She couldn’t work out whether he was slightly agitated or just in a hurry. She’d heard from the receptionist the guy could be quite the charmer but that today he was in a pretty tetchy mood. What she saw now was a face that was just managing to hide that. And she couldn’t work out whether or not he was attractive because of it. His collar was open several buttons and sweat glistened below his Adam’s apple. He stood strangely, too, with his hands clasped in front of his pants. Maybe that was a European thing.

He sat quickly, almost gratefully, in the proffered seat.

She went back to finishing her notes.

Spencer looked at her. He wondered why he hadn’t seen her before. He reckoned he’d seen most of the people who worked at the Oakland CPS, even if it was just a glimpse. Her long, unstyled dark hair was tied back, but worn loose it might have worked pretty well for her. As far as he was aware, Lonnie had been the most attractive chick there and he’d thanked his lucky stars he hadn’t had to bang some old dragon in order to pass the time and lubricate the bureaucratic process. But this woman, Caitlyn she’d said her name was, she was kind of easy on the eye. As soon as Spencer had the thought, he knew he was kidding himself. She was right up there, except for one thing. Her vibe was cold, asexual even. Her loose blouse hid everything, and she wore almost no makeup.

He wondered if this was some sort of formality and soon he’d find himself back with Lonnie. He was certainly ready for her. His dick was actually hurting now. He looked down in his lap trying to figure out how obvious his arousal was.

He decided to speed things along. “If you don’t mind my saying, I might be able to save us some time here.”

Caitlyn glanced up but went back to reading as she replied. “How’s that, Mister Burnham?”

“Spencer, please. Well, as we both know, I’ve been signed off and nothing’s changed and today I am kind of pressed for time.”

Caitlyn detected a tinge of impatience, not yet exasperation although she felt that might be in the cards. She glanced up again. “Well hopefully this isn’t going to hold you back too much. I’ll be right with you.”

She decided she didn’t like the way the guy spoke, like he was turning up the Englishness. It reminded her of that stuttering English actor, the guy who did nothing but chick flicks but in real life was apparently cantankerous. She hated chick flicks, but she’d watch sci-fi quite happily.

“What I mean is . . .” He petered out as he saw she wasn’t going to stop reading. Obviously, she hadn’t even looked at his file until five minutes ago.