She looked away from him, down at the white mug full of black coffee. “So,” she croaked. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

He leaned forward, forearms on the table, hands clasping his glass of Coke. “You work in training and development, right?”

“Yeah.” She eyed him.

“And RBM is a big company, right? With more than one location?”

“Yes. We have offices in Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle.”

He started asking question about traveling to design and deliver training programs. She’d been doing a lot more traveling over the last year and really didn’t enjoy it. She didn’t like being away from Chris, and there always seemed to be so much time wasted sitting in airports, traveling to and from the airport, sitting in the hotel, even with her BlackBerry.

“What about informal learning?” he asked. “Social learning?”

She eyed him. His knowledge surprised her. “What about it?”

“How do people in different locations learn from each other?”

“They don’t.”

“Tell me what you know about social learning.”

“What is this, a job interview?”

He grinned. “No. Just checking some things out.”

“Well, supposedly eighty percent of what people learn comes from social learning, on the job, just talking with coworkers.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Yes.”

“What about networking?”

She frowned. “Once again, I say, what about it?”

“The role of networking in developing staff.”

She could see how his mind was bounding ahead of their conversation and he had to slow himself down so he’d make sense to her. His intelligence was almost scary.

“Oh. Well, that’s huge too, of course. It’s not just what you know, but who you know. Knowing who to ask.”

“Are there a lot of younger employees at RBM?”

She nodded. “Sure. We’re a tech company. We’re always recruiting.”

“But being a tech company, I’m sure your older staff is comfortable with technology too.”

“Yes. I suppose. What’s this about?”

His grin was infectious and teased an answering smile out of her even though she had no idea where this was going. “I was talking to this guy yesterday. We got this idea for social networking.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not another social networking site.”

“You’re not into the FriendSpace thing?”

She hitched a shoulder. “I am. A little. It keeps me in touch with friends who’ve moved away. Obviously I’m not into it to meet people.”

“Okay, good, so you know how it all works.” He leaned closer across the table. “Picture something like that in the workplace.”

“We’ve banned our staff from accessing those kinds of sites,” she replied automatically, her forehead creasing a little.

“No. I mean your own social networking site.”

She stared at him, still not getting it.

“Designed for training and development. Information sharing. Networking.”

She gazed back at him, processing what he was saying. She had a hard time grasping exactly what he was telling her, but he continued to talk, enthusiasm coloring his voice, making his eyes gleam. Obviously he’d been thinking about this and the ideas came pouring out of him. “Think about the organizational knowledge you could capture,” he said. “Picture user profiles describing everyone’s experience, training, education…how easy it would be for someone new to the company to know who to contact with a problem or a question. Whether that person sits in the cubicle next to them or across the country.”

And her mind opened up to an incredible world of possibilities as she started envisioning it. “The relationships they could build, even long distance,” she said slowly. Their lunches arrived and they ate as they continued talking, asking each other questions and throwing out suggestions, and the interest and excitement built inside her as if she’d caught it from him like a virus. A good virus.

“So, that’s what you want to spend your money on?” she finally asked.

He smiled. “Well. I haven’t decided for sure. I didn’t plan to start off right on the ground floor with something, I was kind of looking for something already established that I could invest in. But man, I’m pumped about this.”

“It’s a lot of work.”

“Yeah. But I think I have enough connections that I can find the people I need.” He lifted a brow. “Wanna come work for me, Kassidy?”

Her mouth fell open and she stared across the table at him.

“Are you serious?” she asked, blinking rapidly at him.

He laughed. “Yes and no. I’d love to have you, but I’m nowhere near ready.”

“You don’t even know me,” she protested. “How do you know I’m any good at my job?”

“I know you’re good.” He winked at her and watched her cheeks bloom with color. Christ, she was gorgeous, all animated during their discussion. Once she’d gotten what he was talking about, her quick mind had thrown out things he hadn’t even thought of—good ideas, but also barriers he hadn’t anticipated. Problem solving with her was a rush.

“What made you go into training and development as a career?” he asked.

“Well, I actually thought of becoming a teacher. All through high school, that’s what I intended to do.”

“You like kids?”

She blinked at him, but smiled. “Yeah. I love kids.”

“Me too. Not that I’ll likely ever have any,” he added. “Anyway, go on.”

“I started working at my first part-time job in this office that had really horrible management, and I had all these ideas how they could improve the place. I got interested in how businesses work and making things better. So then I wanted to go into business, but since I like the aspect of teaching, I decided to specialize in training and development.”

“Cool.” He had a sense from those words “make things better” that she also liked to make people better. Maybe sometimes whether they wanted it or not. Which was admirable but could also be annoying. He smiled at her, liking her sense of purpose. “Anyway. You’re probably happy where you are. But you never know, one day if things work out…keep it in mind. Maybe in the meantime, though, you can be a sounding board for me. Hey, I know—I could pay you a consulting fee.”

She opened her mouth then closed it. Then opened it again. “Great,” she said, glancing at her watch. “You owe me…two hundred dollars for the last hour.”

Laughter burst from his lips and he shook his head. “Nice try.”

“You’re loaded,” she said. “Why not?”

He studied her, hearing the slight edge in her voice. “That bugs you, doesn’t it?”

“No, of course not.”

“Bullshit.” He rubbed his forehead. “That night at Vincent’s, I wasn’t showing off when I ordered that wine.”

Her mouth twisted. “Yeah,” she finally said. “I know.”

“You and Chris aren’t hurting,” he said. “I know what VPs at RBM make.”

“A lot more than I do,” she said ruefully. She laughed. “I’m sorry. I judged you and I shouldn’t have.”

“Thank you. But I’m still not paying you for the last hour. Although I will buy your lunch.”

“Thanks.”

They exchanged a smile that now held shared experience, a link between them that was more than just Chris.

“What are you up to this afternoon?” he asked as they walked back to his car.

“Shopping. Errands. Things for the condo. How about you?”

“Hmmm. Not much.”

“Meetings are all done?”

“Yeah. Now I’ve got a different path though, have to give it some thought. Hey. I’ll come shopping with you.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nah.” He shrugged and they paused beside his car, the bright midday sun glinting off the windshield. “I got nothing else to do.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He rolled his eyes but smiled. “Sorry. That didn’t come out right. What I meant was, take pity on me, Kassidy, I’m all alone in town with nothing to do this afternoon.”

“Oh, for—all right, come with me, but I’m going to Bed and Bath. Chris hates that store.”