Kyle’s eyes grew wide with shock, and he held his hands up, palms out, in a show of surrender. “No, sir. Alex has essentially been working two full-time jobs ever since Martin added her to our team. I just figured since all we needed were a few tweaks to the software, nothing that she’d even have an opinion on, she’d be able to utilize her time better catching up on other work. Trust me…no one appreciates the hours she’s put in more than I do.”
I nodded and then slowly pulled away until I stood up straight. I believed him—not sure why, but I did. However, I didn’t feel the same for Brad, who chose that moment to drag his chair to the front of my desk. He mumbled something under his breath. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it sounded like, “must be good.” Yet I chose to ignore it and get on with their requests. The faster I got them done, the sooner they could leave. Which meant the sooner I could try to get ahold of Lexi.
Those “tweaks” ended up taking more time than they should have. None of what they’d asked for was difficult, but with the constant interruptions that were par for the course of my job and vendors who needed my immediate attention, they took forever. The team wanted to get the finalized version back to Abiti by four, so I spent my lunch hour behind the computer and took bites of a deli sandwich when I could. Again, something else that shouldn’t have taken long, yet two hours later, I still had half of my turkey and cheese left.
Worried about Lexi, I sent her a quick text, asking if she was okay.
Lexi: Busy but good. How are you coming on the changes?
Me: Finalizing them now. Then I just have the test run.
I glanced at the clock, wondering how it was already almost three and where the day had gone. Between the anxiety this morning while waiting to hear back about the account and the stress over perfecting the codes in a limited amount of time, most of my day had gotten away from me. Not to mention, I still had my own job to do.
Lexi: I have no doubt you’ll nail it.
Me: We shall see. Wish me luck.
Lexi: You don’t need it, but good luck anyway.
Somehow, I made it through the test run without an issue. Kyle came up to my office to go through it, just to make sure I had understood and fixed all their concerns, and at twenty minutes till four, he left my office with the program uploaded to the server.
Me: All done. Back to the waiting game.
Lexi: I have faith in it.
Me: I have faith in you.
She didn’t respond, but I just assumed she was in the middle of something and couldn’t text back. I set my phone down and began to dig myself out of the mound of emails I had waiting for me. By five, I sent her another text, wanting to let her know that I’d be here for a while longer.
Me: Still drowning in work up here. You should come say bye before you leave.
Lexi: Wish I could, but I already left. How late do you think you’ll be?
Me: Hopefully no later than eight.
Lexi: OK. Call me when you’re done.
The corporate office closed at five, which was eight here, so unless I had something urgent come up, I couldn’t foresee staying later than that. However, by the time eight o’clock rolled around, the end was finally in sight, so I decided to hang around for a little bit longer to avoid adding more to my plate tomorrow.
Me: Maybe another hour more. I miss you.
Lexi: Miss you, too.
Me: What are you doing?
Lexi: Watching TV in bed. You?
Me: Proposal appraisals. Shoot me.
Lexi: LOL sounds exciting.
Me: I’d rather be in bed with you.
I almost grabbed my keys and called it a night, but she responded before I could get my desk drawer open.
Lexi: Nah. That would be boring. I’m exhausted. Can barely keep my eyes open.
Me: Does that mean you’ll be asleep when I finish up here?
Lexi: Not sure. Text me when you leave. If I don’t answer, then yes.
Me: In case you are…goodnight, Lex.
Lexi: Night, Chris.
While I finished going through vendor proposals and upgrade requests, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wished I could go home to Lexi after work and crawl into bed with her. I’d never gotten the chance to do that, considering I’d gotten accepted to DIT right when we had started looking for places together. And my need to live with her was just as strong now as it was then. We still hadn’t discussed how we’d work around Seneca’s fraternization policy, and although I promised I wouldn’t push her, part of me wanted to storm her apartment and make her talk about it, regardless of whether she was asleep or not.
At five minutes before nine, I called it a day. I turned off the computer, grabbed my keys, and left the office. I sent Lexi a text as I waited for the elevator, but when I made it to the parking garage and still hadn’t heard anything back, I figured she’d gone to bed.
CeeCee and Christopher—no matter how common of a name it was, it was still weird to use it for someone else—were stuffing the last of her things into her car when I came home. As happy as I was that she was leaving and I could finally sleep in a real bed again, a small part of me was sad to see her go. She was entertaining, and her company had kept me from being alone all the time. Though, that small part of me cheered right the fuck up once I got out of the shower and fell onto a real mattress.
“They chose the dressing room concept?” I didn’t doubt they would—Lexi wasn’t capable of coming up with a campaign that wasn’t amazing—but hearing Martin confirm it made it real. “That’s incredible. I’ll have to congratulate the team.”
“Yeah, they’re all thrilled. Now we just need to make sure you’re on board with building the full program. We can hire someone to do it, but it just makes more sense that it be you since you’re familiar with it already.”
