29. Hide and Seek #2
Voices in the hallway interrupted his musings.
He'd recognize her voice anywhere. Sharing rides to and from work had become a regular thing.
And this past weekend, she'd talked him into checking out a local skate park close to her place.
They hadn't stayed long—the weather was too cold and wet for it—but walking through the park holding hands had been enjoyable.
Seeing or talking to each other every day outside of work had become their new normal.
They'd even gone to dinner together with her cooking mates earlier this week. So much for not dating coworkers.
"What do you mean, this report pulls all the data from the beginning of time? Why?" Claire passed by, speaking with Grace Simmons. She caught his eye and gave him a quick wave from the hand at her side before turning back to hear Grace's answer.
"Think of your personal checking account. You opened it with a zero balance, but your balance today is a result of all the transactions you've made from the beginning." Their voices faded as they walked on.
A frown marred Noah's face. Secret waves, hidden glances.
For the last two weeks, they'd spent time together outside the office, but had yet to share their newfound closeness with their workmates.
They weren't public yet. He knew why he wasn't bringing it up.
The conversation with Tristan over Christmas had brought home that he still had issues to deal with on that front, but mostly, he simply wasn't ready to share her yet.
The relationship was still private and new.
He didn't want the company gossip mill creating problems where there were none.
He shook off his gloomy deliberations and thought about tonight.
They had a date. Claire planned to cook, and they were watching a movie afterward.
Physically, they were taking it slow. His body flushed as he remembered the kissing session on her couch rudely interrupted by her old man.
Man, he loved those soft, luscious lips of hers.
And tonight? Well, tonight might be the night.
He'd thrown his gym bag containing a change of clothes into his car this morning and packed some basic necessities into his laptop bag, in case she asked him to stay.
The thought of waking up next to her tomorrow morning, sharing breakfast, and heading to work together…
Noah swallowed and rubbed his lips, feeling warm and fuzzy at the thought.
Tristan's voice sounded in his head, What a sappy old man you've become, big brother.
"Lunch?" Larry poked his head in and Noah checked his watch, surprised the morning had passed so quickly.
"Yep."
"Meet up at the skywalk. We've got a crowd, so we're walking the tunnels today." The tunnels didn't quite make it to the building that housed Caprock Enterprises, but the neighboring building was connected and a nice, heated skywalk stretched between them.
"Gotcha."
They'd finished eating when Rick asked what time they were meeting at Larry's place for poker tonight. Shit , Noah thought. He'd completely forgotten about the scheduled poker game.
While everyone was distracted pocketing their credit cards, he casually said, "Yeah, I'm not going to make it tonight."
Every single person stopped and stared at him. Claire's gaze from across the table bit into him, and he focused on Rick, struggling to keep his eyes off her.
"You never miss. What's up?"
"Nothing. I have things to do. I'll catch you next week."
Larry shrugged him off, but Rick's gaze drilled into him. When he raised an eyebrow, Noah broke eye contact and made a fuss about getting his credit card into the correct slot in his wallet.
"How about you Claire?" Larry asked, and Noah froze.
"Wh-what?" Her deer-in-the-headlights look almost made him laugh out loud.
"You've never come to one of our games. You could take Noah's place."
Claire looked from Larry to Noah, likely checking his reaction. He searched her face, wondering what she was thinking. He broke eye contact when everyone stood to leave.
"Um, I thought poker night was a 'boys only' thing." Claire casually threw her purse over her shoulder and pushed in her chair.
Del piped in. "Jenny comes."
"Jenny sucks at poker. But she does like to hang out and her money spends just as easily," Larry added, a crooked grin snaking onto his face. "Hey, if Claire's a better player, she can defend her gender against the slander we all throw at Jenny."
Noah snorted at Larry's weak attempt to goad Claire into coming.
"Um, thanks guys, but not this week," Claire said, not rising to the bait. "Maybe next time."
He sensed her watching him again, but kept his gaze forward as they walked back through the tunnels.
Throughout the afternoon, Claire's thoughts returned to the lunch conversation regarding the poker game.
Noah's silence had confirmed her suspicions he hadn't shared their after-hours activities with anyone.
When he'd failed to bring up his new chauffeuring duties during their often-casual team meetings, she'd followed his lead.
But she'd caught Rick's questioning glance at lunch today, which suggested Noah was also keeping secrets from his closest friend. Time to find out what was going on.
"Claire, did you finish updating your piece on the purchasing module yet?" Vicki's voice boomed throughout her office.
Claire jumped and splayed her hand across her heart. "Good gravy, Vicki!" She spun around to find the woman standing in the hallway and gestured for her to enter. "You startled me. Why are you yelling?"
Vicki blinked at Claire, then looked up and down the hallway before producing a megawatt smile and stepping inside the office. "Sorry," she said at a normal volume. "I just came from the sales group where everybody tries to talk over everyone. Guess I was still in the shouting mode."
"That must be a wild environment to work in," Claire commented absently as she saved her work.
"You think the sales folks are too wild to work with?" Vicki asked.
"What? No, that's not what I said." Claire waved off Vicki's comment and checked her irritation. "Anyway, I already submitted the purchasing updates. Two days ago, in fact. Why are you asking?"
Vicki shuffled the papers in her hand and found the one she sought. "Hmm. It's not checked off on the task list, so I thought I'd follow up. You know, since it's my job to keep all you techie types in line and on track."
Claire ignored the implied slight and opened the document tracking system.
If this is another system glitch… These administrative glitches—which only seemed to target her—were getting on her last nerve.
At first, she'd been wary of making a fuss since she didn't want to be seen as an elitist developer from Silicon Valley, but after the last problem while they were in San Jose, she'd decided the next time something happened, she would complain to Simon.
It was time to stop putting it off and reach out to her boss.
She stopped scrolling and pointed to her screen. "The system shows the task completed. Two days ago, when I marked it. Is your report wrong?"
Vicki peered over her shoulder at the screen, then moved toward the door. "Hmm. I guess this report is out of date." She moved into the hallway and raised her voice slightly. "Or maybe I'm just used to having to follow up with you all the time. Okay, I've marked it off my to do list. Toodle-oo!"
Claire watched open-mouthed as the woman strolled away.
Vicki had never followed up on anything assigned to her.
And Claire most certainly had never missed a deadline.
Her fists clenched. The indirect dig at her work ethic hit a little too close to old wounds.
Accusations of slacking off, doing shoddy work.
The throb of her pulse sounded in her ears.
Stop! This wasn't NanoTechwise, and no one was out to get her.
She stopped and took a calming breath. Her dad had always told her to step back and assess when someone made you angry.
He believed people usually had things going on you couldn't see, and you had to look beyond what came out of their mouths to see what they meant because those inner battles often colored their words.
She considered the past few months and Vicki's position on the team.
The woman never came to any outside activities.
When she participated in group discussions, her comments were often not quite on point, as if she wanted to take part, but had nothing relevant to add.
Claire leaned back in her chair. It's possible Vicki was simply a socially awkward person who was uncomfortable interacting with people.
Lord knows, Claire had run into plenty of people like that in her field.
She didn't think Vicki had many friends, and she had been kind to Claire when she'd first started.
She decided to be nicer to Vicki in the future and actively make her feel more a part of the team.
The upbeat, melodic chime of her desk phone interrupted her thoughts. The display showed Randall calling. He probably wanted an update on the accounting report she'd been working on for him. Grace's explanation of how the report worked was super useful in getting it configured correctly.
"Hey, Randall," she answered.