Page 7 of Frankie and the Fed (Untamed Rascals #3)
T his job would put me off paleontology forever if I didn’t genuinely love my work. How somewhere as amazing as the Natural History Museum could be such a slog to work at was a mystery I had yet to solve.
One of the tour guides, Jane, went off script and spent entirely too long rambling at our exhibit today, asking me questions that had no place in the carefully curated script she should have been sticking to. Her little improvisation nearly made me late for lunch.
The lunch Lily set up with Jamie.
My stomach churned with nerves.
Speaking of Lily, she messaged me as soon as I sat down in the museum cafe that she was running late, but that Jamie was still up to eat with us. I considered running, but then I remembered my plan to get information on Jamie and took a few deep breaths instead.
Aside from my built-in friendship with Lily, I hadn’t bothered to make friends with the other employees here. Well, I did try, at one point, but then people would ask about my family and why my name was plastered all over the place, and any attempts at friendship would deteriorate from there.
My parents threw so much money at Natural History Museums that our name was plastered everywhere when I showed interest in paleontology as a kid.
When I chose to go into paleontology, it was so difficult to escape their money and make a name for myself.
I’d asked my parents to stop so I could work with dignity, but my mother had simply said, “Working is for other people. We have an image to maintain.”
I did everything I could to ruin that image, at least for myself, but it didn’t matter to the people here. I was still a Woolbridge, and thus any small bit of credibility I had tried to carve out for myself was forever tainted by rumors of nepotism.
“Hi,” a low voice interrupted my thoughts and pulled me from mindlessly scrolling a message board about UFO sightings in California.
It was all crap, rockets launched so often because of douche-face spaceman who thinks he’s going to live on Mars, but if I was looking at my phone, I could pretend it was responsible for why people avoided me.
Jamie stood before me, and for a brief moment, I was grateful for the softer light of the cafe casting her in a golden glow that lit her blond hair where it escaped from her otherwise neat bun .
The uniform that looked so terrible on everyone else caressed her curves, and I wondered if she was the model they had based the clothing on, assuming everyone would look so breathtaking.
The moment ended as soon as I remembered why she was here—why I was going along with this.
“I’m sorry,” she said, a soft smile stretching her lips. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear and blushed a soft pink that I followed down the vee of her shirt.
A response so perfect that it could only be practiced.
“It’s ok,” I forced myself to say as I gestured to one of the empty chairs. My tongue felt like lead as I watched her move. Witty quips when things were uncomfortable were a specialty of mine, and yet I couldn’t find any words.
My phone buzzed, and a message from Lily flashed across the screen, letting me know she wouldn’t be able to make it for lunch.
The bitch. She planned this.
I sent her an angry emoji and then put my phone away.
An awkward silence fell over the table, accented by the soft sounds of other diners and the museum on a busy afternoon.
I was wasting my chance to execute my plan, but words wouldn’t come, and I couldn’t seem to move past the growing warmth in my chest at how close she was.
“Those uniforms are awful,” I blurted out and immediately mentally kicked myself.
Jamie started and looked down at her clothing.
“Shit no. I mean— ”
“They are pretty bad,” she said at the same time I tried to apologize.
“They are pretty bad on most people, but somehow you look good.”
Smooth, Frankie. She will definitely let you get close to her so you can uncover all her secrets now.
“That is…” I kept fucking going. “You seem to have found a particularly well-fitted uniform. I—”
I shut my mouth.
“Thank you.” She blushed again, but I couldn’t hate her for it. Secrets or no secrets. “Would you be surprised to learn that I had mine tailored?”
She ran a hand down her side, drawing my eye to the curve of her waist and flare of her hips.
“That would explain why you don’t look as frumpy as everyone else. That was mean. I’m not mean. I promise. Just apparently awkward and unable to shut up right now.” I snapped my mouth closed again and stirred the tuna in my poke bowl for something to do with my nervous hands.
Jamie smiled at me before sipping the water she brought.
“When I started here, I was a little worried that it would be like that episode of Friends ,” Jamie said.
“I think I’m too young for that reference.” I grasped at the topic change, though this one didn’t seem to make me look any better.
“I probably am, too. I used to watch it with my dad, he had all the seasons on DVD, and we would stay up late bingeing it.” She sounded wistful and looked a bit lost before shaking off whatever put that sad look on her face.
“Joey takes a job as… wait, you know the show, right? I mean like the basics? ”
“Um, no?” I tried to think back to my childhood. I didn’t get the late night TV binges with my parents, and my nannies were under strict instructions about what I could and couldn’t do. I broke those rules, but I couldn’t remember a show called Friends .
“Right. Maybe I can show you it some time,” she said.
I’d never been shy around women I was interested in. I had no problems going after what I wanted in a relationship, that I never found what I wanted was another matter altogether. Something about Jamie, though, tied my tongue and gut into knots and refused to let me breathe.
My phone went off before I could respond.
“I have an afternoon meeting I need to get to,” I said apologetically, genuinely sorry to have to leave.
She turned her head just right, and an image of the woman in the shadows flashed through my mind. I hardened my resolve. I couldn’t let her slightly crooked smile distract me from my aim: find out what’s she’s hiding. I couldn’t believe I let myself forget why I should be on guard with this woman.
“I would love to watch the show with you,” I said.
Hours later, I realized I didn’t get her number or make any concrete plans.
Brilliant.