He had laughed with her, then his smile faded. Moving forward, he frowned down at her.
“What on earth have you been up to now?”
Almost but not quite touching, the fingers of his right hand traced the bruising down the left side of her face.
“Another stupid accident. A car nearly ran me down on Thursday night.”
Dimity wasn’t quite sure how she found her voice. The electricity seemed to have transferred itself from the air to his fingertips and zapped across the millimetre between those fingers and her skin, setting off a series of pleasurable mini-shockwaves and almost taking away her breath in the process.
He winced, putting his hand on the wall beside her head, studying her closely.
“Are you okay?”
The lift door slid open onto the short hallway that led to the third floor’s main work area. Waiting, tapping the toe of one shiny black shoe, was Gail. Her expression of impatience changed to indignation when she saw Dimity apparently enjoying an up close and personal with someone, then altered again to surprised recognition.
“Josh!” She held out her hand. “Good to see you. I was at meetings all day Friday, but I heard you looked in.”
“Very briefly.” Josh shook hands, also briefly, Dimity was pleased to see.
“Melissa’s on leave for the next three weeks,” Gail went on. “You can use her office.”
Josh nodded.
“Thanks, she showed me where everything is. I’ll need to borrow one of your support staff occasionally.”
“Unfortunately we’re in a state of flux with staff, but I’ll see if I can find someone - competent - to help you.” Gail shot a toxic look at Dimity who was trying to edge past unnoticed. “I noticed you called in sick on Friday. That must be a record, after only four days work.”
“For someone who was involved in a serious accident only three days ago,” said Josh, stretching the truth without a blush, “I think she’s doing pretty well to front up for work at all.” His tone was mild, but there was a hint of frost around the edges.
Yes! Dimity gave the air a gleeful mental punch. Gail bridled.
“Fortunately her absence didn’t seem to make much difference,” she snapped.
“Really?” Josh’s eyes were alert. “Then if you don’t have much for Dimity to do, I’m sure you won’t mind making her available to help me out for the three weeks.” |
