Not in my Job Description - Avery Clavens Book 1

Chapter 24 - When nothing goes right, go left

I didn’t understand why I had to be questioned three times about what happened. You’d think the different agencies would just club together and ask all their questions at once. For some reason, that wasn’t how it worked with me. The next time I decided someone needed killed, I was going to require they record the first interview and just play it back for anyone else who wanted to listen.

The good thing about being involved with killing Olaf was I got the rest of the week and all of following week off with pay. The bad thing was I had to sit through police questioning and a mandatory visit to the shrink.

Also on the bad side, was no work meant I had no excuse to hide from Mom and Dad when they got there. I felt a cold or a case of the chicken pox coming on. I’d never been sick, but I’d witnessed enough ill people that I thought I could pull it off.

After they finally let me go, I made it home and crashed on the couch. I hadn’t seen Nate since they separated us once the police and other agents made it to the scene. As far as I was concerned, I hoped he was on his way to Antarctica for his next assignment.

* * *

Thursday morning I woke up and did the usual morning ritual of showering and dressing. With nowhere to go, I was stuck on what to do. My life was supposed to be back to normal, but normal would involve me going to work. After living years of having my days pretty much planned out for me, making decisions wasn’t second nature.

Not being able to come up with anything better, I headed to the kitchen to make sugar cookies. When all else failed, the kitchen was always my answer. Plus, all the rolling out and eventually decorating would take up most of the morning.

As soon as I was done tying on my apron, I grabbed some butter and cream cheese from the fridge, unwrapped them and placed them in a large glass bowl. I stuck the bowl in the microwave for a minute and a half on the lowest heat setting to get them both softened. Even though I had all the time in the world, waiting for things to soften wasn’t in my vocabulary.

When that was done, I beat in some sugar until it reached a smooth consistency. I continued beating the mixture as I added eggs and vanilla. Then slowed down the mixer while I incorporated the dry ingredients.

Once it was all mixed together I wrapped it up in Saran Wrap and put it in the freezer for thirty minutes. While it was firming up, I preheated the oven and got out my rolling pin, cookie cutters and cookie sheets. I prepared the breakfast bar area with flour and I was all set. I still had about ten minutes, so I decided I needed to listen to some music.

I grabbed my mp3 player from beside my bed and set my eclectic mix of country, pop and classic rock to play. As the music started up, I took the cookie dough and started rolling it out. I guess you could say I was rockin’ and rollin’.

I ended up making mostly flowers, which I can only assume was my subconscious mind trying to brighten my mood. As I was getting the last batch out of the oven, I looked up and found Nate standing in my apartment staring at me. I immediately dropped the hot pan, which somehow miraculously landed correctly on the floor and only a couple of the cookies flew off in the process.

“What in the world are you doing in my apartment?” I screeched at him. By that point in our acquaintance, I should’ve expected it.

“You weren’t answering the door when I pounded on it, so I got worried and let myself in,” he answered. I could tell he didn’t care whether the reason I wasn’t answering was because I didn’t want to see him.

“And how exactly did you do that? Break down the door?” I looked around him to my door and on first inspection I saw nothing amiss.

“No silly, I used my key,” he said, like it was obvious. He even proudly displayed said key.