Surprise widened his eyes for a second, then those lazy half-lids concealed his thoughts again. He shrugged.

Lex frowned. If she wanted to be summarily dismissed, she’d have stayed at Pear.

They entered a large area crammed with cubicles. Lots of male voices. It reminded her of those movies about Wall Street traders, except apparently not all of them were on the phone.

“Lex, this is Dan and Jordan.” A Caucasian and an African American man cut off their conversation when they saw her. Speculative gazes pinned her to the floor.

An iron rod slammed down Lex’s spine. She returned a gimlet stare.

“Welcome to the team.” Dan’s voice had a menacing thread.

“Lot of work.” Jordan’s hard eyes flickered over her masculine work suit. A thin hand scratched the scruff on his narrow chin.

Lex crossed her arms. “I’m used to hard work.” Watch out, bucko, I’ ll arm-wrestle you under the table too.

He flexed a scrawny bicep.

She cracked her knuckles.

Grey interrupted the testosterone-estrogen duel. “This way’s your office.”

I get an office? Luckily, Lex’s teeth still ground together from her circling with Jordan, so she didn’t blurt it out and advertise her ignorance. These boys reminded her of her male cousins. She had rolled with enough punches and knew how to hit their soft spots.

Lex followed Grey down the row of cublicles.

“Here’s your office.” Gee, Grey’s voice could have been a tad more resentful.

Office? More like closet, and not the walk-in kind. It looked like Judy left in a whirlwind – papers scattered on the floor, dirt and purple petals dusting the carpet around a circle where a flowerpot had rested, the occasional waft of nail polish remover. Some sparkly flower stickers, painted butterflies, and cut-out hearts decorated the front of the metal file cabinet. An emery board and a half-open, mostly-used eyeshadow compact lay next to the desk leg.

And on top of the desk, a stack of pink “While you were out” slips. Lex caught the dates on some of the top ones – today.

Were they all -? She flipped through the stack. They were all from today. And a couple from Sunday too.

Grey had an almost amiable smile as he watched her sift the pieces of paper. Did her dismay blare out from her face? “There are also messages from last week in the desk drawer. Enjoy.”

He closed the door when he left, which doubled the floor space in her “office.” She squeezed around the edge of her desk to get behind it and collapsed into the squishy chair.

The little pink message slips giggled at her.

She planted her elbows on the desk and buried her face in her hands. She didn’t even know what to do. Looked like Judy had been cute and feminine – how could Lex fit those stilettos?

A firm knock at the door. More roosters come to strut? “Come in.”

Russell Davis entered with the first friendly smile she’d seen since that nice receptionist. “Sorry about that, I had a meeting.”

“That’s fine.” Lex climbed to her feet.

“No, no, there isn’t enough room to stand.” Russell had to walk all the way inside in order to close the door. He perched on her desk -taking up half the surface area – while she sat back down. Somehow his proximity didn’t crowd her.

Might as well begin as she meant to go on. “So, Russell, why did you hire me?”

He laughed. “Did it surprise you?”

She thought of the HR woman’s call. And the magnificent timing of it. “That’s one way to put it.”

He peered out the window into the back parking lot. “Well, when we talked, you demonstrated all the traits of who I wanted for this position.”

“That’s another thing. What exactly is this position?”

His eyes crinkled in laughter. “That’s right, you don’t know yet.

The Alumni Association Liaison is like a receptionist specifically for college alumni associations. You’re the intermediary between them and SPZ. Information, scheduling, promotion, news. You answer questions or find the answers, forward requests, implement suggestions. Alumni associations deal solely with you as the representative of SPZ.”

“How in the world am I going to be able to do all that? I’m a manufacturing engineer, for crying out loud.”

“Our last liaison – ”

“Yeah, I heard about her already.”

He studied the dirt pattern on the carpet with a brittle expression.

“The AAs didn’t warm up to her, and she didn’t relate to any of their representatives. You will.”

“How do you know that?”

He smiled, and the lines deepened on his face. “You know a lot about college sports, and not just the major ones.”

She flipped her memory back to their conversation. “For all you know, I could only be familiar with wrestling, basketball, and baseball.”

“True, but I could also tell you’re the sort who wouldn’t mind learning other sports if you had to.”

Lex tilted her head. “Well, that’s true.” She nodded at the closed door, then met his gaze directly. “There are a lot of guys out there who wanted this job.”

He grinned. “You can take ’em.”

“I’m serious, Russell.”

“They don’t understand that the AAs, by and large, prefer dealing with a female liaison.” He shrugged.

It probably wasn’t right, but Lex wasn’t about to complain.

Russell continued, “But I also didn’t want another woman like the previous liaison.”

Lex glanced at the sickening stickers, butterflies, and hearts on the filing cabinet. “Well, I can assure you I’m nothing like her.”

“I knew you weren’t. You’re right for the job. And I think you’ll enjoy it.” He got off her desk, backed up a step, and yanked open the door.

Three men bolted to their feet from a crouching position.

Russell glared.

They froze.

“Don’t you have work?” His tone could have made a volcano ice over.

They scattered.

He turned back to her and nodded at the pile of pink slips. “For today, return those phone calls. Introduce yourself so the AAs know there’s been a changing of the guard.”

“Okay.”

“If you have questions – ”

“I’ll bully one of the guys.”

He grinned and walked out of her office.

Lex booted up her computer. The IT department had already sent someone to reset the user. “ASakai” had been preprogrammed into the login window. Password? She typed in “ASakai” again.

Voila.

Aaaah. She could always tell a good company by their IT department.

She already had email. Wendy Tran – that’s what that HR chick’s name had been! – had arranged for her orientation at 2:00 p.m. in the HR department. That meant she had to answer these calls this morning.

Lex picked up the first slip. Arizona State. Mark Burns.

Deep breath. What did Russell say? People hadn’t related to Judy.But what had Judy done? Said? How could Lex know she wouldn’t do the same thing and alienate this Mark guy? She’d mess up on her first day at work. She’d be a total failure.

Deep breath again. She needed to think for a second here. Russell had implied that Judy hadn’t known much about sports. Well, Lex didn’t know about every college sports program in every college in the U.S. What if she congratulated Arizona State on their terrific golfing team when the University of Arizona had just whooped their butts in the last tournament? She’d ruin SPZ’s reputation and the company would fold.

Deep breath one more time. Pull a Nike. Just do it. You’re only introducing yourself. And if you mess up and they fire you, you won’t be any worse off than you were last Friday.

She dialed.

“Arizona State Alumni Association. This is Mark.”

“Hi, Mark. I’m Lex Sakai from SPZ.”

“Who?”

“Lex Sakai. I’m the new Alumni Association Liaison.”

“They got rid of Judy?”

“No, she left because she got pregnant.” Ooops, that didn’t come out right. “I mean, she left for personal reasons.”

Mark muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Good riddance.”