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At 3:00 that afternoon, I was at work, right on time Neither sex, vampires, shapeshifters, nor metaphysical meltdoill deter this animator from her appointed rounds At least not today
I was sitting in Bert Vaughn&039;s office He&039;d been the boss at Animator&039;s Inc once, but recently we&039;d had a sort of palace coup He was still office and business ent than our boss It hadn&039;t lost him any money, so he was happy, but it had meant that most of the animators here were like partners in a law firm Once you made partner, you almost had to kill soht So Bert wasn&039;t the boss anyet to treat us like the hired help He hadn&039;t liked that part, but it was either agree to our terms, or we all walked, and since he can&039;t raise the dead, that would pretty much put him out of business Especially if we opened another firm in direct competition with him So we had a neer structure, and we hadn&039;t worked all the kinks out of it yet
Bert&039;s office was noare undertones It was cozier than the pale blue cubicle it had once been, but not bywith buying out the offices next door, so that er had to share their office space Since most of our tiht the new offices were a waste of money, but I&039;d been outvoted Charles, Jaer offices, Larry and I had been fine sharing, but Bert voted with the other three, so they&039;d taken out a wall and voil¨¤, ere suddenly twice as big The reason that one to war tones of yellows, browns, tans, ecru, was that Bert was dating an interior designer Her naood for hi about the science of color and hoith a business like ours we needed to make people feel loved and cared for
I&039;d told her that it wasn&039;t my job to love my clients That I wasn&039;t in that business She&039;d taken it wrong and hadn&039;t really likedas she stayed the hell away from my office
Mary, our daytihn&039;s office as soon as I hit the door Not a good sign Toat work, so I had no clue what the ed s
Bert ca the door was not a good sign either Bert is 6&039;4", and played football in college He&039;d started to gain that past-forty, nearing-fifty extra around the ram He looked better than he had for most of the time I&039;d known hi cocoa brown every summer was not healthy for anyone So he looked pale, but healthy It also one that white-blond that it used to in the summer His hair was actually a pale yelloith a little white creeping in, but the white was so close to the way his hair used to look with his tan, that it had taken ray
I was sitting in one of the two dark brown, nicely upholstered client chairs that had been another of Lana&039;s ideas They were ht-backs he&039;d had before My legs were politely crossed, my hands folded in my lap I was the epitome of ladylike
"That skirt is too short for business hours, Anita," he said as he rounded his big desk and eased into a chair even bigger and browner andin
I slumped down in the chair and put my boots up on his desk, with h to flash every last inch of the lace tops of h hose I was a little short for the movement to be comfortable, but I doubted Bert could tell I was uncoh black boots
"The skirt is also black We all agreed that we don&039;t wear black to work It&039;s too depressing"
"No, you think it&039;s too depressing Besides the skirt has flowers ereen, and turquoise, which matches exactly the shade of turquoise of the jacket, and the blue of the top, it&039;s like an outfit," I said I was also wearing a gold chain with an antique locket on the end of it It had two tiny paintings, one in either side of it They were tiny oil paintings of Jean-Claude and Asher The locket had once belonged to Julianna, and was old, heavy and solid, and very antique-looking Tiny sapphires traced its edges, with one larger one in the reat with the outfit Apparently not
The short little turquoise jacket also covered the black shoulder holster and the Browning Hi-Power under my left arm I&039;d have put on the wrist sheaths, but with the jacket off, the knives showed under the thin ot hot enough in the office, but to remove the wrist sheaths, I&039;d have to strip off the shirt It didn&039;t seem worth it They were in the car, just in case I started to feel insecure
Bert didn&039;t have any weapons under his rich, chocolate brown suit, which had been tailored to fit his body As he&039;d lost weight, the athletic cut to his suits had emphasized his broad shoulders, which had sort of appeared as his waistline had decreased His shirt was pale yellow, and his tie was a paler broith tiny gold and blue figures on it All the colors suited hiray eyes
I slu the padded corner to brace h that the black silk of h it probably couldn&039;t be seen fro
"If I tell you the skirt is too short, you&039;ll wear so even shorter tomorroon&039;t you?"
