SEAN
I didn’t know what Kent and Meara were up to, but it was pretty obvious when Damien scooped Sam and I up and corralled us in the kitchen. He poked his head into my office and made some excuse about wanting to investigate a new coffee maker.
I followed him, expecting to see something cool, but it was just our old coffee maker with a few new pods. Sam was equally as perplexed, but when we tried to leave, Damien came up with yet another reason why we should stay.
“This isn’t just coffee, it’s a latte,” he said, holding up what looked like a normal coffee pod.
“I don’t drink lattes,” I said.
“Just try it. Just once,” Damien urged.
I looked at Sam. She shrugged. I sat down at the table in the small kitchenette and waited for my drink. Damien waxed philosophical about tile backsplashes and why our little kitchen didn’t have one.
“It’s not a show home,” I told him. “Why would we have a tile backsplash?”
“What if someone is doing the dishes and they get water on the wall?” Damien asked.
“I guess they would clean it,” Sam responded.
She took a seat beside me, and we waited to be served. Damien kept looking at his watch, as if there was a meeting he had to get to. Yet every time we tried to bring an end to the strange gathering, he made up some other excuse.
“I wanted to get your opinion on something,” he tried.
“Shoot,” I said.
“Penguins.”
“What?” Sam asked incredulously.
“Should they be in the zoo? I mean, they need a cold climate, right? Is air conditioning enough for them?” Damien set a latte in front of each of us, waiting for an answer to his absurd question.
“Did you have a stroke?” I asked.
“No,” he replied, giving me a hard stare.
I tried to make meaning out of the glance but couldn’t. It was right there on the tip of my tongue, but it wouldn’t resolve itself. Why would Damien force Sam and me into the kitchen and not let us leave? Why would he pepper us with insane questions instead of letting us get back to work? Something was going on, and judging from the looks I was getting, Damien expected me to understand what it was.
Then it dawned on me. The only two people who weren’t in attendance were Meara and Kent. Were they somewhere together, possibly doing something that Damien didn’t want interrupted? I raised my eyebrows, and he nodded.
I joined in the fun, doing the best I could to keep Sam occupied. “Maybe we should just do away with zoos,” I said. “I mean, if people want to see lions, there should be that element of danger. We shouldn’t hide them behind bars.”
“Like a safari?” Sam asked, still perplexed.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, what’s going on?” Sam stood up, leaving half her latte unfinished.
“We’re just trying to get some use out of this room,” I said, following her to my feet. “It’s basically wasted space, and since we’re paying a premium for this office, we figured it was important to take meetings in here.”
“I use the kitchen every day to make my lunch,” Sam argued.
“Every day?” I challenged.
“Well, not every day,” she admitted. “But enough that you should be able to get your money’s worth.”
Damien looked at his watch again. “I think we should do some work in here. Just to be sure.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll go get my laptop.”