“You and Abby, Dalen.” Mr Carpenter sighed.

“What about us?”

“We’ve had this conversation before, Dalen. You two are still bickering like an old married couple.”

“I’m doing my best to be civil,” Dalen said. “It’s she who like to go for the frontal attacks. Why don’t you talk to Abby instead?”

“I have. Repeatedly. Abby says she tries to ignore you.”

Dalen snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“It would have worked better if you didn’t seek her out and taunt her all the time.”

“It’s not my problem the woman has no sense of humour,” Dalen objected.

“All right. I’ve had enough of this. You’re both adults. I want you to start behaving like that too.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Good. Because I want you to take on Abby as your assistant for the upcoming meeting on Monday.”

“What for? I don’t need any help with that.”

The boss snorted. “It might do you good to have some extra input. Besides… I want you to work out your differences over the weekend. I’m not asking you to become best friends or anything. But we can’t have two of my best workers throwing insults and staring daggers at each other instead of cooperating. It’s bad for morale. Besides, your audiences need to start working instead of watching the entertainment.”

“Right.”

“Susan has booked a hotel office suite for you. And plane tickets are ordered for this afternoon’s flight.”

Dalen nodded. He turned to leave. Just as he reached the door, he turned to the boss.

“Has anyone told Abby about this?”

Mr Carpenter smiled at him. That didn’t bode well at all, Dalen thought.

“I thought you should have that pleasure.”

Dalen groaned. “She’ll bite my head off.”

“We’ll see. Consider it practice in case you meet a difficult client.” He paused slightly. “Oh, and… Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’ll probably need it.”

“And Dalen?”

“Yes.”

“If this doesn’t work out, I’ll have no alternative but to transfer one of you to another department. Or ship you both off to a deserted island until you start behaving like adults.”

“You might want to talk to Abby about that. I’m always easy-going.”

“She works well with everybody else. Maybe that should tell you something, Dalen.”

“Tell me what?”

“Give it some thought. You’ll figure it out.”

His boss talked in riddles, Dalen thought as he went to find Abby and share the good news. He doubted she would be as thrilled as he was about the assignment. Spending an entire weekend with Abby sounded a lot better than going on his own. He would enjoy this. But he was also sure that she would hate the idea.