Colette opened the door and gestured for Zack to enter. He slumped into one of the chairs and tried not to squirm as she took her seat.

“I’m sure you have some idea why I called you here,” Colette said.

Zack’s blood curdled in his veins. “No, I don’t.”

“I’m afraid I have to level some serious accusations against you.”

The irony of the situation almost made him laugh. He was about to be fired over a lover he no longer had, one he’d only met because of his job. The emotions he had been trying so hard to suppress compacted into a volatile cocktail. One thought blazed through his mind: he did not need this shit right now.

“Just get on with it,” Zack blurted. “The suspense is killing me.”

Colette blinked. “Very well. First I’d like to give you an opportunity to be honest with me. Why hasn’t your whale been calling?”

Zack hesitated. Colette was watching him with the sharp-eyed attention of a hawk. If he showed the slightest discomfort, she’d know he was hiding something. He decided his best course of action would be to stick as close to the truth as he could.

“He lost interest in me,” Zack said. It pained him to say it out loud, but he did so without flinching. “That’s the honest-to-God truth. I know you didn’t believe me before, but he really did.”

Colette studied him and then nodded, satisfied. “Happens to the best of us, I suppose. Well, not to me, of course, but I’ve come to expect this from you.” She shuffled a few papers on her desk and selected one. “There were reports of a young man hanging out in front of the building a few weeks ago. People thought he was a protestor, but then he disappeared for several minutes and was later seen walking away. A few individuals said you and Alexa were the only personnel unaccounted for when the man was spotted near the building. When I interviewed those who were present, they reported that you seemed agitated. Is that true?”

“I don’t remember. That was a while ago.”

“Let me be frank. I think you arranged to meet this man and that he is a client of yours. Specifically, your whale.”

“How did you draw these conclusions?” Zack asked, dodging her question. “That guy could have been anyone. What evidence is there that I was meeting a client?”