Weight Expectations: Cipher Office Book #1

by M. E. Carter

  “—and breathe out, lowering your hands to the floor, switching sides.”

  Oh, lord. It takes a few minutes and some serious concentration, but I make it to the other side. I’m breathing heavy and I’m sure there is sweat sliding down my back, but I did it, without falling into a heap on my mat. Maybe yoga is more my style than I thought. I feel like I’m getting both stretchy and strong at the same time.

  “Breathe in, arms up to the sky, hold… now breathe out and lower yourself to the floor, pushing up into the cobra pose.”

  One more glance around the room to see people lying on their stomachs, pushing their upper body up like a snake. I, on the other hand, am still stuck in a lunge. How do they do this so quickly?

  I refuse to give up, though. Lying down is right up my alley, so I get into position as quickly as possible and try to imitate the pose until Helena gives us the go ahead to release and drop our head to the floor.

  I’m wiped. Contorting my body into different poses is more exhausting than I thought it would be. I’m glad to be taking a breather.

  “Let’s do that sequence three more times.”

  What?? I barely made it through doing it once. She wants me to do it three more times?

  Groaning, I try my best to push myself back into the doggie style position, or whatever it was called. Forget keeping my legs straight. I need to use what little muscle I have to get upside-down-right.

  Francesca better be right. Three more sequences and I’m going to need that “not really a nap” portion of the class. Badly.

  Chapter Twelve

  CARLOS

  “I’m serious, Carlos. I don’t need to be on the phone fighting with the insurance company about why they keep denying coverage on my pregnant wife. Especially while she’s on mandatory bedrest.”

  I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a deep breath in while I listen to Quinn rant through the line. Again. It’s becoming a regular occurrence these days, and the worst part about it is, he’s not wrong. Something is going on with everyone’s coverage and we can’t figure out what. Daily, I’m getting an email, call, or in-person visit from someone getting denied a dental visit or receiving a bill in the mail for medical services.

  Karen, our benefits coordinator, has been on the phone constantly with the insurance company trying to sort it out, but it’s not going fast enough for anyone’s liking. Especially me. Not because I’ve been to the doctor lately, but because I’m the one who gets to take the brunt of it when Quinn is off his rocker.

  And lately, he is always off his rocker. So much so that whenever security cameras catch him walking into the building, a “code pink” gets called out. Pink because Janie is pregnant and… well, I don’t know why else. It just seemed to make sense, and we all figured out what it meant pretty quickly.

  What I don’t get alerts for, though, are the phone calls. Quinn is the only one who knows the direct number into my office without having to go through my assistant. It’s convenient when we’re working on securing a new client. It’s not convenient at all when he’s a raging lunatic like right now. I’m going to need to take advantage of our mental health coverage soon if this keeps up. Assuming it doesn’t get denied.

  “I don’t know whose ass you need to ride, Carlos, but this needs to be fixed now. My child is not going to be born in some half-ass hospital with completely underpaid and inept staff because our benefits are fucked up, and I certainly don’t have time to figure it out myself. I have knitting patterns to print out.”

  Again— no idea what he’s talking about. I assume it has to do with Janie’s love of knitting. Hell, she brought me some really amazing handmade gloves with a matching scarf and beanie once. Softest thing I’ve ever felt. But where Quinn’s obsession is coming from eludes me. I’m also not sure how Janie hasn’t stabbed him with her knitting needles yet. I have a hard time believing he’s not this obnoxious at home.

  “I know.” I finally cut off his rant. “I’m calling another meeting with Karen as soon as we hang up so we can figure out what’s going on. She said something about having a new account rep so I’m sure it’s just a communication breakdown.”

  “Well, they better fix it.” Sounding calmer, which is always a bad sign, he tacks on, “Also—”

  Oh, boy. An “also” is never good. I grab my pen and note pad because I have a feeling Quinn has another idea on how to expand the company and I need to be prepared.

