Bit by the Bug (Matthews Sisters 1) (5 page)

‘This is it,’ she whispered to herself, taking a deep breath. Kat wasn’t nervous about meeting a man, so much as what that man represented. She made herself a promise. No matter how bad or obnoxious he was, she’d get him to ask her out on a date. Vincent Richmond was her chance of living her dream – a chance at Faux Pas.

Kat reached for the wooden door and pushed it open. It was painted a dark green with white accents around the edges. The interior was dim compared to the bright sunlight outside and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. White, naked walls surrounded her. The small, square foyer was empty except for a wooden desk with an ugly yellow corded telephone and a wooden chair. The furniture was scuffed at the corners, attesting to its age. The floors were wood, the boards a little uneven, and they squeaked terribly when she stepped on them. Wrinkling her nose, she tried not to sneeze. The room was covered in dust and had the musty scent of old books.

‘I can’t stand it!’ The enraged feminine voice came from the long hall behind the desk.

Kat took a slow step into the reception area at the
angry sound, curious to see what was going on. She heard loud, stomping footsteps before a short woman turned the corner and stalked towards the front.

‘The advisors said he was difficult. Difficult, my ass! That arrogant son of a bitch man is impossible. Five times those damned things got out. I am not looking for his stupid pets again. I did not sign up for this! I don’t care if they do fail me. I’m so out of here.’ The woman was talking to herself, angrily jerking her arms. Her neat bun was pulled to the nape of her neck, a severe look that made her appear older than she probably was. The khaki pants with the high waistline and the tucked in white button-down shirt didn’t help matters. Narrow black glasses slid down her nose and she pushed them up with an irritated thrust of her middle finger. Seeing Kat, she paused in her tirade.

‘Hi,’ said Kat, smiling at the woman.

The woman actually harrumphed at her, before answering, ‘Good luck with him. He’s all yours. I’m out of here.’

‘But –?’

‘I don’t care how good this job looks on the resume or how much it pays,’ the angry woman continued, going to the desk and pulling out a pink backpack. She threaded it over her shoulders. ‘It’s so not worth it. There’s a reason why that man goes through assistants like he does. It’s a wonder any of us last more than an hour. Oh, but we do, don’t we? No wonder they offer us scholarships to get us in here. But, I tell you, I’d rather pay off a student loan than put up with this shit.’

‘Ah,’ Kat’s mouth opened to say more, but the woman only brushed rudely past her, continuing to mumble.

‘I told him I quit, but he probably didn’t hear me – like usual.’ The woman pulled open the door. Glancing down the hall from which she came, she growled, ‘Impossible!’

‘Okay,’ Kat said under her breath when the woman was gone. ‘That was interesting.’

‘Margaret!’ a man yelled. ‘Margaret, I need your help.’

Kat stepped closer to the desk, her curious nature again getting the better of her as she waited to see who had made the woman so mad. Watching the hallway as a man turned the corner, she stiffened.

She instantly looked him over, studying him with a photographer’s eye, taking in every last detail and memorising it. The man was adorable in an absentminded professor kind of way. She found herself completely enamoured with the image he presented her. He wasn’t drop dead gorgeous by any means with his tired, messy appearance, or at least from what she could tell he wasn’t. An overgrowth of dark facial hair hid most of his features from view, including his lips, and the hair on his head bushed out, falling over his forehead. Safety glasses covered his eyes, the clear plastic obscuring the true colour of his irises underneath, though they looked to be a deep, solid brown.

Still, there was something very appealing about him. Though messy, his hair fell in thick waves of dark brown, curling loosely around his head. It was mussed up in such a manner that made Kat think he’d been pulling at it in frustration. He wore a white lab coat, dark charcoal grey pants and casual black leather slip-on shoes. The shoes looked designer from a distance, but it was hard to tell.

‘Margaret!’ Seeing her, he stopped and adjusted his safety glasses. ‘Oh, there you are Margaret. Very good. He’s disappeared again. I need your help.’

When she didn’t move right away, he lifted the safety glasses and put them on his head, as his eyes narrowed in on her. They were bloodshot and had dark circles underneath them attesting to the fact that this man hadn’t slept for some time. Kat was even more enthralled. The curious artist inside her screamed for answers.