“What are we talking here?” I’d done the work on my own time—aside from the changes I had to make yesterday—and everything had been on my personal laptop, so technically, I owned it, which meant they’d have to buy it from me if they wanted to use it.
This was what I’d been waiting for. I had always enjoyed building sites and writing program codes, but it had never been what I focused my time on. Working on this project ended up being more enjoyable than I had anticipated, and after seeing the anxiety on Lexi’s face Monday morning when she worried someone would see her get out of my truck and kiss me goodbye, I had an idea. I just had to wait until after the ad pitch to see how it would play out.
If their campaign were chosen, then Martin would have no choice but to give Lexi the promotion she’d been waiting five long years for. And at the same time, it’d potentially give me a job outside of Seneca—meaning, I wouldn’t have seniority over her, and we wouldn’t have a damn fraternization policy to worry about.
“Well, it would have to be fully developed, but I’m sure it’d be worth your while.”
My smile was so wide my cheeks ached. “Sounds good. Write up an offer and send it my way.” I hung up the phone and grabbed my cell to call Lexi. It seemed a little odd that I hadn’t heard from her, but I figured she must’ve been busy with all the attention she just got.
I was seconds away from dialing her number when my office door swung open.
Seriously…what was the point in having an assistant if everyone just barged in? The least they could do was knock first.
I glanced up and found Carl strolling toward my desk. “Sorry…the course is closed for maintenance.” I didn’t have to worry about him questioning what kind of upkeep a few green rugs and mix-matched mugs needed. After all, this was the same guy who didn’t bat an eye when I told him the bigwigs loved his idea of building another floor between the first and second to add a yoga room for the employees.
“That’s cool, boss. I actually came up here for something else.”
Hell had frozen over. I didn’t think there had ever been a time Carl had come to my office for anything other than golf. “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?” I was sca
red to ask.
“I was hoping you could create some sort of online calendar that can be shared with multiple people.”
Oh God. “Why, Carl? You can do that yourself. Google allows you to share calendars, and if you have any Apple device, you can share one through iCloud, too.”
“No, boss. This is much bigger than that. I need to make sure it’s secure and can’t be hacked.”
I replayed his words in my head several times, hoping they’d make sense.
They did not.
“What’s this for, Carl?”
“I’m working for Dr. Fellatio now, and she’s booking up quick, so I need something reliable to schedule all her appointments.” He spoke as if I knew what the hell he was talking about.
“Doctor who?”
“Fellatio. You know…the art of oral—”
“I know what it means. But I have no idea who it is.”
“No one does.”
“Yet you’re working for her?”
“Well, I mean…I know who she is. And so do all her clients. If you want to find out, you have to sign a confidentiality agreement and pay half upfront. But I gotta say, boss, I didn’t take you for her kind of client.”
“I’m not hiring this freak. And to be honest, I’m not sure why anyone would.”
“You’d be surprised. She’s rather popular and in high demand—coast to coast.”
“If I agree to make you a calendar, will you leave?”
“Sure thing.”
“Then fine. I’ll make one.” I just wanted a few minutes of privacy to call Lexi, although I was sure I’d end up regretting making this deal to get it.
I don’t think I’d ever seen Carl run out of my office so fast—he must’ve worried I’d change my mind. As soon as the door closed after him, I tapped on Lexi’s name and listened to the line ring in my ear. Except, she didn’t answer. I disconnected the call and sent a text. While waiting for her reply, I opened the browser on my computer and began to search this Dr. Fellatio character. To say I was surprised at what I found was an understatement.
Site after site mentioned this urban legend. Some questioned if she really existed, while others raved about her services. At first, I thought she was some sort of prostitute, some woman who charged for blowjobs. But it didn’t take long to realize I was way off. From what I gathered, Dr. Fellatio was a woman who charged for her unique, tried-and-true tips of the trade. Women from all over the country had paid her to teach them how to please their significant others, and based on the stories I’d found, it wasn’t a scam.
Yeah…there was no way Carl worked for her.
I picked up the phone again and dialed not only Lexi’s cell but her office line, too. Still, no answer, so I tried Carl, knowing he’d never miss my call. “Hey, Carl, are you in your cubicle?”
“Sure am. What’s up?”
“Is Lexi at her desk?”
There was a long pause, then an even longer “Uh,” followed by a drawn-out, “No,” that sounded far more like a question than an answer.
I knew she’d have a lot going on, but I guess I just figured I would’ve at least gotten a phone call. Then again, she might’ve forgotten her phone at her desk—making assumptions had never worked out well for me, or us, in the past.
So rather than sit around and obsess over it, I left my office in search of her. First stop was the third floor where the account reps were. Luckily, Kyle was in his office with his door propped open. I knocked but remained just outside, not wanting to get sucked into sitting down and wasting even more time.
“Hey, Kyle. Martin called me not too long ago. I just came down to say congrats, but I don’t see the rest of the guys. Any idea where they went?”
“Oh, yeah. We all went down to Chutney’s for lunch. I came back early to get ready for the one o’clock team meeting.”
