The Unexpected Gift
Page 2
Working with this sexy little minx might be just what I need to keep me occupied this Christmas. Maybe, this won’t be so bad after all. If only I knew how fucked—and not in the good, naked, sweating, moaning way—I was about to become.
3
“Knock, knock,” I announce, as I walk into Kasey and Chelle’s office. Chelle turns around and my eyes drop to her big pregnant belly. “WOW, look how big you are now!” I say.
“Just what every pregnant lady wants to hear,” she snorts, dropping down into her seat and grabbing a piece of licorice from the huge container on her desk. “What can I do for you, Grainger?”
“This,” I point to Marlee behind me, “is Marlee Adams, here about the charity toy drive.”
“Shit,” Kasey says, sitting up suddenly, while Chelle leans back and rests her hand on her belly. With a smile Kasey apologizes, “I totally forgot that was today. My brain is all over the place.” Chelle looks to Kasey, and smart-assly asks. “What’s your excuse for forgetting, Kase?”
Kasey sticks out her tongue at Chelle. Marlee giggles, she has a gorgeous laugh that lights up her face.
“You’re allowed. You are growing a tiny little person inside of you,” Marlee says. “Gage here has offered to help, I can coordinate with him, if that’s easier?”
Both Kasey and Chelle’s heads snap toward me before Kasey says, “You did what, Mr. ‘I hate Christmas and everything that goes with it’ Grainger? Did you hit your head? Or has your body being taken over by aliens?”
“Very not funny. Just because I’m not a fan of Christmas, doesn’t mean I can’t help out and do something for charity.”
Chelle looks at me suspiciously. “Gage, I’ve run this drive for the past four years. Not once have you offered to physically help. Not once. Sure, you chuck a ton of cash into the gift kitty, but actually offering of help? Nope. Something’s…” She drifts off when her eyes land on Marlee and then she points her licorice stick at me. “I’m onto you, Grainger.” She turns to Marlee. “Sorry about that…and him. I’m Chelle and I'll be the liaison with this. I have worked on this since I started here at WFOX-FM and just because I look like this,” she flicks her hands up and around her belly, “doesn't mean I can’t do it. Thankfully this year, I have Kasey and you assisting me…and by the looks of things, now Gage too.”
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Marlee says. “I just thought…you know what, never mind. Let’s start again.” She steps around me and in front of Chelle’s desk. “Kasey. Chelle, I’m Marlee Adams, here to assist you with the charity toy drive. I’m excited to work with you both.” She looks over her shoulder at me. “And you too Gage.” The way she looks at me stirs something within me.
“Nice to meet you, Marlee. We are excited to work with you too. I’ve got some great ideas for this year’s drive and I cannot wait to get started.” Chelle looks to me. “Grainger, get out of my office. I’ll summon you if and when I need your grinchy assistance.”
“There’s the snarky baby mama we all know and love.” She flips me the bird and I laugh as I walk out of her office. I duck my head back in. “Nice to meet you, Marlee.” I wink at her. “Later, Kase…Chelle.” I quickly leave before anyone has a chance to reply.
With a grin on my face and a pep in my step, I walk back to my office and can’t decide if I’ll fuck Marlee before, during, or after the drive. All three would be great, but if I fuck this drive up, Kasey and Chelle will have my balls on a silver platter. Kasey I can handle, but Chelle, she’s scary at the best of times, but when she’s pregnant, she makes Bigfoot look like a fucking teddy bear.
Stopping in the breakroom, I make myself a double espresso and head back to my office. I’ve just sat down at my desk when the phone rings. Picking it up, I answer with the company greeting, “WFOX-FM this is Gage.”
“Gage, Son, it’s Dad.” Comes across the line.
I freeze Fuck, what does he want? “Dad.” That’s all I offer, this man doesn’t deserve anything from me. Not after the way he treated me after Ma died.
“Gage, I’m sick. I have liver cancer.”
“So, the beers finally caught up with you,” I sarcastically reply. Rubbing my temples and closing my eyes in frustration.
