27. Their Event

27

THEIR EVENT

“ W hat’s the face for?” Regan asked Miles when she came back from getting a soda in the vending machine Tuesday afternoon.

“What?” Miles asked, lifting his head from the piece of paper in his hand.

“I asked what your face is for. You’re concentrating like it’s something serious.”

“It kind of is,” Miles said and turned the paper over for her to read it.

Thanks a lot, bitch. You’re supposed to help, not make it worse. You’ll get yours someday.

She took a second to absorb what was in front of her. She’d seen a lot worse threats from clients during her internships, but this was one directed right at her.

Miles was already worked up and this could get messy if she didn’t try to contain the situation.

She looked at the envelope and it had a Durham stamp on it from the post office. Not much help there.

“Well,” she said. “That’s not very flattering, is it?”

“That’s all you’ve got to say?” Miles asked, his voice rising. “I’m shaking and it’s not even directed at me. Or it could be. I’ve been called a bitch before.”

“Then maybe it is to you,” she said, forcing a grin. “You help people too. My clients. Could be you didn’t give someone the appointment times they wanted.”

“Ha ha,” Miles said, giving his shoulders an offended wiggle, but she saw the fright in his eyes and hoped it wasn’t mirrored in hers. “Why aren’t you bothered by this?”

“I’m trying to tell myself this person lacks the confidence to express their displeasure to my face in a session so sending me an anonymous letter is harmless.”

“You’ve got yourself some big balls for a woman,” Miles said. “I always thought mine were big. Literally, but you might top me.”

She laughed. “See. I made you smile.”

“Seriously,” Miles said. “You’re not worried over this?”

“No,” she lied, turning her head when the door opened and Betsy walked in. “Things like this happen all the time in my profession. It’s not a big deal.”

“What’s not a big deal?” Betsy asked.

“Regan got a threatening letter in the mail.”

“It’s not that threatening,” she said. “It’s someone that is displeased with my services by the sounds of it. It happens. You can’t tell me everyone is happy with Zander’s services.”

“I’ve never known anyone to complain other than having to pay the bill, but they still weren’t mad at him. How threatening of a letter? Let me see it,” Betsy said. “Zander is good at these things.”

“Yes,” Miles said. “Let Zander look at it.”

She had the paper still in her hand. “Nope,” she said. “No reason to involve anyone. It’s not a big deal. I told you that.” Good lord, if Zander got a hold of this, she could only imagine his reaction. She needed to think it through some more first.

“Well,” Betsy said. “I came over with a report for Sophia. Things we’ve found so far. Zander asked me to bring them over when I was done typing everything up.”

She reached her hand out for the envelope and while she did that, Miles snatched the anonymous letter out of her hand and then gave it to Betsy. “There, let Zander see that. Get his opinion.”

“Bye,” Betsy said, running out of the door before she could get it back. She could chase after Betsy, but then she’d look like a fool.

“Why did you do that?” she asked Miles. She wasn’t normally pissed, but she was right now.

She was trying to keep this under control that it wasn’t a big concern, but the minute her boyfriend saw it he was going to think it was.

Not that Miles or Betsy knew that. But they’d sure the hell suspect it.

She and Zander had decided they were going to let their staff know after the holiday dinner.

She didn’t think there was going to be any bad dinner or anything, but she wanted to at least get through that before anything else.

Then right after the holiday, Zander said he had to go out of town for a few days on a case to Tennessee.

“Maybe he can help,” Miles said. “I don’t know. I just find the whole thing scary. How come you don’t?”

“Because it’s as I said. Gutless people send letters like that. Nothing will come about it.”

“Like the flowers you got weeks ago?” Miles asked. “Nothing more and no clue who they are from.”

She let out a sigh not needing a reminder of that either.

“Exactly. People often don’t care to say nice or mean things. They are coming here for help for a reason. If I got worked up over every little thing I’d never sleep at night.” Just like she wasn’t going to tonight.

“I suppose you’re right,” Miles said. “Still. I’m sorry. I can go get it from Betsy.”

“No reason to do it now,” she said.

She’d deal with Zander later tonight. Last she knew he wasn’t around today so he might not find out until later and she had clients back-to-back starting in thirty minutes and until closing. Then she’d lock up and take two more thirty-minute video sessions before she left for the day.

“Do we get to see what they found out on Sophia’s employers?” Miles asked. “Or am I in the dog house and aren’t privy to that information?”

She opened the envelope. Miles had access to most of her information there. He could get records if need be and had passwords to everything. Someone had to have those things for backup in case something happened to her.

Not that she ever thought anything would, but people could get hit by a car or struck by lightning at any point.