"Yep"
"And if I coot black dresses," I said, "I&039;ve even got short black dresses"
"Why do I even bother?"
"Arguing with me," I said
He nodded
"I have no idea"
"At least you&039;re wearing ot a date after work," I said
"That brings me to another problem," he said He leaned forward and folded his hands on his desk He was trying for fatherly, but he never quite made it It cahten up in htened the skirt as I sat up There was enough skirt to shs My rule for skirts was that it was too short if there was no skirt to slad Bert had given up I really wasn&039;t co them just to spite Bert wouldn&039;t have been as fun as it once would have been
"And what problem would that be, Bert?"
"Mary tellsrooely, the ardeur hadn&039;t risen today at all, not a quiver, not a shake But we&039;d all been a little concerned about whatto life at work There was nobody at work that I wanted to have sex with, so that meant I needed so outside in the war very decorative in one of the brown leather chairs He earing street clothes--black slacks, a violet business shirt that was al, and black over-the-ankle boots He&039;d braided his hair so it looked as professional as ankle-length hair can, and he was reading back issues of soazine that he had a subscription to and had fallen behind on reading He&039;d brought a azines from home and was prepared to wait until I dropped him off at work, or until he was needed, whichever came first
"Why is your boyfriend out in our waiting roo?"
"I&039; him at work later," I said, and ed to be
"Doesn&039;t he have a car?"
"We only have two cars at the house, and Micah ets called into work"
Bert did the slow blink, and what little warray eyes faded "I thought the one in the other room was your boyfriend"
"He is"
"Doesn&039;t that mean that you&039;ve broken up with Micah?"
"Your assuave another long blink and leaned back in his chair, looking puzzled I&039;d always puzzled Bert, but just not in the personal depart"
"Nathaniel," I said
"Nathaniel," Bert said
"He knows," I said
He licked his thin lips and tried a different tact "Would you think it was professional if Charles or Manny brought their wives into sit in our waiting rooed "Nothis temples "Anita, your boyfriend cannot sit out there the entire time you&039;re in the office"
"Why not? "I asked
"Because if I let you start bringing in people, everybody else ant to, and it would be a hed "I don&039;t think anyone else will be bringing their sweeties to work," I said "Charles&039;s wife is a full-tiistered nurse, she&039;s a little busy, and Rosita hates Manny&039;s job She wouldn&039;t darken the door Jaht it would iain "Anita, you&039;re being deliberately difficult about this"
"Me, deliberately difficult, why, Bert, you know ave a surprised burst of laughter and sat back in his chair and stopped trying to treat me like a client He looked instantlyyour new boyfriend to work?"
"None of your business"
"It is, if he&039;s sitting in the waiting roo to let him sit in on clients"
"He won&039;t sit in on clients," I said
"Then he&039;s going to be in our waiting roo?"
"A few hours," I said
"Why?" he asked again
"I told you, none of your business"
"It is, if you bring him to work, Anita I may not be the boss anymore, but we&039;re also a democracy You really think that Jamison won&039;t kick a fuss?"
He had a point I couldn&039;t think of a lie that ca it, so I tried for partial truth "You know that I&039;ht?"
He nodded, eyes uncertain, as if this was not the start of the conversation he&039;d expected
"Well, there&039;s been an interesting side effect Trust o wrong"
"Horong are they going to go?" he asked
"If I take him into my office, just lock the door and make sure we aren&039;t disturbed No harm, no foul"
"Why would you need privacy with hierous?"
"None of your business You wouldn&039;t understand even if I told you, and it&039;s only dangerous if I don&039;t have someone with me when it happens"
"When what happens?"
"See first answer," I said
"If it&039;s going to disrupt the office, then as er I need to know"
He had a point, but I wasn&039;t sure how to tell hi, if Mary keeps everyone away from the door until we&039;re finished"
"Finished?" he said "Finished what?"