“Please, Son, I’m try…”
“No, Dad, you don’t get to make amends on your deathbed. You’ve had years to make up for my shitty childhood. Years.” I pause and take a deep breath. “You weren’t the only one who lost Ma that day, I did too. I lost the one person who loved me unconditionally. Sooo many times, I wished it was you who had died and that I still had her with me. Well, I guess I’ll finally get my wish that you were dead, but it won’t bring her back. I’ll never get her back. Look, I’m sorry you’re sick, but it’s too little to late. I have to get back to work.” Without letting him reply, I slam the phone down. Thankful that he called the office line and I could slam the phone down, hitting a button on a screen just isn’t as satisfying. There’s nothing better than slamming the phone down in frustration. Yes, there is, fucking in frustration. My mind drifts to Marlee…I’m fucking her from behind, her body pressed to my desk, her ass in the air. “Fuck.” I mumble to myself as my cock thickens within my pants at my vivid thoughts.
Leaning back in my chair, I adjust my cock and spin around to gaze out the window. The sky is gray and dreary, it's going to snow today. Sadly, I smile, wishing Ma was here. I sit and stare at my reflection in the window and think of Ma. As if on cue, it begins to snow.
From behind me I hear an angelic voice say, “I knew it was going to snow today. The sky was the right shade of gray.”
Spinning my chair around, I find Marlee standing in my office doorway. Once again, my eyes devour her body, and my cock twitches within my pants. I’m ever so thankful to have a desk in front of me right now. Down boy, I subconsciously say. “I was just thinking the same thing, and then BAM, the snow began to fall.”
She walks into my office and takes a seat in the chair across from me. “My grandpa taught me to predict the snow.”
“My Ma taught me,” I offer.
We silently stare at one another over my desk. Our eyes boring into each other. Marlee smiles and it lights up her face, and surprisingly, it warms my heart AND I find myself returning her smile.
“Gage.” “Marlee.” We both say at the same time before we both laugh.
“You go first,” she says before I get a chance to.
“I was wondering if you’d…” Suddenly, I’m nervous, this doesn’t happen to me around women. I’m usually slick and have them eating out of my hand, but the woman sitting across from me unnerves me like no one ever before. “Would you like to grab a drink with me?”
“Ohh, ummm…”
“It’s fine if you don’t, I just thought…no never mind.”
“You thought what?” she asks.
“It’s all good, don’t worry about it. What did you want to ask me?”
She shakes her head and begins to stand up. “It’s fine. I’ll speak to you soon.”
Before I have a chance to reply, she walks out of my office.
Pushing back my chair, I let out a frustrated sigh. Lifting my hands, I rub my temples and close my eyes. A vision of Marlee appears before me and I find myself grinning goofily.
Did I sense a hint of sadness when I didn’t ask her out?
Or is it just my dick wishing so?
What is this woman doing to me?
4
For the rest of the afternoon, my mind is a jumbled mess. Ma. Dad. Marlee. My mind flits between the three of them, but mostly my mind wanders to Marlee ‘Oh so sexy’ Adams and the wickedly sexy things I want to do to her body.
I’m staring out the window at the snow falling, when there’s a knock at my door. Spinning around, I see Kasey. “What up, Buttercup?” I say with a smirk because I know she hates it when I call her Buttercup.
“I’m going to ignore that greeting and get straight to it. DO NOT FUCK AND CHUCK MARLEE ADAMS. Got it?”
“Don’t play dumb, Grainger. One, you hate Christmas and now you’re willingly offering to help with this toy drive. Two, I saw you eye-fucking her when we were in Chelle’s office just now. And C, I know you Gage Grainger.”
“You do not know me.” She pops her hand on her hip and eyeballs me. “Okay, maybe you do know me, but—”
“I wasn’t finished. Four,” she raises her fingers indicating the number, “she is totally your type. And lastly, she’s sexy as sin and you’d look cute together. IF you decide to go after her, don’t do it in your usual wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am way. Woo her. Fall for her. Have a relationship with her, as your friend, I want you to be happy and have a love like Kody and I.”
