Walk, you slut.
I catch up to Callie in the hall, where she’s whistling and twirling her baton while the intruder holds his head. Shedefinitely hit him. At least it knocked the baseball cap off his head. This is not the space for a ball cap.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I really can’t help myself. It’s a flaw. I could choose to keep my mouth shut. But alas I cannot. He pissed me off therefore I must tell him exactly what I think of him.
He looks back and for a fraction of a second those chocolate-brown eyes almost suck me back in. They did this once already tonight, at the door, when I was the one with the clipboard and he was the one with the wrong jacket and I opened the rope.
I opened the rope.
I don’t open the rope for anyone not on the guest list, not in two years of this job. And I opened it for him in under a minute and I don’t know what he said to make me do it.
That is the problem. Not his eyes.
Lesson learned.
“Come on, lady.” He rolls those sexy brown eyes. An unforgivable offense because I find that also attractive. “Not you again.”
Callie twirls her baton.
“Callie.” My voice echoes and I look around. We are at the end of the hall, the Sphinx Gallery behind us. “Where are you taking him?”
“Out.” She looks back like that’s the dumbest question I could ever have asked.
“Not the main entrance.” I smile at a couple wandering too far this way. At least she kept to the under-construction parts of the museum.
“Fucking sparkly fairy unicorn with pink hair…” Callie pauses and turns back to me.
“Did you just call her a sparkly unicorn?” Viagra guy asks. Because what else should I call him?
“Don’t talk to me.” Callie holds a hand to his face. “East entrance.” Then she rolls those chestnut eyes of hers at me.
“One day…”
“They’ll get stuck, yeah. I know.” She punctuates. “Can we get to the elevator now? I do have a job, and do you really want me to let that little man with knobby knees keep those rich people in line? Hell no.”
“Of course.” I swallow. Sometimes she terrifies me. But I love her anyway.
“Should be in there mingling.” She drags Viagra guy away, muttering under her breath. “Seven years, Hadley. Seven. Bachelors. Masters. Ph-fucking-D.”
“You do belong,” I agree softly as my eyes remain on the perp.
Perp.Yes, I think I’ll call him a perp.
The word doesn’t stick. Perp implies a category I have a folder for, and I just established I don’t have a folder for him. Intruder is closer. Wrong man is closer still. The man I let in is the truest and I am not saying that one out loud, not even in my head, not even here.
And I will be unpacking that with my therapist for a month.
“Why?” the drug dealer, no, the trafficker, no, what is he, asks.
“You know you don’t have to come with me.” Callie drags him down the hall past the Africa exhibit, his hands now zip-tied behind his back.
She must have done it while I was busy losing my mind.
I glare at the little shit in front of me. “I need to see this through.”
“Why do you hate me?” he says it like a statement, walking sideways as my bestie hauls him down the hall.
“You don’t belong here,” I mutter. Ugh, he’s making me sweat. Which is just perfect. I’m about to sweat my makeup off and it’s going to stain my fancy dress.