Page 20 (1/2)

The sofa cushions dipped as Aidan leaned forward to grab his Coke can fro Claire in curiosity "What is it you do for a living?"

She chewed and sed before answering, and Dylan suddenly noticed the kind of sandwich she’d prepared "No jam?" he asked warily

"Nope I don’t like jam"

"Neither do I"

They looked at each other for a few seconds, neither one speaking Then Claire turned to address Aidan "Anyway, I work at a consulting firm"

"Cool What does that rin filled her face "Consult"

She looked so proud with her answer Dylan couldn’t help but laugh So did Aidan, who took another sip of his soda and said, "Care to elaborate?"

She shoved the last piece of bread into her ain "My firanizations operate ement or certain protocols Basically I visit a cos, and then I tell them how they can do better"

"Sounds interesting" Aidan looked i"

Aidan laughed and glanced over at Dylan "Hey, look at that, you two have another thing in common"

"Yeah, what’s that?" he asked suspiciously

"You’re both capable of holding serious, articulate conversations even when you’re drunk as skunks"

"Hey," Claire protested, "I’m not drunk as skunks I ether "Wait, do skunks get drunk? Why is that even a phrase?"

"Because it rhyht, then nodded "Yes, that hter flew out of Dylan’sany enjoyment out of this conversation He wasn’t supposed to like this wo he needed a re with, he looked at Claire and said, "So why did you get into consulting? I bet it was for thepeople around Can you believe it? I found the one job that payssetic little kid "I’m thirsty"

Aidan chuckled as she darted toward the kitchen When Dylan saw the faroan and issued another loarning "Co she nearly became my sister-in-law" He checked to make sure Claire was out of earshot, then added, "And I don’t like her"

"Too bad," Aidan murmured "’Cause I like her a lot, bro"