  “—Janie and I have been talking.”

  “Okay,” I say while wiggling my pen between my fingers. But inside I’m thinking, “Those words are never the start of anything good.”

  “Janie’s going to take some time off.”

  I freeze. Janie is a brilliant account manager. As in, genius-level smart. Not only does she manage accounts, but because of her degree in architecture, she spends a lot of her time out in the field looking at the structural design of the buildings we secure to ensure the best locations of our equipment. Essentially, she does the job of two people. And she does it so efficiently, it could be argued she does the job of three.

  “When you say taking time off, what exactly does that mean?”

  “A year. Maybe longer.”

  My pen freezes in my hand. Good thing Quinn is on the phone. If he knew the death daggers that were coming out of my eyes, he’d fire me on the spot. Account managers themselves are a dime a dozen. But by the nature of this business, the background checks are extensive. Our checks rival those done by the FBI and CIA. According to Alex, our resident hacker-turned-straight, we’re more thorough as well, but obviously I can’t verify that. Nor would I want to try. I’ll leave the hacking into national security systems to him. I don’t look good in orange or jumpsuits. The combination of the two would be hideous.

  Janie being gone for longer than just maternity leave puts a huge kink in the plan we’ve had for her absence, not to mention, our budget. It would have been nice to know this a couple months ago when we were planning the fiscal year.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Quinn growls through the phone. I glance around to the corners of my office looking to see if there is a hidden camera somewhere. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me. “And stop looking around the office. There aren’t any bugs you don’t know about.”

  So, he just has ESP. Got it.

  “I’ll get with Nancy and start running the ads today,” I continue. “How soon is she leaving?”

  “As soon as her replacement is trained.”

  I don’t bother expressing my frustration. It’s just a waste of time, and obviously, I don’t have any to spare now that I need to find someone, or someones, with particular skillsets. Not only that, any candidates can’t ever have gotten so much as a speeding ticket. This is going to be an uphill battle.

  “I’ll do my best to get her position filled as quickly as possible, but you know there are federal hiring guidelines I’m required to follow.”

  “I’m sure you can find a work around.”

  I chuckle humorlessly. He knows as well as I do there is no “working around” federal requirements. The only way to speed up the process is to pray for a knitting needle in a haystack to drop right in my lap.

  Looks like I won’t be working banking hours for a while.

  “Anything else I need to be ready for, since I have your undivided attention?”

  A muffled sound comes through the phone and Quinn begins cussing under his breath. “Shit. Dammit. Fuck… okay, sorry. What was that, Carlos?”

  So much for undivided attention. “Never mind. Not important.”

  A rap on my door has me looking up to see Karen in my doorway, looking as frustrated as I feel.

  “You have a minute?” she mouths, hearing Quinn babbling on about an overlay or something. At this point, he’s gone off the rails again, so I’m only half paying attention as I wave her in and gesture to the chair in front of me. I think everyone in the office is hoping he’ll calm down once the baby is born. He’s a phenomenal boss, and I ca
n say with all honesty, this is the best job I’ve ever had. I don’t see a future where I wouldn’t want to work here or under Quinn Sullivan. Unless Janie keeps getting pregnant.

  I swear if they turn into a “nineteen kids and counting” couple, I’m out of here.

  Okay, fine. No, I’m not. We’ll just add “Code Pink” to the official employee handbook.

  “Hey, Quinn, I know you’re still trying to figure out that hook stitch and all—” Karen’s eyebrows furrow in question. Yeah, I don’t get it either, Karen. “— but Karen is finally off her call, so I’m going to get with her on this insurance issue.”

  Her eyes widen and she sits forward, waving her hands back and forth. “I’m not here!” she mouths frantically. “Code pink! Code pink!”

  I almost start laughing at her determination not to talk to our boss, until he yells, “I’m serious, Carlos! Someone’s head is going to roll if this doesn’t get fixed soon!”

