Vibrizzio by Nicki Elson

baskets?” Hayden asked.
    “There aren’t any chickens around here, Mister King.” Lula winked. During their follow-up questions, she shied away from giving away the specifics of her investment process, saying there’d be time to get into all of that later, so they moved on to ask about her client list. She didn’t have any corporate clients, and other than one midsized endowment, she managed money exclusively for private investors.
    “What makes you interested in diving into the institutional game now?” Lyssa asked.
    “I’m not sure I am.” The investor leaned her elbow over Cheryl’s gate.
    “What makes you want to consider it?” Lyssa revised, shifting on her bale to reposition a stiff shaft of straw that’d gotten too friendly.
    “I suppose the challenge has always appealed to me. It’s the big tent at the circus, but I’m not keen on jumping through all the corporate hoops. This wildcard pool you explained when you called last week could be the perfect segue for me—if Delicious Hawaii will truly let me do my thing and not try to confine me to one ring. Now, would you say it’s fair for me to ask you two a few questions?”
    Lyssa smiled. “Sure.”
    Sliding her eyes to Hayden, Lula asked, “What kind of women do you date?
    The unexpected question caught Lyssa off guard, and she let out a derisive chuckle. Lula’s gaze flicked back to her. “Why do you laugh?”
    “I’m sorry. That slipped out. No reason.” Lyssa shook her head
    “There’s always a reason,” Lula said. “What’s yours?”
    “Go on,” Hayden said, laying his palms flat on the back of his bale and leaning on them. “Please explain to both of us what you find so funny about the women I date.”
    Lyssa looked back and forth between her companions. This was a very strange turn in the conversation, but then everything about the visit had been peculiar so far, so why not? “There’s nothing funny about the women—they’re gorgeous, intelligent, career-driven … did I already say gorgeous? I only laughed because I’d been teasing Hayden about the quantity of them.”
    “Do you date a lot of women?” Lula asked him.
    “I haven’t settled on just one yet. So yes, it’s not incorrect to say I date a lot of women.”
    “He could probably fill up all these empty stalls with them,” Lyssa added, gesturing around the barn’s interior.
    “What about you?” Lula asked. “What kind of men do you date?”
    Hayden sat up straight. “Ah, there’s the real question. You see, she doesn’t date men.”
    “Women?” Lula asked.
    “No,” Lyssa said, resisting the urge to shoot a murderous glare at her partner. “I’m taking a little break from dating right now.”
    “A little break?” Hayden asked. “So you’ve come down from the permanent boycott you expressed on the plane?”
    Lyssa looked at him sideways, sneering. “It’s likely to be a very, very long break.”
    He held her gaze, and something deep in his blue eyes sparked. She could see he liked getting to her and damn if she didn’t like that he liked it.
    It took Lyssa a moment to tear her eyes from his, and when she did, she saw that Lula had shifted to lean her back against Cheryl’s gate while she crossed both arms in front of her. A muted smile played across her unpainted lips as she watched the consultants bicker.
    “How does this relate to investing?” Lyssa asked. She assumed the woman intended to work their dating preferences into some sort of analogy.
    “It doesn’t.” The investor pushed herself away from the gate, brushing hay from her jeans and walking past them to exit the barn. She gestured for them to follow and led them to an old, rusted pickup truck, which they all piled into.
    “So what would you like to know about the client?” Hayden asked after he’d slammed his door.
    “We’ll get to that.” Lula drove them into a dry, open field. As they bumped along, Lyssa wanted to resume her own line of questioning but was afraid a