“I don’t think ‘claustrophobic’ quite covers the description of that place. ‘Run-down rat palace on the edge of existence’ is a little more accurate.”

Zachary grinned and opened a beer. “You had that cubicle wall that was warped to shit, and you kept pissing off the managers because you had to prop it up with cinderblocks.”

Tyler laughed as he sat down the couch from Zachary and grabbed a slice of pizza. “He kept yelling at me to take the damned blocks away, and I did-“

“And then your whole cubicle collapsed.” Zachary laughed with Tyler as the movie started. “Am I a sick bastard if I miss that place?”

“Yes. Yes, you are.”

*

Thursday afternoon, at a quarter to one, Tyler stepped into the front office of ‘Ransack’ and was stopped cold at the sight of Precocious hanging from a rafter by her fingertips. There was a chair turned on its side below her, and she looked rather pissed.

“Salvation, finally. Get me down, will you?” She saw Tyler hesitate and gave him a wry smile. “I’m not going to start screaming about sexual harassment.”

“It’s always good to hesitate.” Tyler walked over to her and placed his hands on her hips. She dropped her hands from the rafters to his shoulders and let herself be lowered to the ground.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Why didn’t you just jump down?”

“Bad ankles.” Precocious righted the chair that was on the floor and pushed it against the wall. “Something would have snapped if I’d jumped.”

Tyler watched her walk to her desk and changed his line of sight to the rafters when she turned around and looked at him. “What were you doing up there?”

“Lucy got out of her cage.” Precocious pointed to a cage that was much to long and thin to belong to any cat or dog.

Tyler had a sudden image of a very large spider or a very large rat skittering around by his feet. He looked around the office warily. “Lucy?”

“She’s a ferret.” Precocious looked up at the rafters. “She loves the rafters in this place. I had to take her to the vet because she fell *off* the rafters and started limping. They had her under observation for the last few days, and I just picked her up this morning.”

“Could she be in Zachary’s office?”

“He’s out right now. The door’s been closed for hours.” Precocious walked around her desk and peeked behind a large, wide-leafed plant in the corner. “He should be back any minute. He doesn’t like to be late for appointments.”

“I remember.” Tyler carefully stepped over to a plant on the other side of the office and looked between the leaves. Down on the floor, snuggled securely against the plant, was a long, brown creature with glassy-looking eyes and two white triangles above its eyes. “Found her.” He leaned over to pick up the ferret, but paused. “Does she bite?”

“No.”

Tyler finished reaching down and picked up the ferret. It wiggled in his arms momentarily before settling in a compact ball against his chest. “Hi, Lucy.” He watched the ferret look up at him for a moment before deciding he wasn’t going to make a great conversationalist and returning to her ball form. “She’s not impressed.”

Precocious smiled and reached out for her pet. “She never is.” She scratched the top of Lucy’s head and walked her back over to her cage. “You’re a bad ferret, Lucifer. You know better than to run off.”

“Lucifer?” Tyler was sure he had heard wrong.

“The markings above her eyes look like little horns.” Precocious secured Lucy’s cage and set a few books on it for good measure. “Plus, I suspect that she’s evil.”

“Oh?”

“She scratches when she’s nervous. She also eats holes in my socks.” Precocious sat behind her desk and glanced at the clock on her computer. It was 12:58. “Zachary should be walking in any second.”

“Do I get to tell him I found you swinging from the rafters?” Tyler couldn’t quite figure out why he felt so pleased when Precocious beamed at him.

“He’s had to rescue me before. I can never keep that damned chair upright.”

Tyler laughed and turned as the electronic bell on the door went off. He nodded at Zachary and checked his watch. 1:00. “Right on time.”

“I’ll be another couple of minutes.” Zachary clapped Tyler on the shoulder and moved around him to Precocious’s desk. “Messages?”

She immediately pulled a small stack of pink message notes from the depths of her rather cluttered desk. “You have a physical tomorrow at six, a reminder from your business accountant that you need to review the books for the quarterly review, two calls from our supplier in Ottawa, and a call from Clara.”

Tyler noticed that Precocious didn’t even have to look at the notes to remember the messages. “Clara?” He found great amusement in watching the back of Zachary’s neck turn pink. “Who’s Clara, man?”

“Someone I just started seeing.”

“Awww.”

Zachary rolled his eyes, still not looking at Tyler. “Throw something at him.”

Precocious nodded seriously. “I’ll get right on that.” She hid a giggle as he walked into his office and closed the door. “Thank you for that cheap amusement.”

“You’re welcome.” Tyler sat in the chair that was in front of Precocious’s desk and put his left ankle on his right knee. “Who is Clara?”

“I don’t know. From what I’ve gleaned from taking his messages, he met her at a conference, and it’s long distance.” Precocious smiled a little. “He sent her flowers.”

“Zachary sent someone *flowers*?”

“Yeah.”

“He *hates* flowers.”

Before Precocious could respond, the phone rang. “Ransack Textiles, Ms. Grant speaking.”

“Hey, Pre.”

“I’m working.” Precocious dropped the phone back into the cradle hard.

Tyler raised his eyebrows as he watched Precocious’s face darken. He wasn’t sure if he should ask about the phone call. Before he could decide, Zachary’s office door opened and distracted him.

“Let’s go to lunch.” Zachary closed his office door and locked it. He turned around and saw the look on Precocious’s face. “Did he just call again?”

Precocious shoved her hair off her face and stood up, grabbing a stack of files. “Yes, and no, I’m not going to let you sit him down for a talk. It won’t do any good.”

“It’s harassment.”

“I’m fully aware of what it is, Zachary.” Precocious glanced at the men over her shoulder. “The problem is, our version of harassment versus the police version of harassment is two different things. He’s not threatening me, and he’s not calling me enough to actually qualify as anything more than a jackass.”

“Write down that he called.” Zachary ignored the exasperated look Precocious gave him. “I know you will, but I’m going to remind you anyway.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Precocious checked her watch. “You’ve got an hour and fifty-five minutes before your conference call. If you want to actually relax at lunch, you need to go now.”