went back to the purchasing department. She waved at Kevin, who made it a point to get her attention.

She couldn’t believe that she and Adam had a double date. Well, at least it was somewhat business. However, she didn’t want to sit there eating at a nice bistro and trying to dig for information. That was just tacky.

But she would hint around, see what Kevin’s reaction would be. She kinda didn’t trust him, especially after flirting with her and he was a married man. But then again, that was the French, half of them didn’t mean anything by it.

Jeanette walked over to another cubicle when she heard an employee confirming another order. She listened intently, trying to see if anything was being ordered out of the ordinary or being shipped someplace other than their offices.

“That’s three sets of ink toner in fuchsia, cayan, yellow and black, one easel, ten two inch three ring binders, three packs of blue ink gel pens and five bags of rubber bands. Okay, email that and submit your form. Thanks.”

Nothing unusual there. Maybe they were on the wrong trail. After all, Adam even admitted that his software program had a glitch and making dummy numbers. Perhaps this Paris lead was one of those glitches.

As she got up, something caught her ear. It was another order coming it. It was on the other side of the employee that just got off the phone.

“Okay, five laptops, five multimedia deluxe software programs, connector cables, two fax machines with scanner. Okay make sure you email that to me and submit your form in the next thirty minutes if you want this by Wednesday, we’re about to leave. Great, thanks.”

This seemed significant. This was a lot of electronic goodies being ordered. She had to find out what office it was going to.

She walked over to the young man that placed the order. “Excuse me.”

He removed his headset and turned toward her. “Hello. Oh, you must be from the Los Angeles office. I’m Bryan, I was able to transfer from the Dallas office.”  He stood up and shook her hand.

It was funny hearing a Texas drawl in Paris. “Glad to meet you, I’m Jeanette Foster. Um…I couldn’t help over hearing that order. That was a lot of electronic equipment.”

“Oh yeah. That’s not unusual.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, a lot of times we have a lot of freelance artist come in, so we set up temporary workstations at the various offices.”

“Ahh.” Jeanette thought a moment. That made sense, but at the same time, it made it all to easy for stuff to get diverted. “So, where was that order going?”

“Uh…lets see.” He turned back to his computer and pulled up the last order. “Our Alaska office.”

Jeanette nodded. “Okay. Well, thanks.”

“No problem.”

Jeanette returned to the area she and Adam were assigned to. She was getting her stuff together to leave for the day. Or actually leave for dinner. Adam walked in a few moments later.

“So how was your amateur detective work?” He sat down at his desk and began getting his things together too.

“Okay, I guess.” She sighed. “I haven’t found anything out of the ordinary yet.”

“Hmm. Same here.”

“I was just thinking, you don’t suppose that the Paris thing is a glitch. That maybe it just looks like stuff is originating from here.”

Adam rubbed that strong chin of his. “I was thinking along the same lines. I’m really going to have to go back to the drawing board on this software program.”

“Well, let’s not give up hope yet, we still have to wait for updates from Renee and Noah.”

“Yeah, that makes me feel a little better.” Adam grabbed his briefcase and his cell. He then motioned for her. “Ready for dinner?”

As ready as I’ll every be, she thought.

Once at the bistro, Jeanette was finally able to relax—just a bit. Adam was sitting very close to her and not just close. He was leaning against her and had his right arm around her on the side.

She tried concentrating on the couple in front of her.

Kevin and his wife Deena made a cute couple. They seemed like they were still on their honeymoon. They laughed a lot and kissed a lot.

The French were really amorous people.

“I bet my husband flirted and followed you all over he office,” Deena said, jokingly. It took her back a bit.

“Uhh. Why would you say that?” Jeanette tried not to sound nervous. She reached for her glass of water and took two huge gulps.

“A beautiful woman like you would attract the attention of a lot of men and women.” She winked.

The French were
too
amorous, she mused to herself.

The conversation continued. She and Adam mostly listened to Deena and Kevin talk about how they met and the issues they where having finding the right kind of house.

“We both stayed in the States for a year, and I got so use to huge walk-in closets and gourmet kitchens,” Deena giggled. “As you now we don’t have that in abundance here especially with the old places.”

“Oh, yes, those are very hard to find anywhere in Europe,” Jeanette said. “Would you believe that’s one of the main reasons why I never decided to move here?”

She laughed with Deena.

“Wait! You mean to tell me that a walk-in closet is the main reason you won’t move to a place like Paris? Adam asked, turning to her, looking almost appalled.

“Have you seen my closet back home?”

“You tell him Jeanette. Guys just don’t get it,” Deena piped in.

After the main entrée arrived, they all dug in.

“So, are you two an item as they say?” Kevin asked pointing to the two of them with his fork.

Jeanette put another fork full of food in her mouth and chewed frantically.

Adam scooted even closer to her, almost pushing her into the wall.

“Well, let’s just say that we are close friends,” Adam said, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

“Ha, I have close friends.” Kevin smirked. He turned and looked straight at her. “You agree, no?”

“Umm….”

“Men don’t need women to be friends with, they need them to be lovers. That’s why things are so complicated in relationships. We don’t know what our role is with each other.” He continued.

Jeanette couldn’t believe she was hearing this. She looked over at Deena, who was nodding and eating her food not once looking up, just listening.

“Our role?” Jeanette asked, with a hint of cynicism in her voice.

