“So you were paying attention,”
Nikki’s smile threatened to become Cheshire-Cat sized. “I should not have
doubted you.”
“I made
that up on the spot,” I said, still looking at her leg.
“Droll,
Matthew. So, you’ve already deduced it all.”
“Nope.”
She sighed,
and the smiled faded, too.
“Nikki, I
really don’t care about any of the politics in this forsaken place. If you’ve
got a scheme for taking over or working in women through the back door,
probably by slowly replacing the girls with your own people to listen in and
blackmail people, fine. I don’t care.”
“You know,
Matthew, if you had the ambition for politics, you would do well.”
“Never been
my thing.”
“Nevertheless,
I could use your talents in the future with my endeavor.”
“Not
interested.”
“I can make
you interested.”
“No, you
can’t.”
“Hmm, I’ve
known you long enough to know that is probably true. There is nothing I could
do to entice you?”
“Nothing
comes to mind.”
“The noble
cause of dismantling a sexist and archaic institution?”
“Eh.”
“And though
you are quite interested in my physical features, I know you would not succumb
to those charms if offered.”
“Well, I
wouldn’t put it in those terms as I would never wish to offend—”
“Enough of
your verbal dancing regarding my physical prowess.” She sighed, again, not the
playful sigh from before or the exasperated sigh, this one was as close to real
emotion as she ever gave. “I had hoped that we could be involved in a long-term
project together. We only seem to collaborate when it is life and death. Where
is the fun, Matthew?”
I lifted my
eyes from her leg to stare into hers.