24. Opportune Moment
24
OPPORTUNE MOMENT
“ C an I help you?”
“I was wondering if Tori was in?” he asked two days later.
“I think so,” the woman said. “Can I ask your name?”
“Hyde Person,” he said.
Maybe he should have told her he was stopping in, but he’d been out meeting with a client, and on his way back and he detoured to see Tori’s office. She’d seen his enough and she was very clear she wasn’t hiding their relationship, so why not?
The woman at the desk looked him over. He’d peg her in her forties. “Tori. Hyde Person is here asking for you.” The woman glanced at him again, smiled, and put the phone down. “She said she’ll be right up. She’s in with someone if you want to take a seat over there.”
“Sure,” he said, turning to sit in the waiting area.
After a minute, he pulled his phone out to check the email he might have missed while he was gone.
He’d replied to one and was reading another when he looked up and saw Tori standing there.
No skirt or dress this time. Bummer.
She had tan cotton pants on and a red sweater. “Hi,” she said. “If I knew you were coming, I would have told you I was meeting with someone. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
He stood up. “Not a big deal,” he whispered. He was matching her voice. No secrets didn’t mean they wanted to air out their lives for nosy coworkers who were watching them. “I was coming back from a meeting and thought I’d stop in.”
“Come back to my office,” she said. “I’ll show it to you, but then I’ve got another meeting in ten minutes.”
“I can leave,” he said. “It’s fine.”
It’s not as if they didn’t have plans later tonight. With any luck, she’d stay the night and he could cook her breakfast in the morning again before they figured out plans for the weekend.
“No,” she said. “I told my staff I’ll be in to get them. It’s fine.”
Since she was smiling, he wasn’t going to worry too much.
He moved down a few halls and then turned into her office.
“This is much different than mine,” he said.
She had motivational quotes and posters on the walls. There was a bookshelf full of books and binders. Things that looked like they belonged in a classroom.
“It would be,” she said.
“What are those?”
He moved over to a box on the floor and saw a bunch of stress balls and fidget toys. He picked one up and saw the name of their organization on it.
“Swag for the kids,” she said.
“Swag?” he asked. Didn’t look all that fancy to him.
“It’s what we call it. I’ve got all sorts of things in the storage room for my staff too. But these just came in. We work with a lot of younger kids who have problems paying attention in school. Or have poor home lives and are anxious. These things help.”
“They didn’t have stuff like this when I was a kid,” he said. “I don’t know that I would have been using it the way I needed to.”
He had one spinning in his hand and then it flew out and hit the wall.
“They aren’t meant for that but not saying it wouldn’t happen. Maybe I should have thought twice before I ordered them.”
She picked it up and put it on her desk.
“Sorry. I can be a big kid.”
He was looking at the books on her shelf. Lots of things about bullying and drugs. Social media and tobacco.
“We educate the youth on multiple topics,” she said.
“Did you do all this?” he asked.
“At one point or another,” she said. “Now I supervise staff that do it. Not everyone does everything. I mix it up so every staff knows the curriculum so they can fill in.”
“How often do you go to the schools?” he asked. They never really talked about her job much. His either, but he figured she knew what he did since he worked with her best friend.
“When I’m short-staffed like earlier in the school year. I enjoy it. I miss it too.”
“You like kids, don’t you?”
“I love kids,” she said.
“Do you want kids?” he asked.
She looked at her watch. “Kind of a deep conversation right now, don’t you think?” she asked.
“Sorry,” he said. “It just came out of my mouth.”
“The simple answer is yes,” she said. “You?”
“Yes,” he said. “Keeping it simple.”
“Speaking of simple,” she said. “Give me a sweet kiss and get out of here before you distract me from my job even more.”
He laughed. “Glad to know I’m not the only one.” He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, then turned to walk out with her.
“I’ll talk to you later,” she said.
“Bye,” he said, walking out. He was sure he would hear all about the conversation later that night.
He was waiting at the elevator and when the doors opened there was Grant Fierce.
“Hyde,” Grant said, smirking. “Did you get off on the wrong floor?”
This was what one might call an opportune moment.
“Nope,” he said. “Just went to talk to Tori.”
Grant frowned. “Tori Miller? Raina’s best friend.”
“Yes,” he said. “That is the only Tori I know.”
“Are you two dating or something?” Grant asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “You didn’t know? It’s not a secret.”
The look on Grant’s face had him laughing when the doors opened on their floor. He walked off and went in one direction while Grant took off in another.
He imagined Ryder was getting an earful right now, but when he got back to his desk, he sent Tori a text to just let her know what happened.
She replied quickly with a laughing emoji.
“Why didn’t you tell me Hyde was dating Tori?” Grant said as he walked into Ryder’s office. He should have waited to see if his son was alone or not. He didn’t happen to be and had a client with him. “Sorry, I’ll be back.”
He turned down another hall and headed toward Raina’s office next, then decided he needed to fill his brother in first and went to Garrett’s.
“Slow down,” Garrett said. “You’re going to leave marks on the carpet with as fast as you’re going if you’ve got to stop quickly.”
“I just picked Hyde up on the second floor in the elevator. I asked if he had the wrong floor and he said he was talking to Tori.”
“Why?” Garrett asked.
“I asked him if he was dating Tori and he said yes. It wasn’t a secret.”
“It is to us,” his brother said. “What did Ryder have to say about this? I thought whatever they had fizzled. No one told us more.”
“He’s with a client. I was on my way to see Raina and then came to get you first.”
“Raina can be last,” Garrett said. “My kids have to know. Jade knows everything.”
“Good thought,” he said, following his brother to his niece’s office.
“I could hear you guys all but stomping down the hall,” Jade said when they entered her office. “Let me guess, you just found out about Hyde and Tori?”
He wanted to grind his teeth.
His brother beat him to it. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Garrett asked, crossing his arms.
Jade laughed. “It’s not my place to do it. How did you find out?”
“I just ran into Hyde getting on the elevator on the second floor. He said he’d been visiting Tori.”
“And of course you asked if they were dating?” Jade asked.
“Yes,” he said. “You know we’ve been trying to set them up.”
“With each other,” Jade said, laughing. “And they knew that.”
“So it worked?” he asked. “Just them knowing, they decided to try it?”
He didn’t think it’d be that easy.
“Hardly,” Jade said.
“You two can’t simmer down, can you?” Ryder said, coming in.
“Why didn’t you tell us about Hyde?” he said.
“It’s not my news to tell,” Ryder said. “And it’s not a big deal. They are dating. So what?”
Grant rolled his eyes. “We would like to know those things so we aren’t trying to set them up with someone else.”
“Please,” Jade said. “No one is stupid. They know you are trying to set them both up.”
“And no,” Ryder said. “That isn’t why they are dating. It’s a long complicated thing that has been going on for a few months.”
“Months!” Grant said. “What the hell?”
Jade and Ryder burst out laughing. “Sorry. You don’t need to know everything. But they’ve only been dating a few weeks,” Ryder said. “I don’t know the exact details. It’s new, so leave them alone.”
“We will,” Garrett said.
“No,” Jade said. “You won’t, but you will think you will.”