  “Understood. Thanksforcallingbye,” I say quickly and hang up before he can get another word in. Probably not the best way to secure my job, but I’m betting he’s already forgotten and moved onto another minor irritation he can torture me with later.

  Collapsing back in her chair, Karen blows out a breath. “When is that woman due? Please tell me it’s soon.”

  “I wish. August? September? Something like that.”

  She shakes her head. “Poor guy is going to have a coronary before then.”

  “He can’t.” I toss my pen back on my desk and pinch the bridge of my nose again. Suddenly, I have a headache. Not sure if it’s from all these conversations or the caffeine detox I’m doing. My guess is the conversations. “We don’t have the insurance to cover it.”

  Karen picks up the legal pad she carried in with her, presumably so we can get down to business. She’s pretty no-nonsense that way, which is why she’s incredible at her job. In her mid-fifties, Karen is a recent college grad. Married at twenty-five, she quit working and immediately started a family, raising several kids for years. But once they were all out of the house, she was bored and decided to go back to school and start a career. Her husband supported the idea completely and somehow, she fell in love with HR, benefits in particular.

  Turns out, she has the perfect personality for it. Plus, she still makes us cookies sometimes. Not that I’ll eat them unless it’s a special occasion, and cardio day. But it keeps everyone else happy as well. It also helps soften the blow when she has bad news.

  By the look on her face, I bet she wishes she brought cookies to my office.

  Steepling my fingers together and leaning my elbows on my desk and level with her. “You have bad news, don’t you?”

  She sighs. “It’s not good. It’s also no different than it’s been for the last week.”

  “They can’t figure it out either.”

  She shakes her head regretfully. “I’ve tripled checked all our entries to make sure it’s all set up in our system correctly. The account rep has checked their system, and it’s all correct over there as well.”

  “Then why are all these claims getting rejected?”

  “They’re looking into it. But it seems to be somewhere in the claims division.”

  “Are you sure they aren’t screwing with us? Trying to not cover things to save money?”

  “They can’t do that. That would be fraud.”

  She has a point.

  “And we’ve paid the premiums on time? Quinn didn’t accidentally change bank accounts or something, did he? I can’t keep up with him these days.”

  Karen tries not to laugh at my outburst. She knows how frustrated I am right now.

  “That was the first thing I checked. Everything is paid up.”

  Then what could this be? I rub the pad of my thumb over my lip as I think. If everything is entered correctly and we’ve paid up, then it wouldn’t be an intentional issue. Maybe human error, but maybe not.

  “Quinn didn’t authorize a system update to the HRIS and forget to tell me, did he?”

  This time she doesn’t even try not to laugh. “Nope. We have the same systems as al—wait.” She freezes to think, her eyes moving back and forth as her brain keeps up with whatever conclusion she’s coming. “Son of a bitch!” she finally yells and jumps from her chair, storming out the door.

  “Wait!” I call after her. “What happened?”

  She turns around and takes the two steps back to lean on my doorjamb. “I think I know what happened. I’m calling right now so they can sort it out.”

  I turn my hand palm up, gesturing to her. “You gonna tell me what you think is going on?”

  “Nope. I don’t want to get your hopes up.” She turns around to stomp off again.

  “So, what am I going to tell Quinn next time he calls?” I yell.

  “Tell him I want a raise for figuring this out!” she calls back over her shoulder, not stopping this time.

  I chuckle under my breath. “I’m gonna need a raise, too, Karen. Or at least his first born named after me,” I say under my breath. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to make do with a stiff drink instead now that Janie’s shoes need to be filled on top of everything else. And then it hits me…

  I may have found that needle already, in a woman I can’t keep my mind off of. Well, that was easy. And yet… I suspect things are about to get very complicated.

  Chapter Thirteen

  RIAN

  Sundays are my day off. Really, weekends are my days off, but Sundays are special. I refuse to get out of my jammies, and I lie on the couch watching TV all day. I work at Sendeke Telecom so, of course, I have the best package out there. It would be a shame to let it go to waste by not taking advantage of it at least once a week.

