Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(90)

“Statistics.”

“Oh? And are you able to apply that knowledge to your job?”

“With my current boss, yes. He gives me a request and stands aside. I give him more information than he knew he wanted, and to do that I step outside the boundaries a little. I can’t do my own field work, but I can apply the knowledge.”

“And you work for Dexico?”

“Yes.”

Krista felt like she was at a job interview or something. Or an interrogation, which was really the same thing with different scare tactics.

He nodded as though that made sense, but his brows were slipping down his nose. “How do you like your job?”

“Well, it isn’t as fun as hair and makeup, which is what I would be doing if I could make a living at it, but it’s good for a grown-up job.”

“What was the presentation on?”

Krista didn’t see the shift of direction coming. Usually people would ask about hair and makeup. That was why she brought it up—it was great for small talk. But then, he wasn’t the standard target for her small talk antics since he probably owned a yacht.

“It was on sports drinks,” she said as she reached for her glass of wine.

“And did you find that interesting? Personally engaging?”

It sounded an awful lot like the ol’ coot was mocking her. He obviously didn’t miss the positive, upbeat undertones in her answer and now he was trying to call her on it. We-ell, little did he know, currently she liked her job, so he could suck it.

“The subject matter?” she asked, ready to battle.

He nodded, his gaze keen.

“No, I’m not especially interested. Although I exercise often, I don’t drink sports drinks. Too sugary. But there is always a part of market research that I find fascinating, no matter the subject.”

“Oh? How so?” While he was being extremely polite and mildly interested, there was an undercurrent of suspicion to his words.

“Well ...it’s like what we’re doing now. We are sitting and talking about our likes and dislikes, right? With market research, it’s a broader scale. I get to see choices people make, whether they make them on their own or because they are goaded into it through marketing, and a wide scale of people’s likes and dislikes. On a bad day, or a boring day, I get to judge people. Absurd, maybe, but you’re looking at people's behavior. It’s like I’m an anthropologist, you know? It’s pretty interesting on the whole, regardless of the subject. That’s how I keep my sanity when I am knee-deep in numbers.”

“Hmmm.”

A bowl of soup materialized at the end of a waiter’s arm. The bowl barely hit the table before she had her spoon dipped in. She moaned in delight as the savory masterpiece hit her tongue. Good stuff!

“I see you’re wearing two tones of jewelry. I thought that was taboo?” Tory asked out of nowhere.

Krista glanced at her hands. She wore a gold ring and bracelets on one hand, and a silver two-ring set on the other. Being that she needed to get more soup in her belly while it was still hot, and also since he was dead wrong, she ignored him for a second. Finally, ready to talk ridiculousness, she laid down her spoon and answered. “If you will excuse me saying it, it was taboo in your day.” She smiled to ease the blow. It was true, but throwing a jokey face made it hurt less.

Thankfully, he wasn’t offended, “How so?”

“I shall tell you, Obi Wan. Back in the day the jewelry was gold. That was the fashion. Gold, gold and more gold. Silver was for people that couldn’t afford gold. Then somewhere along the line platinum came into play. So all these women got platinum wedding sets, right? But platinum looks like silver, gold looks gold.

“So then the poor man bought his wife white gold because it was cheaper than platinum at the time. Not so much anymore with the price of gold, but back then, yes. Or possibly the wife-to-be didn’t buy into the platinum hype, but wanted to keep with fashion.

“Anyway, so then people had platinum, white gold, and silver, which all looked the same. But then they inherited regular gold from their parents or grandparents. And it might have been the wrong color, but you don’t throw away jewelry, I don’t care who you are. You might trade it, or give it to someone—like your daughter—but you don’t chuck precious gems. So now women had all sorts of colors and types of jewelry in their jewelry boxes. See the conundrum?”

Krista checked in on her student to make sure he was still following. He was, and while he seemed fascinated, she got the sneaking suspicion that it was less her words that had him enthralled, and more the science experiment that was unfolding before his eyes. He watched her hands as she gestured, noted when she took a sip of wine—thankfully she was sober enough to refrain from gulping—and even glanced at her shoes. If she didn’t know better, she’d assume the researcher had turned into the researched. He probably wasn’t used to animated poor girls. He was probably also monitoring his wallet at all times.

Undaunted, she forged ahead.

“So a woman is not going to take off her wedding rings just to match jewelry—the husbands would go bonkers. Plus, it is probably her most expensive piece, which then needs to be worn, obviously. But then there was the gold. So it became the fashion to wear both. Then designers started making bracelets and watches that were both, so everything matched again. I am cheating, though. I have gold and silver because I’m not rich and apparently don’t pick my boyfriends all that well.”