Free Single Sashimi by Camy Tang

meeting.”
    The admin had given her the runaround yesterday, but Venus wasn’t in the mood to play that game today. She strode around Tiffanie’s desk and peered at the schedule on the screen.
    “What are you doing?” Tiffanie tried to blank the screen, but not before Venus caught sight of an eBay auction she was watching.
    Venus stared hard at her. “You’re the reason Yardley sent that memo about not doing eBay during business hours. I thought it was strange…”
    “I don’t…this is the first time.” But Tiffanie’s eyes blinked so rapidly, one of her fake eyelashes came loose at the corner.
    Venus crossed her arms and looked down at her with as stern an expression as she could muster. “Schedule me for ten minutes before Edgar. He can wait.”
    Tiffanie sullenly grabbed her mouse and made the appointment.
    “No, don’t send it to his PDA right now.” The last thing she needed was for Yardley to be forewarned he was about to be attacked. “Send it right at four, when my appointment is scheduled.”
    She turned to wait in one of the chairs situated around Yardley’s office, then checked herself. She’d walked through Human Resources and past a few VPs’ offices to get here. They might warn Yardley she was waiting for him here.
    She’d waylay him as he got out of that meeting.
    She marched out the way she came and headed downstairs to meeting room B. She turned the corner and—wait a minute, the meeting room door was open. She peered inside.
    Empty.
    What? What was the time? Three forty-five. They’d ended early. That meant Yardley would be walking the investors out the front door. She hustled toward the lobby.
    No one. She turned to the receptionist. “Did you see Yardley?”
    “He went upstairs.”
    “Back to his office?”
    “No, he was talking with one of the VPs and they mentioned stopping off at the third floor.”
    She hustled up the steps. Halfway, she took off her killer heels and ran the rest of the way, grimacing as she slipped them back on at the third floor landing. She burst into the hallway and walked at a fast clip around the offices. Edgar’s office, some empty ones, the copy room, the lunch area, her office… No Yardley.
    One of the interns was copying something at the copier. “Did you see Yardley?”
    “He got a call just as he stepped off the elevator. I think he headed toward his office.”
    Back into the stairwell, up another flight of stairs. Her steps dragged as she got onto the landing. Too much walking in new shoes. She’d treat herself to a soak in her foot massage spa tonight…oh wait, Trish was still in the hospital. She glanced at her cell phone. No text message from Lex. Still in labor? What was she carrying, twins the size of melons or something?
    She ran back down the hallway toward Yardley’s office. His admin caught sight of her and called out, “He was here, but he just went back downstairs. ”
    This was not happening.
    Her cell phone rang. She considered ignoring it—talking to Yardley was more important. She hustled back toward the elevator (no stairs for her this time), but the incessant ringing finally made her reach into her jacket pocket and pull it out.
    Yardley .
    “Hello?” Why would he be calling her? Not that she was complaining.
    “Venus, where are you? I’ve been looking for you. We need to talk.”
    She stood there, in front of the elevator doors, wondering if she wanted to cry, scream, or faint.
    “Venus?”
    “I’ll meet you in my office.”
    “Good, I’m headed there now.”
    She strolled into her office hopefully looking composed and unruffled and not as if she’d just run up and down the stairs. She sat at her desk and discreetly slipped off her shoes. “I made an appointment with you at four, but this is good timing.”
    Yardley sat in one of the leather chairs opposite her and smiled that blinding, I’m-a-Harvard-grad-and-I-want-you-to-know-it smile. “I wanted to talk with you yesterday, but I was too booked.”
    He