Claim Me: A Novel

us.
    “Time to go to work, right?” Evelyn says.
    “You are not getting off that easy,” I retort, following her on. I have every intention of interrogating her, but there’s no time during the short ride up, and when the doors open, there’s no privacy. The receptionist, a girl my age who I remember is named Cindy, immediately stands.
    “Wow, it’s so cool to have you here,” she says to me, then blushes. “I mean, you’re going to fit in great. We can do lunch if you want.”
    “Thanks,” I say, with a sidelong glance toward Evelyn, who only looks amused. “I think I’m having lunch with Bruce today.”
    “Oh, right. Mr. Tolley’s ready for you. Just a sec, and I’ll walk you back.” She turns to Evelyn before I have the chance to tell her I’m supposed to meet first with the lady from Human Resources. “May I help you?”
    “Evelyn Dodge,” Evelyn says. “I called Bruce about picking up—”
    “Oh, sure thing, Ms. Dodge.” She comes around the desk and hands Evelyn an envelope that presumably contains a key.
    Evelyn slides it into her humongous purse and points a finger at me. “We’ll see each other tomorrow, Texas.”
    “Yeah,” I say meaningfully. Evelyn is one of the few people who knows the identity of the woman in Blaine’s portrait. “You’ll certainly be seeing plenty of me tomorrow.”
    Evelyn guffaws and then steps back onto the elevator. I follow Cindy down the plain gray halls to Bruce’s office, Evelyn’s laughter still ringing in my ears.

8
    We don’t even make it to the office before Bruce emerges. When we met during the interview, he’d been the picture of corporate calm. Now he looks undeniably harried. “Nikki, great to see you.” He holds out his hand for me to shake. It’s firm and no-nonsense, and I think that bodes well for Bruce as a boss.
    Cindy returns to reception and Bruce starts down the hallway, easing farther into the bowels of the company. He’s moving fast, and I hurry to keep up. If the fight with his wife is weighing on him, I don’t see it. He looks like a man with a work problem, not a marital one.
    “If this is a bad time,” I begin. “I mean, I’m pretty sure Human Resources is expecting me.”
    “I talked with Trish. She’ll take care of your paperwork this afternoon. Right now, I’ve got something I’d like you to handle.” He comes to a stop outside an office, its closed door covered with taped-on cartoons and various band logos. “I hope you don’t mind getting thrown to the wolves.”
    I eye the door curiously. The truth is that I have no idea what he’s talking about, but what I do know is that the proper responseto such a question from your new boss is “Not at all. What’s going on?”
    “Calendaring screw up and I’m double-booked. I need you and Tanner to head downtown to meet with the IT team at Suncoast Bank. They’re interested in the 128-bit encryption algorithm we’ve been beta testing. You’ll be stepping in to head up marketing on the product anyway, but I had hoped to give you a little time in-house to get your feet wet. Sorry to bring all this down on your first day.”
    “Not a problem,” I say. My voice is calm, but inside I’m doing cartwheels. Bruce told me about Innovative’s cutting-edge encryption software during my interview, and I know that it is shaping up to be the company’s gold-standard product. I hadn’t expected to actually land such a choice assignment right off the bat, but since I have, I fully intend to use this meeting as a chance to prove to my boss that I can do this job, and do it well.
    “It shouldn’t be too hard a sell,” Bruce adds. “The product is exactly what they need, but we’re going to want to put our own team on-site to make sure their IT group gets trained properly and that we have eyes on and a fast response to every bug and every glitch.”
    “Of course.”
    “That’s why I’m sending Tanner in, too,” he adds, tapping lightly on the cartoon-covered door. “He worked on the development of the project and, frankly, I think it would be good for him to work six months in-house with a client.”
    “Why?”
    Bruce frowns. “If you don’t mind mixing business with pleasure, we can go into that when I see you tomorrow. Right now, I’ll just say that when I was talking about the wolves, I didn’t mean the client.”
    “Sure,” I say, realizing with a mental head-thwap that of course he’s going to be at the party. The first hour will