I glanced at my watch and realized it was just after twelve thirty. “So they’ll be there for a little bit longer?”
“Hopefully not. They should be back within the next ten or so minutes.”
“Sounds good. I’ll just have to come back.” As if it had been an afterthought rather than hesitation, I asked, “Alex is with them, right?”
“Alex?” Kyle’s gaze fell a fraction before shifting back up to meet mine. “No. She…um, she didn’t make the team.”
I was so furious I didn’t even pay attention to his genuinely apologetic expression. Instead, I roared, “Are you kidding me? Why not?”
“I wish I knew.” And it was clear in his voice that he was telling the truth. This decision hadn’t been his, nor would he have made the same had he been given a choice. “The only thing I can think of is it came down to the issues between her and Brad. I don’t know the whole thing other than they haven’t had the best relationship while working on this campaign, and he has seniority.”
Leaving his office without so much as a bye, let alone “Congrats again, good job” was probably a little childish, yet I didn’t care. All I could see was getting to Martin’s office and demanding answers. After all, I was the man with the program design. There was no way I’d develop anything for this asshat after all this.
However, I never quite made it to Martin’s office. After getting off the elevator on the second floor, I stalked down the hallway between the makeshift offices. Checking once more for Lexi—now worried about her after learning she wasn’t celebrating with the team—I stopped at her cubicle.
Carl sat inside at his desk with several pieces of computer paper spread out and a line of colorful markers. If I hadn’t been focused on finding Lexi, I’d make some remark about art class, but instead, the sight of her desk hit me like a punch to the chest. It was empty. Not a personal effect inside, even her remaining paper flowers were gone.
“Where is she? Where are her things? They were all here this morning.”
“Uh…” Carl continued to flick his attention between me and the bare desk in front of him. “She quit. Was she supposed to keep it all here? If so…I’ll need to tell her to bring back the trash can.”
All I heard was the first part as it repeatedly played in my head. “She quit?” My heart broke for her.
She’d put her all into this project, and for them not to accept her on the team was beyond bullshit. It pissed me off. But what killed me the most was that it must’ve been so painful for her that she felt she had no other choice than to leave.
“Why didn’t you tell me that when I called five minutes ago?”
“You didn’t ask me if she quit. You only asked if she was here.” He held his hand out to showcase the empty space. “She’s not. I wasn’t sure you needed me to draw you a picture, but since you’re having a hard time understanding…”
He pulled the cap off a red marker and barely finished drawing a square before I interrupted him. “Carl, stop. Listen to me. This is important. Why’d she quit? What happened?”
“I don’t know, man.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” My voice had become much louder, but I didn’t care. “Your desk is directly across from hers. You’re friends. Why don’t you know?”
“Listen, guy…I just keep my head down and do my job.”
Not having any patience left for Carl, I backed out of the cubicle and peered into Jasmine’s, noticing her workspace hadn’t been cleared out, yet she wasn’t at her computer. I marched—not walked, not strolled, there was no leisurely gait—to Martin’s office at the end. Yet he wasn’t there, either.
Damn lunch breaks.
Since he wasn’t available to speak with, I simply left a message with his assistant: No deal on the software. Find your own developer. There was a very large chance that I would end up regretting that decision, considering I was essentially walking away from a decent paycheck. But when push came to shove, I’d choose Lexi.
Then it hit me.
I choose Lexi.
I hadn’t done so five years ago when I headed to Washington, nor did I three years ago when I took the job i
n California. But now…it was like I’d been given the opportunity to prove that I’d learned from my past mistakes and make the right ones this time.
That’s what I did. I headed straight up to my office and sat down at the computer, where I devoted thirty seconds of my time to typing an email. That was all they’d get from me. Then I tossed my office keys on the desk, along with my cell, and closed the door on my way out.
For some reason, the air and sun on my face felt different this time when I made it out of the building. I felt lighter, too. As if the weight of the last five years had been mounting as each second passed, and I’d just left it all behind.
Three years ago when I had made my mind up to return to Atlanta and decline the offer for California, I’d allowed Lexi’s silence to deter me. I hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt, just assumed the worst. This time, I was pretty sure she hadn’t responded to my calls or texts because she no longer had a phone—company policy was to take control of it upon termination of employment. And back then, rather than fly home and confirm it for myself, I gave up. Not this time. It didn’t matter if I knocked on her door and she told me she was in love with another man—I still wouldn’t give up.
Chatter in front of me broke me from my thoughts of the past and how I would right those wrongs today. When I glanced up, I saw three guys walking toward me—Brad between the other two. I didn’t even see who the others were since I couldn’t look away from the vile man in the middle.
I stopped in front of him, not letting him pass. I didn’t even realize what I’d done until the other two had walked away, leaving him alone with me…on a sidewalk in front of many offices, but alone all the same. Brad puffed his chest out, as if he would somehow scare me. I was at least a foot taller and had to have no less than eighty pounds of muscle mass more than he did. But I wasn’t sizing him up or anything.
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