Mrs. Sweeney skims a hand across her left cheek. “Fix your hair there.”
I’ll take the critique because I know she wants the best for me. I push a few strands of my dark brown hair behind my ear. “How’s that?”
“You’re a beautiful blue-eyed girl.” She sighs. “You remind me of myself sixty-five years ago.”
Just as I’m about to comment that she’s as stunning now as she was in the black and white photographs she has shown me, the elevator dings to signal its arrival on our floor.
“Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need luck,” she says matter-of-factly. “You have experience and ambition. You’re one of the smartest women in this city.”
“From your lips to Mr. Mirnan’s ears.” I laugh.
As soon as the elevator doors slide open, I step into the car and turn to face her. “I’ll see you later, Mrs. Sweeney.”
“Knock them dead, Calliope.”
Chapter Two
Callie
Mrs. Sweeney is some sort of sorceress, or bad luck is trailing me like a lost puppy.
I stand on the sidewalk outside the Greenwich Village office of Mirnan Mortgage and watch as a body in a bag is wheeled past me on a stretcher.
Mrs. Sweeney told me to knock them dead, and that’s what happened.
Technically, I didn’t knock Mr. Mirnan dead. I didn’t even see him. When I arrived for my interview, an ambulance and police cars were already here.
The receptionist I had spoken to yesterday when I booked my interview was sobbing as she sat on the curb.
It seems Mr. Mirnan was having breakfast when he keeled over onto his desk.
By the time the EMTs arrived, he was already gone.
“The job isn’t available anymore,” the sad-eyed receptionist calls out to me. “Mr. Mirnan always said when he dies, the company goes with him.”
A few of the mortgage brokerage firm’s employees turn to look at her.
I take a breath and make my way to where she’s sitting. “I work at a bar a few blocks from here. Do you need a drink?”
Her tear-filled brown eyes look me over. “It’s not even ten a.m. yet.”
I’d tell her it’s five o’clock somewhere, but there’s no need to cast that lure in her direction. She’s already bouncing up to her feet. “I could use a strong martini.”
“I make a killer one,” I say before I wince.
Dammit, Callie. Inappropriate, much?
A slow smile creeps over her lips. “Mr. Mirnan would have laughed at that. He always laughed at my lame jokes.”
I take the backhanded compliment with a smile of my own.
“We can walk to the bar.” I point to the corner. “The drink is on me.”
Her gaze wanders to where her co-workers are all huddled together. “I’m sorry the job didn’t work out for you, Callie.”
I shrug a shoulder. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
“I’m Jade.” Her hand snakes toward me. “Jade Mirnan.”
I take her hand in mine and perk an eyebrow before following up with the obvious question. “Were you related to him?”
I don’t motion toward the back of the van where the body bag is being placed, but Jade puts two and two together when she looks at it. “He’s my husband’s uncle. He insisted I call him Mr. Mirnan at work and during family get-togethers. All the time, really.”
I would say that I’m glad I won’t be working for him because it sounds like he was a pretentious ass, but Jade doesn’t need to hear that while she’s grieving.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to grab my purse,” she says through a sniffle. “Thanks for the free drink offer, Callie. You showed up at just the right time.”
I take one last look at the van as a man dressed in a black suit slams the doors shut.
There goes my latest job opportunity.
With any luck, my next interview will go a hell of a lot better than this.
“Do I want to know why you and our only customer are dressed like twins?” My boss, Gage Burke, shoots me a smile from across the bar.
I laugh.
I arrived at Tin Anchor with Jade over an hour ago.
Since the bar wasn’t officially open yet, I used my key to unlock the door.
Gage greeted us immediately and didn’t balk when I said I would cover the cost of Jade’s martini before I prepared it.
I know Gage well enough to know he doesn’t expect me to pay for it.
He’s generous to a fault. He’s that way with all his employees, including my older brother, Zeke, who works here part-time as he pursues a career in computer animation.
“Jade works at the office where I was supposed to have an interview this morning,” I explain quietly. “Or worked at, I guess.”
Gage leans closer to lower his voice. “She was fired?”
I steal a glance at where she’s sitting next to a round table near one of the windows overlooking the sidewalk. “Her boss died this morning.”
Gage’s green eyes widen. “That’s brutal.”