"My day's totally open!" He blurted out, if only to cover his initial reaction of utter disbelief at not being outright dismissed. And completely ignoring the actual work he had waiting for him. Something about getting copy and tag lines for important accounts.

"Tell you what," he said, trotting slightly ahead of Hartley hands spread in an invitation and surrender. "Let's make it lunch to make it up to for not calling first." Never mind he didn't have the other's phone number and had only found him based on a fuzzy memory or two.