by C. J. Lake
Chapter 13
The next morning Jamie was on his way out of the building, an unsettled feeling still weighing on his chest, when he heard an achingly familiar voice.
“Hey, you,” Sky said, sounding happy to see him. Excited, he turned and saw her entering the lobby from the side entrance.
“Hey…” Jamie began, walking closer, relieved to see her again, even though it had only been about twelve hours. He hadn’t seen her or heard a word from her since they parted ways at Grendel’s.
Speaking of that…
Jamie’s eyes dropped down. With a sinking feeling, he noticed that Sky was wearing the same form-fitting pants and cream-colored sweater she’d had on last night. The same sexy boots. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat as his chest tightened like a fist. Suddenly it felt like his ribcage was strangling his heart.
Shit.
It was morning. Sky was in the same clothes as the night before. Her eye makeup was a little smudged, her hair a little disheveled. And she was clearly just getting home.
For a second it was hard to breathe. All right, calm down, Jamie told himself. Bullshit happens. His reaction was too strong, surely, but—what the hell? Had she really gone home with that guy last night? Jesus, the dude wasn’t that funny!
“Jamie?” Sky said, her voice touched with concern. “Are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah,” he began, then sighed and said, “I’m lying.”
“What?”
“I was afraid of this…” he muttered and sighed again.
“Of what?” Sky said, coming closer.
“You didn’t see my signal last night, did you?” He shook his head, continuing, “No, of course you must not have.”
“You gave me the signal?” Sky asked, surprised.
“Yes! Didn’t you notice when I switched hands and was holding my takeout bag sort of upside down?”
“No…” Sky said, clearly puzzled.
“Damn it,” Jamie lamented, angry with himself, “I knew I was being too subtle!”
Sky grinned and said sarcastically, “Yes—it’s a common complaint about you.”
“I’m serious, Sky,” Jamie mumbled, punching his thigh. “I should have been more obvious. I should have whistled to get your attention, and then given you the thumbs-down.”
At that, Sky broke into a laugh. “Yeah, that sounds amazingly ridiculous; too bad we didn’t think of it! What’s the matter with you this morning? You seem…upset,” she finished a bit quizzically, as if she were just realizing the seriousness of Jamie’s mood.
“I guess I am upset,” he admitted, casting his eyes off to the side for a moment. “Because…maybe if you’d seen my signal, then you wouldn’t have…” His voice trailed off because he couldn’t bear to finish that sentence, or even that thought. Slightly sickened, he quickly held up his hands to stave off details. “Hey, whatever—”
“Oh, my God!” Sky blurted, her sleepy eyes coming more awake. “Wait! Jamie…oh, my God,” she said again, this time with a soft giggle as she began shaking her head. Her eyes creased warmly at him as she said, “Do you think I’m just getting home now from my date? Is that where you think I was all this time?”
He paused, cautiously feeling hope begin to brew. “Well…”
“No way!” Sky said. “I can’t believe you think I’m doing the walk of shame right now!”
“No...I…”
“Yes,” she interrupted, crossing her arms, challenging him. “You think I went home with Keith last night. That I would go sleep with some guy I just met?”
“Of course not,” Jamie began, feeling a strange sense of euphoria well up inside him, as Sky continued:
“And by the way, if I were going to do that, why would I trek all the way to his place, instead of simply going to my apartment, which is across the street from Grendel’s?” she asked rhetorically. “I mean, the logistics alone make no sense…”
“All right, smartie,” Jamie said, grinning at her and taking a step closer. “Are you done now?”
“Are you?” Sky said, tilting her head. “Mr. Hall Monitor.”
Jamie held up his hands. “Hey, I was just looking out for you, okay? I didn’t like that guy. He was a complete fail. I wanted to make sure you knew that, that’s all.”
“Well, I thought he was okay actually,” Sky countered, but then she gave an apathetic shrug. “But there was no real spark.”
Now Jamie’s euphoria blew up, though he tried to play it cool. “So where were you then? I didn’t hear from you all night.”
