Janice glanced over at the end table. The light on the answering machine was blinking. She didn't really want to, but she hit play anyways. Her niece wanted to come over for the weekend in a couple of weeks. Janice smiled. Poor kid was starting college next fall and was already chafing to get away from home. Janice didn't blame her. She had been like that. Still was as a matter of fact. The messages continued. No, she didn't want the newspaper subscription, and how did the local Mary Kay representative already have her number?
"Hi, it's Cole," the last message began. Janice perked up. "Umm…I got back into town a little earlier than I thought, and I don't know what your plans were for New Year's Eve, but if you wanted to get together…or before then…whatever…umm, anyways, give me a call whenever you can." He sounded so cute on the machine, like he was shy or something. Had he come back early to take her out on New Year's Eve? Janice was practically beaming now, warm fuzzies making her tingle. He certainly knew how to impress a girl.
She grabbed the phone and dialed. She had already memorized his number, which was to her a sign of how much she liked a guy. With Kurt the FBI agent it took like three months. She should have known then. That had to have been the bitterest break-up in her life. It rang twice and then Xander picked up. It was still hard to think of a director in the CIA as just Cole's little brother. He wasn't her boss. He was her boss's boss. Not something she could mention while on the job; Brickman had asked her not to mention his more colorful childhood, but he was nice to her when away from work.
"Joe's Crematorium," he announced. "You kill 'em, we grill 'em." Janice laughed. He always answered the phone weird. It was hard to reconcile the hard ass agent she knew with the guy she'd met outside of CIA headquarters.
"Is Cole there?" she asked.
"Hold on," Xander said jauntily. "He may still be in the bathroom. I think he's so nervous about asking you out for New Year's Eve he's got the runs or something." A rather crude obscenity was shouted in the background. There was the sound of a scuffle, and by now Janice knew this could mean someone just got thrown off the landing of the stairs, and then Cole had control of the phone.
"Janice?" he asked. Xander said something she couldn't catch. "Hold on," Cole snarled. There was the sound of the door slamming, and Cole yelled out "you tap my phone again and I'm duct taping your naked ass to your office door at Langley!"
Janice was nearly howling with laughter. Those two should not live together, but it made for entertainment ever since the first phone call when Cole chased Xander around the house trying to get the phone, Xander chanting "Cole's got a girlfriend! Cole's got a girlfriend!" in his best pesky little brother voice.
"Are you done yet?" Cole asked her, sounding both annoyed and amused at her laughter.
"No!" she giggled, and he finally laughed with her. After a few minutes she finally got herself under enough control to talk. Her stomach ached and her eyes were blurred with tears from laughing so hard. "I got your message," she finally said. Even over the phone she could feel the sudden tension. Why was he acting so strange over wanting to take her out on New Year's Eve?
"Oh, good," he said. "I wasn't sure if you were back yet, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to take the chance."
"I can only take so much family," she replied. "I didn't think you were going to be home so soon," she said casually, wondering if he was going to say what she suspected was the truth. Probably not, but she had to admit she was hoping he wasn't going to say it was work related.
"Sometimes I stay later than others," he replied in the same casual tone she was using. She felt a little flutter in her stomach. Instinct said he wanted to be with her. Maybe it was wrong, but it felt nice. "So, you have a nice Christmas?"
"It went very well," she replied. It had considering two of her sister's ex-husbands were at dinner to be with their respective daughters. The third one hadn't made parole yet, but he called to wish his daughter Zada a Merry Christmas. Janice no longer wondered why she went to family gatherings armed. She just made sure she had plenty of ammunition. "You have a good time?" she asked.
"Yeah," he answered, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "Can't believe how fast the kids grow up."
"I know the feeling," she said. Her oldest niece was going to be eighteen soon. It seemed like yesterday that Janice was seeing her sister bring the baby home from the hospital.
"So…" he said. "Umm…what were you doing for New Year's Eve?"
She sighed. "Well, there's something I have to do," she replied. "It's one of those every-year functions that I got roped into a few years ago and now I'm stuck doing it."
"Oh." He sounded so disappointed! Janice grinned.
"But, if you didn't have any plans, I would love it if we could go together," she added. "I would love to have someone with a measurable IQ to talk to."
"Measurable, huh?" he asked. He let out a little laugh. "So what is this big event?"
"You know the Whitestone family?" she asked. He made a noise that she knew meant, "of course I do, I know everything". It was an annoying noise. "Well, every year Mr. Whitestone has this big "birthday" party for his snow leopards. It's a fund-raising thing for the environment, black tie event and the whole nine yards."
Cole snickered. "And you're not thrilled at the thought of going?" he teased her.
She groaned. "It's such a thrill," she said sarcastically. "I'm more or less on guard duty," she explained. "I have to stay in the crowd and make sure nobody decides to assassinate someone. But, there's no rule that says I can't bring someone, especially when he's more qualified than I am to do this." She held her breath for a moment, hoping he would agree. The party was such a bore. She had refused to sleep with a supervisor four years before and had gotten stuck working the party ever since. She had never been told she couldn't bring a date, but it was discouraged. Cole wasn't the average date though.
"What the hell," he said. "If you want to liven it up, I can always call a couple of my brothers to storm the place," he said with a laugh.
"I think you're plenty of company by yourself," she replied, grinning. "So, you want to go?"
"Hmm…dull stuffy party on New Year's Eve making sure some old people don't get terminated or hanging out with Xander and getting drunk," he said sounding like he was debating the options. "No contest. When should I pick you up?"