I looked at him I tried to make it an eloquent look
"You don&039;t mean" he said
"Mean what?" I asked
He closed his eyes, opened the in the waiting roo hied, which was rare for Bert
"I&039; it won&039;t come to that," I said
"Why is this a side effect of being a human servant to the Master of St Louis?"
It was a good question, but I was so not willing to share that uess"
"I would say you&039;reto pull some elaborate joke on me, it wouldn&039;t be this" That one coht
"No," I said, "it wouldn&039;t"
"So you&039;ve become like a what, a ny to say "Yes, Bert, that&039;s it, I&039;ve become a nymphomaniac I need sex so often that I have to take a lover with o now"
His eyes ide
"Cal today will be the exception, not the rule"
"What made today different?" he asked
"You know, Mary told me to report to your office as soon as I hit the door Before you could have possibly known that I&039;d brought my boyfriend with me, or worn a black skirt that is shorter than you would like So you didn&039;t call me in here to discuss my wardrobe or ?"
"Did anyone ever tell you that you can be very abrupt?"
"Yes, nohat&039;s up?"
He sat up straighter, all professional and client-worthy again "I need you to hear et upset"
"Wow, Bert, I can hardly wait for the rest of this little talk"
He frowned at me "I turned the job down, because I knew you wouldn&039;t take it"
"If you turned it dohy are we discussing it?"
"They doubled your consultation fee"
"Bert," I said
"No," he put a hand up, "I turned it down"
I looked at him and knew my face said clearly, I didn&039;t believe him "I&039;ve never known you to turn down that ave aveyour way that was on it?"
I thought about it for a second, then shook my head "No, but you&039;re about to"
"They won&039;t believe me"
"They won&039;t believe what?" I said
"They insist that if you&039;d only see them, you&039;d do what they want I told them you wouldn&039;t, but they offered fifteen thousand dollars for an hour of your tis to Animators, Inc"
When I said orked like a law firm, I meant it That meant that this money went into the kitty for everybody The ot a higher or lower percentage of our fees We&039;d based it on seniority Sodown money didn&039;t just hurt me or insult Bert anymore, it affected the bottom line for everybody Most of those everybodys had families, kids They&039;d actually come to me enfees, ie, take hter about to enter a very expensive college, and Ja alimony to three ex-wives Sob stories, but most of them, except for Larry, hadnicer about at least talking to people when they offered outrageous sums of money Sometimes
"What&039;s the job?" I asked I didn&039;t sound happy, but I asked
Bert was all smiles Sometimes I suspected that he&039;d been behind that en , but Manny and Charles swore up and down he hadn&039;t been Jamison I wouldn&039;t have believed either way, so I didn&039;t ask
"The Browns&039; son died about three years ago They want you to raise him and ask some questions"
My eyes were unfriendly slits "Tell me all of it, Bert, so far I wouldn&039;t have turned it down"
He cleared his throat and fidgeted Bert didn&039;t fidget much "Well, the son was murdered"
I threw my hands into the air "Damn it, Bert, I can&039;t raise a ave you a list that you were supposed to refuse for all of us, for legal reasons, and that was one of them"
"You used to do it"
"Yeah, before I found out what happens when you raise a murder vic as a zombie, and that was before the neent into effect A oes after their h anyone and anything that tries to stop them I had it happen twice, Bert The zombies don&039;t answer questions about who killed the off and try to find who did it"
"Couldn&039;t the police just follow them, sort of like they do bloodhounds?"
"These bloodhounds will tear people&039;s arht line to their murderers And the way the law reads now, the anie, including the deaths If one of us raised this boy and he killed anyone, even his own ical malfeasance That&039;s an automatic death sentence So no, I can&039;t do it, and neither can anybody else"
He looked sad, probably about the money "I told them you&039;d explain it to them"
"You should have explained it to them yourself, Bert I&039;ve told you all this before"