“I had to work,” Sky explained. “I got a call at dinner from my manager begging me to take the overnight shift. The usual guy called out, Elle couldn’t do it, and so I agreed to fill in. I actually had to leave poor Keith at the restaurant before we were finished eating.”
Poor Keith, my ass, Jamie thought dismissively. “I didn’t know there was a graveyard shift where you work,” he mentioned.
“Of course. We can’t leave the dogs alone. There always has to be at least one person there.”
“Right, makes sense. So then your night kind of sucked, huh?”
“Do you have to have a big smile about it?” Sky questioned, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Sorry,” he laughed, realizing he wasn’t playing it as cool as he’d hoped. He was just so damn relieved that she wasn’t coming from an all-nighter with Keith.
Grinning at him, Sky said, “Actually it didn’t suck at all. It’s peaceful on the overnight shift, and I love being with the dogs. Especially my homegirl, Betty. She’s this sweet Dalmatian that hangs by my side all the time. I’ll miss her when her owners pick her up.” Nodding, Jamie was at a loss for what to say, which didn’t happen that much. “Feel better now?” Sky asked him. “Were you…worried?”
More like jealous to the point of total despair. In fact, he was surprised by how fiercely the feeling had hit him. “Well, I should get going,” Jamie evaded, realizing he was probably going to be late.
“Yeah, I need to go shower anyway.”
Jesus, did she have to put that image in his mind? It was sure to torture him during his entire ride to work. “I’ll see you later, Sky.”
“Wait!” she said, stopping him. “You never told me why you thought Keith was a fail.”
“Oh. Well. For one thing,” Jamie began, “the guy’s kind of a sleaze. You know when he had you lead the way to the dining room?” Sky nodded. “You might have thought he was being gentlemanly, but he was blatantly checking out your ass.”
At that, Sky laughed. “Oh, come on.”
“He was!”
Again, she tilted her head at him and said, “So when you go out with a girl, you don’t check out her ass?”
Jamie hesitated before explaining, “Look, there’s a subtle way of doing it.”
Rolling her eyes, Sky said, “Oh. Okay.”
“The guy practically had his tongue hanging out of his mouth!” Jamie insisted. “Is that what you’re looking for? The human equivalent of a Bassett Hound? Just checking.”
“You’re so ridiculous,” she remarked, clearly amused. “So was that the entire reason for the thumbs-down?”
“No,” Jamie admitted, “that was really more of a side note.”
She gave an exasperated laugh. “Fine, so what was it then?” she pressed.
He tried not to get distracted by her beautiful dark eyes, blinking at him. Then he shrugged and said, “Simple. He didn’t pull your chair out for you.”
~
For the rest of the day, Jamie had trouble focusing on work, because he was expending way too much mental energy thinking about Sky. Wondering about her. Fantasizing about her in the shower…and then stepping out of the shower. It was impossible to shake her from his mind entirely. Even when he was meeting with Ahkat, a junior credit associate who basically needed to be re-trained, Jamie found himself phoning it in.
Sky… Her name danced circles around his head. Jamie had become so consumed with wanting her, it was hard
to accept that nothing might come of it. What had begun as a normal attraction had intensified to a boiling point—in such a short time frame, it seemed unfathomable that Jamie had met Sky only a couple of weeks ago. And it was impossible to stomach the idea that she might not feel something for him, too.
Did she really see him as just a friend? Or was her guard up for him, the same way it was up for every guy she immediately found fault with—every guy she shut down at the gate?
It was frustrating as hell that he couldn’t get a read on her. What if he made a move and scared her off? They didn’t know each other that well yet. He could lose Sky altogether by rushing her. Especially since he sensed there was something in her past that made her distrustful and cynical about guys.
Still…how long could he take wanting her like this and not saying anything? Last night, seeing that guy, Keith, work his charm on her, and then this morning—
Still bothered by what he’d thought happened, Jamie pushed the idea away, now painfully aware of one thing: Sky had incredible power over him. She could crush him. Because he didn’t just want to hook up with her; he wanted to claim her, to make her his. It was that simple—that primal. He wanted to run his hands all over her like he had the right to; to hear her whisper his name and moan for him, and only him... Christ, he needed to stop before he got a massive hard-on at work.