Plus, he dealt with her billing and sending and receiving records to and from other facilities.

She scanned the summary in front of her. “It doesn’t say much other than a quick general background showed no findings. The business itself is legal; all taxes are filed yearly. No major complaints either. Hopefully this will satisfy Sophia. Can you call and relay this to her and then send her the bill? We’ll see if there is anything else she wants done or added to it.”

“You’re not going to give her this information in a session?”

“No,” she said. “Her sessions are taken up with other personal issues. This is separate and I told her you’d be handling it. She is fine with it. If she’s not available to take the call now, find out when she is or she can come early to get it from you on her next session. I believe it’s next week.”

Miles was typing into his computer. “Monday at three.”

“Easy enough. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get ready for my next client.”

She barely had time to take a drink of her soda when Zander came marching into her office with the letter in his hand. “Talk,” he said.

She inhaled the carbonation right up her nose and started to sneeze and cough at the same time.

Miles came rushing in and then Betsy with him. Great, this was going to turn into their reveal event and she wasn’t prepared for it.

In her mind, she thought she’d walk over and kiss him and let them walk in and catch them this way in a simple romantic gesture.

Instead they were going to witness heightened emotions another way.

“What would you like me to say?” she asked calmly. “It’s a lovely sunny day out even though there is some briskness to the air.”

Zander slapped the letter down on her desk. Yep, he was pissed. She’d just gotten herself under control over this too. So much for trying to diffuse him with the joke.

“This,” he said.

“It’s a letter,” she said. “Not that long either. I bet it didn’t take long to read it.”

Miles snorted over her calm tone. But Betsy’s eyes were all but bugged out of her head. She couldn’t show these things bothered her because then it might diminish her strength in her profession.

“Yeah. It’s a threat.”

“Not really,” she said, looking back at Miles and Betsy. “It says you’ll get yours someday. There could be a lot of things coming to me in the future. Good and bad. Maybe it’s a prediction I could win the lotto?”

“Regan,” he snarled at her.

“You two are sleeping together,” Betsy yelled and pointed. “I know it. Zander never loses his control. He never gets upset. Something is going on.”

“And Regan is getting snarky with you,” Miles said, turning to Zander. “She only does that to those she is close to.” Miles’s eyes looked Zander up and down and she held back the giggle. “I’m sure she’s snuggling up to you good at night.”

“Out,” Zander said, firmly pointing to the door. “Both of you.”

“Excuse me,” Regan said. “This is my office. I can kick out anyone I want and I might want to kick your ass out of here if you take that macho tone again.”

“Oh man,” Miles said. “Regan is wound up. Let’s go, Betsy. We are right. I know we are. No way they are leaving here without confirming it.”

“Yes!” she and Zander shouted together at Miles and Betsy.

As pissed as she was right now, maybe she was relieved she could let her guard down and Zander would help with what was going on too. If she could calm him enough for that.

The minute Miles was out of Regan’s office he turned to Betsy. “How did this get by us?”

“I don’t know,” Betsy said. “But I’ve never seen Zander like that before. Ever. I mean he walked in the door and I stopped him.”

“What did you say to him?” Miles said. He started to fan his hand in front of his face. “I swear to God I wish I could convert him. That was hot. Though I’m not sure Regan feels that way.”

Some loud voices were going on and he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard voices in the office before. Maybe if a client got worked up and started to shout, but that was rare.

“He walked in the door and I told him I delivered the envelope as he asked. Maybe I wanted to see if I could get a protective or concerned reaction out of him with the letter. I didn’t expect him to read it and storm out as if scorpions were overtaking the place.”

“And coming over here to protect Regan from the nasty little bugs.”

“I think this is more than dating,” Betsy said. “Zander is upset.”

“And Regan wasn’t and then just snapped at him. She’s never snapped at anyone before. How long do you think this has been going on?”

“I don’t know,” Betsy said. “But we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

“Not sure it will be on our timeline. Regan has a client coming in in about thirty minutes.”

“Zander doesn’t fight long. I give them fifteen minutes.”

“Maybe ten if Regan takes control of the situation.”

“Do you have any glasses around here?” Betsy asked. “I’ve held them to the door before to listen.”

“It doesn’t work,” he said. “The walls are more soundproof here from the last tenant.”

“Bummer,” Betsy said. “I’m going to take a seat. Good thing Rocco is home today. He might have dropped a load just now with the way Zander reacted.”

Miles opened his desk drawer. “Popcorn?”

“Sure,” Betsy said.

He got up and stuck it in the microwave and the two of them took a seat and waited.