Who was he? What kept him awake? Why was he
screaming for Margaret? Why did he think she was Margaret?

‘Well, come on then,’ he said.

‘I’m Kat,’ Kat said. ‘Not Margaret.’

‘What? Oh, right, Kat,’ the man answered, straightening slightly. ‘I’m always forgetting that, aren’t I? So sorry. Kat.’ He nodded his head and repeated her name softly as if doing so would help him remember it, ‘Kat. Kat. Kat.’

She just watched, her hand absently straying to the latch on her camera bag. The man was absolutely distracted. He was looking right at her, but she had a feeling he wasn’t seeing her at all. She could envision his mind racing with thoughts.

‘You think I’d remember your name as you’ve been working so long for me.’

Kat didn’t move. He still thought she was his employee? Having seen the fashion nightmare that just walked out of the office, she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

‘I will try to remember, Kat,’ he promised. She decided he had a nice voice, deep and low. The kind of soothing tone a girl could fall asleep listening to. ‘Sorry, I guess my other assistant must have been Margaret.’

‘That’s perfectly all right,’ said Kat, not moving.

‘Come on, you’re not paid to stand there.’ He motioned, as if to insinuate she was to follow him down the hall.

‘But, I’m not paid,’ Kat said, slowly moving to go after him. How could she not? The man was so strange, she found herself utterly fascinated. True, mildly attractive nerds weren’t usually her type, but there was something all too appealing to his lost looks and his wild hair. Besides, there was a kindness in his voice, in the tone of it that she detected right away. Maybe it wasn’t a tone so much as it was a feeling she got when she heard it.

The man stopped again. He shook his head before fumbling to pull up his lab coat. She leaned to the side,
getting a better view of his trim waist. The man was in shape, either he worked out or he was so busy he forgot to eat. Hmm, maybe science guy had a little more to offer than she first gave him credit for. Perhaps with a clean shave and a lab coat-free wardrobe, he’d be passable.

OK, why was she suddenly having very sexual thoughts about Mr Distracted? Maybe it was the lab coat and glasses, but her mind turned on a very wicked fantasy involving the man before her, a science lab and being fucked from behind.

Get a hold of yourself, Kat, she told herself.

Even so, her body stirred, becoming moist between her thighs. Maybe playing patient and mad scientist would be a better scenario. He could do naughty little science experiments on her with his tongue.

Whoa, Kat, reign it in.

‘Sorry, I must have forgotten again.’

His words jerked her out of her fantasy and she blinked several times, trying to follow what he was saying.

‘Don’t hesitate to remind me in the future.’ Shoving his hand into his pocket, he pulled out a wallet. He began walking, digging through the wallet for cash. ‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Ah, nothing,’ Kat said.

‘That’s ridiculous. You can’t work for free. I know the college calls this an internship, but still, I prefer it if you made something as my assistant. I remember what it is like to carry a full class load and an internship.’

He stopped at a door. The glass window in the door was frosted over and a gold plate read, ‘Laboratory 1a Dr Vincent Richmond, PhD Entomology’.

This poor adorably lost man was Dr Richmond? Her Dr Richmond? This was the guy she was supposed to date? Kat took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than she’d first thought.

Step one. Get him to actually look at her.

Vincent grabbed the doorknob, opened the door and turned seemingly all at the same time. In his hand was a hundred dollar bill.

‘Take this,’ he said, thrusting it back at her. ‘I’ll figure out the difference later. Right now we have work to do.’

Kat looked at the money, very tempted to put it in her pocket. He shook it expectantly. She wasn’t a saint, but she also wasn’t so mean as to rob this preoccupied man.

‘But, I’m not –’ she tried to say, but he sighed heavily, stopping her.

Vincent grabbed her hand and put the money in her palm. His fingers were warm, but he didn’t let his touch linger. She frowned as he turned away, ending any discussion over the money. She watched him closely, but he didn’t even look at her. His hands were on his hips as he looked up and down the laboratory studying the floor and ceiling in turn as he walked beside the long line of tables.

Row upon row of narrow drawers filled one of the walls. They were each marked with a white sticker written on in small precise script. The stickers were labelled with a letter and several numbers. Opened books were piled high on one of the tables. Some had highlighted passages in them, others were marked with paperclips. A notepad, filled with the same script that was on the drawers, was by the books. They were compiled of long lists of Latin words and strange notations.