“Excuse me, Jamie? Would another time be better?” Ahkat said, breaking Jamie’s train of thought and sounding extremely tentative—as he always did, which was surely why he’d collected about zero dollars for the company so far.
“No, sorry, bro,” Jamie said briskly, sitting up straighter in his chair and forcing the fantasies of Sky away. “I was just…looking at your balance sheet here,” he lied and rolled his cursor over the spreadsheet on his screen.
Poor Ahkat; the chubby, eager-looking little guy had been sitting in Jamie’s cubicle waiting for some guidance for—shit, had it been six minutes already? At least Jamie had the self-awareness to know he was being a piss-poor role model right now. Clearing his throat, he forced himself to get into work-mode. “Okay, let’s see,” he began, recalling an article he’d recently read. It was all about management styles. Apparently, a good manager always gave the positives first—before lowering the boom with negatives. So, with that in mind, Jamie gave Ahkat a friendly smile. “Let’s start with what you’re doing right,” he said, trying to sound upbeat about Ahkat’s fairly pitiful job performance thus far.
“Great,” Ahkat agreed, leaning forward a bit, as if hungry for the praise. Ahkat was clearly one of those likable, studious types, who nails the interview perfectly, but once hired and tossed into a sea of corporate objectives, is drowned by his passive nature. Though Jamie had only been with the New England Furniture Company for a year and a half, it felt longer based on how much he’d learned about corporate culture so far.
Now, being that he was technically in a supervisory position, he needed to get on with this meeting. “Uh, the first thing is…” Jamie struggled to come up with a good positive, while Ahkat blinked eagerly. “You dress very professionally,” Jamie said, then punctuated the point with his finger. “Very professional attire, bro. That’s good.”
“Thank you,” Ahkat stated proudly, smoothing out his sweater vest.
“You’re also very polite on the phone,” Jamie added, restlessly clicking his pen. “So, good phone skills there.” Again, Ahkat smiled cheerily and thanked him. “Now for what we want to work on… Well, according to this report, you’ve collected less than two thousand dollars since you’ve been here.”
“Yes, well, just yesterday I collected five hundred dollars,” Ahkat pointed out. “I’m not sure if the report has been updated yet.”
Jamie paused, questioning, “You collected five hundred as in money-in-the-bank? Or check’s-in-the-mail?”
“Well…it was more of a verbal agreement than an actual payment, per se…” Ahkat fumbled.
Shaking his head, Jamie tried not to frown at the guy, as he said, “Yeah, that’s a problem. See, we’ve got a very straightforward job here. When customers buy or lease furniture and then they don’t pay, we reach out to them for the money they owe.” Or, more often, Jamie and other credit associates worked with customers to renegotiate payment terms and come up with adjusted repayment schedules, or froze accounts on future orders until an acceptable threshold of back debts were paid. The bulk of the company’s business came from corporate accounts, rather than individual consumers, so it wasn’t like they were harassing a sweet little old lady about a rocking chair.
“I do try to get the money,” Ahkat insisted and then, abruptly, began sneezing. While Jamie waited for him to finish, he noticed that Ahkat’s eyes were watery. Shit, he hoped he hadn’t made the guy tear up over this stuff. Nah, that wouldn’t make sense, Jamie figured, and assumed it had to be allergies or something. “You okay?” he said when Ahkat finished a long sneezing fit.
“Yes,” he said, sniffling, “thanks.”
“All right, how about this? Let’s see what your method is,” Jamie offered and pushed the phone on his desk toward Ahkat. Then he turned his monitor so Ahkat could see the report better. “See the line that’s highlighted in green? Give that account a call; try to get some of this money. Buddy, I’m not trying to put you on the spot. I’m just trying to see what your strategy is and figure out how we can…streamline it,” Jamie said, recalling that streamline was handy corporate-speak for fix-whatever’s-ass-backwards.
