"
She laughed. God, he liked working with young people. "So, why I'm
here," he said.
"Yes?"
"I want to put an access point in the second-floor window and around
back of the shop. Your boss owns the building, right?"
"Yeah, but I really don't think I can explain all this stuff to him --"
"I don't need you to -- I just need you to introduce me to him. I'll do
all the explaining."
She blushed a little. "I don't know, Abe..." She trailed off.
"Is that a problem?"
"No. Yes. I don't know." She looked distressed.
Suddenly he was at sea. He'd felt like he was in charge of this
interaction, like he understood what was going on. He'd carefully
rehearsed what he was going to say and what Natalie was likely to say,
and now she was, what, afraid to introduce him to her boss? Because why?
Because the boss was an ogre? Then she would have pushed back harder
when he told her to talk to him about the rental records. Because she
was shy? Natalie wasn't shy. Because --
"I'll do it," she said. "Sorry. I was being stupid. It's just -- you
come on a little strong sometimes. My boss, I get the feeling that he
doesn't like it when people come on strong with him."
Ah, he thought. She was nervous because he was so goddamned weird. Well,
there you had it. He couldn't even get sad about it. Story of his life,
really.
"Thanks for the tip," he said.
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