My eyes snap up to hers. “Love doesn’t exist.” I lick my lip and shake my head. “Not in my life anyway.”
“Gage, not all relationships are like your parents’.”
“No, don’t bring my parents into this. Besides, this has nothing to do with them. I’m just not wired to fall in love.”
She ignores me and continues, “When you find ‘the one,' it’s perfect in every imaginable way. They are the first thing you think of in the morning, and they are your last thought before you drift off to sleep. They do little things that mean nothing to an outsider, but everything to you. Their smile penetrates deep into your soul. Their presence is felt before you see them. Sure, they’ll piss you off and you’ll want to smother them with a pillow while they are sleeping, but at the end of the day, they are your other half. You feel lost when they are away from you. It’s like you cannot exist without them. Without them, you are empty. You are miserable. And Gage, you are empty, miserable, and lost.” She pauses and then adds, “And a fucking Grinch.”
“Am not. I’m just…” I scoff in reply, but Kasey has hit the nail on the head, I am miserable. I’m lonely. I’m a grump, no, I’m a downright asshole. “I’m scared,” I mumble.
“Scared of what?” Kasey asks, as she comes around my desk and leans against the wood.
“What if I’m like him?”
“Gage.” She reaches over and squeezes my arm. “I’m sure you are nothing like him. You are kind. Sure, you're an asshole at times, but underneath it all, you are pretty great. I guarantee there is someone out there waiting for you to swoop in and woo them.”
“Yeah. Nah. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe I’m destined to be alone and cranky for something that I did in a past life.”
“I call bullshit on that, Grainger.” She stands up and walks out of my office. She reaches the door and looks back at me. “She asked about you.”
“Who did?”
“You know who I’m talking about.” And with that, she leaves. Leaving me to ponder what Marlee asked them in regard to me, and more importantly, what Kasey and Chelle told her about me…not that I care.
“Bye, Buttercup!” I shout, and I faintly hear her say, “Asshole.”
Leaning back in my chair, I stare out the window again and wonder if maybe she’s right, maybe I do deserve to be happy and all that shit. As I sit and watch the snow falling, my mind drifts back to a happy memory from my childhood, the last Christmas that Ma was alive…
…December 1st, 1998
Ma and I had just finished decorating the tree. All there was left was to place the angel on the top. I was getting too big for Ma to lift me up anymore, so she dragged over a chair from the dining room table. “Up you go, Gage,” she said, her eyes bright and loving. She handed me the angel and I held it carefully in my hands. The angel’s material was so soft and delicate. I was scared I was going to drop her. I had never held her by myself before; I’d always had Ma helping me. I was so nervous, I didn’t want to break her. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and climbed up onto the chair. The tree before me felt huge, I was so little in comparison. I lifted my arms but I couldn’t quite reach. I lifted onto my tippy-toes but I was still too short. All of the sudden, there was a hand on my shoulder and I heard Dad’s voice from behind me, “Let me help, Son.”
I gasped in utter shock; Dad was nice to me. Dad was sober. Moments like this didn’t happen often lately. I looked over to Ma and she shrugged her shoulders at me and smiled. This smile lit her eyes up. It was moments like this that Ma loved. “Thanks,” I said, offering the angel to Dad so he could place it on top, but he didn’t take it. He wrapped his arms around my legs and lifted me up so I could put the angle on top of the tree.
After that, the three of us sat around the fire laughing and being a family; a happy family. We ate Christmas cookies. Ma made hot chocolate with marshmallows, it was the perfect Christmas moment in my ten-year-old mind.
As the memory fades, I stand up and walk over to my office window. Resting my forehead on the cool glass, I look out at the decorated tree below in the atrium of the building and smile. Christmas wasn’t always bad. Turning around and leaning against the glass, I think to myself, Maybe it’s time to make some new Christmas memories…happy Christmas memories.
