Neal set the ball down and pressed both of his palms on his desktop like he was bracing himself to stand up. “You don’t get to promote people at your whim. You don’t work here. Who do you think you are?”
“She said you were promoting her if I agreed to come back. I’m back.”
“Back with me!”
“I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”
Neal was approaching wit’s end. “And what if it is?”
They stared at each other in a battle of wills, but the upper hand was Patrick’s—it’s why he had mentioned Neal’s wife. Patrick grinned, pleased with himself. “Then you know what I’ll have to say about it.”
Neal chewed this over before lifting his arms in the air as if Patrick had him at gunpoint. He let out an annoyed growl.
“That’s right. Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Neal muttered under his breath; he lowered his arms and made a project of stacking some papers while shuffling some others, waiting for this torture to be over.
“Anyhow, I’ll see if Cassie can get me a Fanta. I don’t know what it is, I’m just craving a pineapple soda!” Patrick stood and patted himself to make sure he had his phone and his keys. “I’ll get out of your hair. I wouldn’t want to mess up those sweet plugs.” Patrick paused in the doorway. A surprising flash of regret overcame him （My goodness, he thought, people are complex and weird）， but there was no turning back now. “It was good to see you, Neal. Be sure to transfer my files.” He waved and, without waiting for a reciprocal goodbye, stepped out in the hall.
He locked eyes with Cassie, who sat stunned in her cubicle—certain she was going to catch a cyclone of shit the second Patrick left.
“Well, it’s you and me, kid.”
Cassie untangled the headphones from her hair and placed them on her keyboard as Patrick sat on the edge of her desk. “What do you mean?”
“I’m back, but you’re my agent. Congratulations. You’ve got your first client.”
“That’s . . . not possible.”
“I worked it out with Neal. All systems go.” The phone on Cassie’s desk started ringing and she moved to answer it. Patrick lunged for her headset. “Neal will get it.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“You’re serious.” The phone stopped ringing.
“Deadly.” Patrick pulled a pen from a pencil cup and put it in his shirt pocket. “Turns out, you’re the one I like.”
She stammered a few times before she was able to form words. “I—I—I don’t know what to say.” A cubicle neighbor of Cassie’s prairie-dogged over the partition dividing them to see if she was hearing this all correctly; Patrick met her gaze with a single eye, and she slowly lowered herself out of view.
“Look, I know it’s technically outside of your job description, but I’m going to need a few things.”
“Sure.” Cassie was still too stunned to object.
“I can’t remember any of my social media passwords. Can you have them reset? Just look for my name with the blue check marks.”
“Of course. Anything.” Cassie scrambled for a notepad. “What else can I do?”
“I’m having a party and I could use your help. I need you to invite all my dearest friends. Even the ones I haven’t met yet.” It was a line from Mame, but as soon as Patrick said it out loud he had a newfound appreciation for the wisdom in it. He pulled his new pen from his breast pocket and handed it to her, cueing her to write this down. “Especially the ones I haven’t met yet. Okay? Use your resources. Shake the fruit tree and see what hits the ground. You’ll be there, of course. And invite Neal. He won’t come, but what the hell. I’m in a mood.” He signaled at her to write. “Maybe it will clear the air.”
Cassie scrambled to get it all down. “A party. Dearest friends. Fruit tree. Invite Neal. Okay.” Patrick could hear the uncertainty in her voice. Hesitation, perhaps, but not dismissal. Even she had to see the benefits of getting to know him better to do her job with any sort of aplomb. Planning a party, spending more time with him, could only help in the long run. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” Patrick ran through the list in his head one more time, the one he’d concocted at the bottom of his pool. There was something else. What was it? “Oh yeah. I was thinking of getting the kids a dog for real. Know where I can get something like that?”