Lauren hated losing, and she felt like she’d lost that particular round with Asa. Not that she was keeping score.
He’d essentially called her out for online shopping at work, which she didn’t do a lot . . . but which she did do sometimes. Online browsing, at least. And somehow he’d gotten her to tell him about cat houndstooth pants, which she definitely could’ve gone to her grave without ever having to describe out loud to her work nemesis. It wasn’t enough to write snarky notes on his refrigerator. She needed to find some way to dig in under his skin, to make him feel as uncomfortable and exposed as he made her feel.
She didn’t know if that was possible.
And what had his last comment meant, anyway, about needing something warmer than a cardigan? Almost reflexively, she took hers off the back of her chair and put it on as she sat back down at her desk. It was a cream color that had looked soft and elegant when it was brand-new, but by now it just looked dingy and sad. She reached into the pockets and was surprised when she felt a crumpled slip of paper at the bottom of one.
Three letters, each one landing like a thud in her stomach. They were written with a bold ink, the strokes strong and sure, a small flick at the tail of the second A the only sign that they’d been written by hand and not printed in some designer font.
Asa. Of course she would get Asa for Secret Santa. The poetic justice was so acute that she almost suspected him of sneaking into her office, switching out her paper for his name somehow. She wouldn’t put that kind of stunt beneath him, except that he did seem disproportionately concerned with preserving the integrity of Secret Santa.
She was still looking at the slip of paper, wondering where one could actually get a lump of coal, when Dolores came in.
“Hello, darling,” Dolores said. “How busy are you today?”
A quicksand trap of a question if Lauren ever heard one. It was also extremely suspicious that it was a variation on what Asa had said earlier. She knew he was cooking up something.
“Fairly busy,” she said carefully. “The insurance reconciliations are due next week.”
“Ah, that’s right,” Dolores said, but in a way that suggested she’d barely registered what Lauren said. “Well, how about a fun Freaky Friday kind of experiment?”
The lump of trepidation in Lauren’s stomach grew. She could think of nothing less fun than Freaky Friday. She’d always had a thing about stories where people were trapped in another body, or time, or space.
Dolores seemed to get that she wasn’t going to get any more active participation from Lauren on that score, so she plowed ahead. “How would you feel about spending an hour in the Snow Globe this afternoon?”
“Like as a punishment?”
Dolores laughed, even though Lauren hadn’t been entirely joking. Presumably, the Snow Globe would be even colder than her office. Which meant . . . Asa’s comment earlier clicked into place.
“This was Asa’s idea,” she said flatly.
“Yes!” Dolores seemed pleased that Lauren had caught on. “I thought it was fabulous. Since you, Asa, and Daniel are all working to come up with ideas to give Cold World a makeover, it makes some sense for you to spend time in different departments, yes? I’ve asked Daniel to come in next week and you can put him to work.”
That made Lauren sit up a little straighter. Was it because she was so desperate for Daniel, or because she was just desperate in general, that “put him to work” sounded vaguely suggestive? But this was his mother talking. Lauren tried to get her head out of the gutter.
Dolores already seemed committed to this idea, and to be honest it . . . wasn’t the worst thing Lauren had ever heard. Considering the source. Maybe she could get inspired by spending more time in various roles at Cold World. The end of the year was always a busy time for her, but she also wasn’t one to shy away from extra work.
So she said the only thing she could say. “Sounds good. I have a call at two, but could head to the Snow Globe when it wraps up.”
“Perfect,” Dolores said. “Make sure you report back. I want to hear all about how it goes.”
* * *
? ? ?
The call wasn’t for work, exactly, but Dolores didn’t have to know that. There was a last-minute staffing on Eddie’s case, and so Lauren spent twenty minutes listening to the latest status of his schooling, his medications, how he was adjusting to his placement. Since she was new to the team, she mostly just listened, until the caseworker brought up possible visitation with the mom.