  Right now, I’m obsessed with Marie Kondo. Yes, her show can teeter on the boring side with all the emotional back stories, many of which aren’t even that emotional. But I find her technique endearing. There’s something sweet about thanking her items for what they’ve done for her—no matter how small and insignificant the item seems.

  So, I’m not sure how I found myself sitting at the smoothie bar on a Sunday afternoon when I should be taking mental notes on how to downsize while silently judging the hoarders on TV. But, ever since finding out Fred is retiring, I’ve had a restless energy. I can’t describe it. It’s like a constant hum all over my body. It’s not that I hate my job. I just never realized I was using Fred as sort of a barrier to other inner office issues. Without him there, I may hate my job quickly.

  Plus, Carlos has started invading my thoughts a lot lately, and I can’t figure out why. Fine. I might know. It’s probably guilt.

  I didn’t mean to act rudely after he told me he was God’s gift to women… but come on. The man literally said his purpose in life was to give women sexual pleasure. That one statement confirmed what I had already assumed just from watching him here.

  Carlos Davies is pompous and arrogant, and not in a good romance novel kind of way. He is selfish and smarmy. I’m kind of surprised I’ve never seen him kiss his own biceps while staring in a mirror longingly at himself.

  And yet…

  Yes, there is as “yet”. That’s the worst part in all my swirling emotions. I enjoyed talking to him, minus that one odd incident. He was funny and smart. He has an eclectic taste in friends and is obviously driven if he’s the COO of a major security firm. It’s a little weird that he is so strict on his diet, but I guess it’s a little weird that I’m not very strict on mine.

  It was easy to push the thoughts aside during the work week. Francesca provided a lot of good distraction. Especially when Nolan tried to lecture us on the health benefits of kale. I’m sure he’s still trying to find information about the Great Kale Overdose of 1912. I will never understand how he believed an entire village of people died after eating too much of the leafy green.

  My thoughts are much, much harder to keep control of on the weekend. I finally gave up and came here. I figured I’d have a healthy smoothie, do a l
ittle treadmill, and be fully prepared to tell Abel tomorrow that I’ve already worked out once this week and it’s my easy day. He won’t believe me, which is why I’ve already taken a picture of the inside of the building with the time a date stamp. Can’t be too prepared with that one.

  Now, if only I could motivate myself to get on that death machine…

  “I wasn’t expecting to have drinks with you again so soon.”

  I look over just as Frank takes a seat next to me.

  “Frank!” I say with probably too much excitement, but how can I act subdued? This is the man who changed my perspective on tequila. “I didn’t know you came here on Sundays.”

  “I’m here every day, gorgeous. It’s practically my home away from home.”

  “I’ve heard that,” I say with my lips wrapped around my straw. “You’re like the gym mascot.”

  A hearty laugh rumbles through him and I fully understand why Tabitha likes him so much. He’s just so easy to be with. It’s as if he has no expectations of anyone. He just enjoys who they are, no matter what that means.

  It hits me out of nowhere that maybe I could take a page out of Frank’s book. Maybe the reason I’m feeling so consumed with thoughts of Carlos is because I’m at war within myself. Part of me wants to like him, but a really strong part wants to judge him as well.

  That realization cements it for me. I need to give Carlos another shot. Not to fix anything he did wrong, but so I can fix my own preconceived notions. Maybe look beyond what he presents on the outside to see the flawed human being underneath.

  “I know I’m considered a staple around here, but I had no idea some called me the mascot,” Frank says with a smile, and Tabitha immediately places a drink he didn’t order in front of him. “Thanks, Doll.”

  Tabitha winks over her shoulder at him and gets back to another customer. When he looks back at me, I just raise an eyebrow.

  “What?” His tone indicates he’s asking a question, but the smile on his face and playful glint in his eyes say he knows exactly what I’m thinking.