After leaving the office, I stop in at the local Jewel-Osco to grab a few things for dinner. I’m in the meat section, trying to decide between steak and pork chops when the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and it's not from the cold of the meat case but because someone is approaching. Looking up, I see Marlee pushing her cart and walking toward me This must be that sixth sense feeling that Kasey mentioned earlier, I think as I watch her. She hasn’t seen me yet, but I take the time to look at her. She’s about my height, sexy as sin legs—that, once again, I’m currently imagining wrapped around my head—gorgeous tits, and an angelic face. She looks up and when our eyes connect, she smiles. This smile shoots straight to my heart, instantly kick-starting it.
“Hey there,” she casually says.
“Hey,” I reply.
We both fall silent, it’s kind of awkward but at the same time not.
We are staring intently at one another, the air around us prickling. “Marlee, would you like to have a drink with me?”
She licks her bottom lip before chewing on it, thinking over my question. “I think I’d like that. When?”
“Now?”
5
Now, what the hell, Grainger? This woman causes me to speak before I think. Next thing I know, I’ll be asking her to carry my babies.
“Sure, why not?” she happily says, and her reply swells my heart. Man, I sound like a lovesick fool.
We both abandon our carts and head outside. “Where should we go?” I ask her.
“There’s a new wine bar that recently opened nearby, I’ve been wanting to try it out.”
“Wine isn’t normally my thing, but sure, wine not.” She laughs at my corny joke and her laugh is divine. “Would you like a lift?”
“That’d be great since I walked here.”
Offering her my elbow, she links her arm though and we walk in silence to my car. Both of us not so subtly checking the other out. Pressing the key fob in my pocket, my car unlocks.
“Holy shit, this is your car?” she asks, her eyes bulging open at my car. I nod my head, but before I can say anything she says, “Is this the Audi A5 coupe?”
Shaking my head, I correct, “No, it's an R8.” It's a total turn-on that she knows about cars.
She squeals with delight as she rounds the passenger side and climbs in. When I open my door, I swear I hear her moaning, and my mind flits to her riding me. Her head thrown back in ecstasy, she moans and writhes in pleasure, as we make sweet, sweet love. Rearranging my junk, I climb into the driver’s seat. She looks over at me and smiles. “I’ve always wanted an R8 Spyder, but that’s a pipe dream for me.”
“Never say never,” I offer in reply, as I start the ignition and drive toward the wine bar.
Ten minutes later, I pull into the parking lot behind the wine bar. On the drive over, I find out that Marlee has worked for Chicago Hopes of Kids for the last four months, prior to th
at she attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to complete her Master of Social Work, Leadership & Social Change Concentration degree. Listening to her talk about her work is mesmerizing. She loves what she does, and I can tell she really cares about the kids and their future.
As we walk into the bar and approach the hostess stand, she asks, “And what about you, Gage? Tell me about you?”
Thankfully I’m given a reprieve when the hostess appears out of nowhere. “Welcome to Bin 501, table for two?”
“Yes, please,” we both say at once. Glancing at each other, we both laugh.
“Follow me,” the hostess replies, stepping to the side, I allow Marlee to go first. It is the gentlemanly thing to do after all, but more importantly, I can check out her ass. She’s currently wearing jeans that accentuate her curves and a charcoal, off the shoulder sweater that makes her blue eyes pop.
We are seated toward the back of the bar, in a quiet area. Taking a seat across from Marlee, she grabs the menu and looks over it while I continue to check her out. As I do so, Kasey’s words from earlier play in my mind about Marlee asking about me.
I’m snapped back to reality when another waitress appears. “Welcome to Bin 501, my name is Amy, and I’ll be your server this evening. Can I start you with some drinks?”
Before I have a chance to reply, Marlee answers, “Can I grab a glass of Verdelho, please?”
“Ver-whato?” I ask.
Marlee smiles and lets out a throaty, heartfelt laugh, and I find myself grinning back at her. “Verdelho. It’s white wine with floral notes and a fruity aroma.”