The door had said this was a laboratory, but Kat found the room odd for a lab, though the old brown tables and the library atmosphere were probably suited to a guy who studied word history. Cluttered along the edge of the long counter, there were beakers, microscopes, an array of instruments from tweezers to little slides and some sort of machine that looked like it belonged in a science laboratory, but Kat had no idea what it did. She’d failed science in high school and never went to college.
There’d been no point. Ever since she was little, she’d wanted to be a photographer. She deduced easily that the drawers had to be filled with old texts and maybe the equipment was used for carbon dating or whatever it was these types of men did.

‘I don’t work for you.’ Kat set her camera bag on the table. Thinking she’d seen movement on the floor, she glanced down. It was nothing.

‘Sorry, what was that?’

‘I don’t work for you,’ Kat repeated.

Vincent stopped, standing very still as if it took him a moment to process what she said. Slowly, he turned. ‘You can’t quit on me. I’ve had too many quit on me this year.’

‘But –’

He held up his hands and came back to where she waited by the door. As if seeing her for the first time, he blinked, his eyes roaming over her face and clothes. ‘Ah, wow, you’re . . .’

Kat waited. Beautiful? Pretty? Sexy? Dateable? This was more like the reaction she was used to from men.

‘. . . ah, different,’ Vincent said, not exactly in pleasure. He frowned at her pink hair. ‘Did that happen here? Did you have a chemical spill? I hope you filled out the proper paperwork. I’m not sure what I have around here that would cause such a reaction in human hair, but is that why you’re quitting?’

Kat tensed. Different? She was different? This nut job was one to talk. He didn’t even know his own assistant’s name or what she looked like.

‘Here,’ he reached for his wallet, ‘I’ll pay to get your hair fixed, only don’t quit. Please. I’m so close to a breakthrough, I can feel it. I’ve got too much going on right now and the college won’t send me another assistant until the autumn semester.’

‘I coloured my hair like this on purpose,’ she said, dryly.

‘Oh.’ He looked surprised. ‘Ah, well, it’s lovely.’

His tone was hardly convincing. So, the man didn’t like her hair. So much for Zoe’s theory that he’d like a little freaky freaky in the bedroom. Not that she was going anywhere near this man’s bedroom. Different? Did he really call her different?

Kat reminded herself why she was there in the first place. Faux Pas. She had to get him to date her. Since by the looks of him she could assume he never left work, maybe the best way to get him to date her was to work with him. Besides, she really needed a job.

‘You’re in luck,’ Kat said, smiling brightly at him as if she hadn’t a care in the world. What was it his mother had insisted? Part of the job was looking past his rudeness and not running away too quickly when he was ineloquent. ‘I happen to be looking for a job. Your assistant, who I can assume was possibly named Margaret, quit on you. She walked out when I was walking in. She mentioned that you might not have listened to her when she told you.’

Vincent frowned and scratched his beard. He glanced around the room, leaning over as if looking for something under the counters. His pet, perhaps? Kat glanced around, not seeing any dogs or cats lounging about. Could it be a rodent of some sort? A little mouse maybe? A shiver worked over her spine. She wasn’t a big fan of mice, but she could handle it.

As if to himself, he said, ‘Someone was talking. I wasn’t really listening.’

‘Hmm, that would’ve probably been her,’ said Kat, nodding. ‘People tend to appreciate being listened to.’

‘What?’

‘I said, how much does this gig pay?’

‘Do you have any experience in a laboratory?’

‘Do you have any other job applicants vying for the position?’

‘Uh, good point,’ Vincent said. ‘Say, five hundred a
week in cash, eight hour days, Monday through Saturday. Sundays off.’

‘Five-fifty,’ Kat counter offered.

‘Deal,’ he said. ‘Now, help me look.’

‘I would’ve taken five.’ She watched him lean over again to look under the table.

‘I would’ve paid six. I’m desperate.’

Kat hid a smile. Maybe on a good day he wouldn’t be so bad. It was possible he was under a lot of scientific stress. Maybe his boss was breathing down his neck for him to get something done. There might be some sort of enormous book find he had to get dated for archaeological research purposes. Thinking of it like that, the job as his assistant might actually prove to be interesting. She could document the find or something.