“Oui.” Kevin said, then taking another bit of food.

“And you agree with this?” Jeanette directed the question to Deena.

Deena finished chewing her food, then wiped her mouth with a napkin and smiled. “You have to admit, it’s hard for two attractive people to remain platonic. One is bound to be curious. Aren’t you two curious?” She cocked her head.

Jeanette’s face heated up. She didn’t have to be curious any more, she already had him—twice.

Adam looked at her and winked. Jeanette buried her head in the salad.

“Oooh, looks like someone is a bit embarrassed,” Deena said chuckling.

“So you have thought about each other in a more intimate manner,” Kevin said.

“Look you guys, I understand where you coming from, but you have to remember, we work

together.” Jeanette protested.

“Ahh, but she’s a hired contractor,” Adam piped in.

Jeanette threw him a look. He was not helping. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Kevin was helping his cause.

“Oh, so you are not actually employed with us?” Deena smiled widely. “That means after your assignment is over, you two could take your relations to another level.”

Jeanette groaned.

***

Adam was pulling for the team here. Every time Jeanette threw up a wall, Kevin and Deena where right there to knock it down. Yay team!

He had to agree with Kevin, two attractive people working together, one a man the other a women and straight can’t possibly remain platonic for too long. The irony was, they both had buck wild sex—twice, and did a little something in the hotel last night. But he told himself he wouldn’t say anything about that, he didn’t want to put her business out there on the street. And he knew she wouldn’t want anyone to know that, especially since she was already skittish about people knowing they had interests in each other.

What he needed now was for Deena to put a bug in her ear and tell her to throw caution to the wind.

She and Jeanette seemed to hit it off, so maybe a little girl talk between the two will push Jeanette a little closer.

Just when he was about to comment on Deena’s last suggestion, his cell went off. It was Noah. He looked at his watch; it was eleven in the morning in Los Angeles. “Hello.”

“Hey bro, got a minuet?”

“Uh…yeah, sure. Hang on.” He leaned over to Jeanette and whispered. “It’s Noah.”

She just nodded, not once taking her eyes off Kevin and Deena.

“Excuse me folks, I gotta take this.”

“That’s fine, we’ll just keep Jeanette company,” Deena said, with a cheesy grin on her face.

Adam wanted to pump his fist in triumph. Two against one; hard to fight.

Adam stood off the to side on the sidewalk and returned to Noah. “What’s going on?”

“I heard talking in the background, you still at work? I can call back.”

“No, no. Jeanette and I are having dinner with a couple of co-workers.”

“Ahhhh. That brings me to this.”

“What?”

“Renee is one hot number.”

Adam rolled his eyes. Yes she was. Yeah, Noah and him were definitely brothers. “Okay, okay, you got a plan, any info?”

“There are two people here that I remember. One is in your IT department.”

Adam winced. This was not sounding good. “And the other?”

“Purchasing.”

“Names.”

“Jake and Hanna.”

Jake! He’s like his other right-hand man. Hanna he had his doubts about too. “Man, Jake. Are you sure?”

“Hmm. Too close?”

“Yeah.”

“You know what they say.”

“I know.”

“Don’t upset yourself about it now, Renee is going to check them out. She’s really exciting and her job is too. She was telling me last night about her private investigation company.”

“What time did you get in last night?”

“Oh, about three this morning.”

Adam wanted to ask the obvious questions, but decided not too. That would open the door for Noah to ask questions about him and Jeanette, and he wasn’t ready to go there yet.

“Look, Jeanette and I sent you two on an assignment, not a date.”

“Hmm, sounds like someone is bitter.”

Adam mentally groaned. “I am not bitter.”

“Not getting anywhere with Jeanette huh?”

“Don’t focus on my love life. I need to find out what’s going on with these missing supplies. Now you tell me you think Jake is in on it.”

“Okay, okay, like I told you, Renee is looking into it. We’re going to lunch in about an hour. I’m sure she’ll have something by then.”

“Good, keep us posted.”

“And good luck to you.”

Before Adam could say something, Noah disconnected.

Adam didn’t know what pissed him off the most. The fact that Jake could have something to do with this P.O. shit, or that Renee and Noah where hitting it off better that he and Jeanette.

He returned to the table and noticed that Jeanette and Kevin and Deena were all laughing. This was a good sign.

Adam sat down and scooted close to Jeanette again. He loved the feel of her body next to his. Pressing close to her like this gave him a chance to feel her softness against him. He leaned into her and whispered in her ear. “Got something to tell ya.”

“We were just having a delightful conversation about Jeanette’s last visit here to Paris,” Deena said.

“Oh? Adam turned to Jeanette. “When was this?”

“A couple of years ago. I was telling them how I finally decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I’ve been scared for years. Hate heights. When I finally reached the top, I got a nosebleed. It was so embarrassing.”

Adam quirked his brow. Yeah, he needed to really get to know Jeanette better. Why didn’t she share this with him?

After they ate and Kevin took the last bite of his dessert, the couples separate. Adam took Jeanette by the arm and they walked quietly back to the hotel. It was now ten o’clock.

“So what’s going on?” Jeanette asked.

“That was Noah that called. The two suspects are Hanna and Jake.”

“Jake, Jake…. Oh Jake! Really? Wow.”

“No!” Adam stopped walking. “I can’t believe that. We’re too close and I’m not just talking about work. We go to the bars, the games.”