“All right,” Ahkat reluctantly agreed and took the phone. Once he got through all the preliminary information, Ahkat said to the client, “We really would like to get paid. I see, I see. Well, how would you feel if I borrowed a thousand dollars from you and then decided not to pay it back?” Granted, it wasn’t the most professional tactic, but it was impressive to Jamie, only because he didn’t think Ahkat had the balls to put someone on blast like that.
Until Ahkat ruined the moment and began retracting.
“I see, yes, well, if you don’t have it, I guess you don’t have it,” he groveled. “Thanks for your time. Have a nice day. Oh!” he added, looking at Jamie for approval. “Make sure you contact us as soon as you do have some money, so that we can get paid.” Losing confidence, Jamie lifted his glasses, rubbing his eyes as he heard Ahkat repeat into the phone, “Hello? Hello…?”
There was clearly a lot of work to be done here, Jamie thought, setting his glasses back in place. Ahkat was way too passive. The guy was so concerned with being liked—and remaining inoffensive to the point that he had no hope of getting what he wanted. Then it hit Jamie. So obvious, but it took this glaring example to make him see:
Passivity wasn’t just a waiting game; it was a losing game.
Sure, it was an okay approach if you were endlessly patient about getting what you wanted. But who really felt that way? In Ahkat’s case, if he didn’t start collecting some money soon, he’d lose his job. In Jamie’s case…well, the urgency he felt went so far beyond a job. It was beyond money, beyond any one thing. Because it had to do with a girl. With the all-consuming need she stirred in him, and maybe even with love. Because what Jamie suddenly wanted most in the world was Sky.
Chapter 14
Sky was startled by a knock on the door. She rubbed away another tear before it could fall, as she climbed off the couch, hoping it was Jamie. It wasn’t that she was expecting him, or anyone, but when she heard that knock, his face was the first image that appeared in her mind.
Despite her dismal mood, it was apparently her lucky night.
“Hey,” she said, managing a smile when she saw him standing on the other side of the door. Admittedly, Sky wasn’t doing much to hide her sullenness, despite how happy she felt to see him. “Come in.”
“Hey…” Jamie said, stepping inside. Immediately, he studied her with concern. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Nothing. Oh, by the way, Elle healed your sister’s plant. It’s over by the windowsill.”
&n
bsp; “Thanks. You okay?”
As she shut the door, Sky assured him, “I’m fine. Just a bad day.”
“What happened?”
“It’s dumb.”
“Okay.” After a long pause, Jamie said, “I’ve got ‘bad’ and ‘dumb.’ I’m going to need to more to go on.”
With a weary sigh, Sky began, “It’s just…here, look.” She reached down to scoop her phone off the sofa where she’d abandoned it, and passed it to him.
When Jamie took it, he started scrolling through the slideshow of photos open on the screen. “I’m seeing a girl in a puffy coat,” he said, scrolling, “another puffy coat. Lots of snow, a bunch of people, a penguin…”
“There are no penguins in Whistler,” Sky interjected, giving him the side-eye.
“Oh, you’re right, my mistake,” Jamie said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. “It was another puffy coat.” Then he handed her back the phone.
“They were on my ski team with me in college,” Sky explained, referring to the girls in the pictures. “They’re all in Whistler right now, trying out for the Blizzard XS Games. It’s a pretty big competition,” she informed him. “I just wish I could be there!” she mumbled angrily and let her phone fall onto the adjacent armchair. “Then to top it off, when I got to work today, I found out that Betty’s owners picked her up early. I never even got to say goodbye.” At that, Sky dropped back onto the sofa with obvious dejection. When she looked up at Jamie, he was watching her, patiently. “Listen, I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked, confused.
“I’m feeling sorry for myself right now.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said. When Sky glared at him, he half-grinned and back-pedaled, “All I mean is, I’m aware of what’s happening here and I want to fix it.”
“Fix it how?” Sky repeated cynically, as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. “Are you going to reverse time? Make me not drive down Madison Street at 12:32 in the morning on May 25th and never get hit by that drunk driver?” She regretted her acerbic tone instantly—but Jamie just ignored it.