by Natalie Ann
“Lauren sure the hell isn’t his type. She’s not even pretty. And her clothes. My mother dresses more fashionably than her. Most of her clothes are from a discount store on top of it. Anyone can see how cheap they are.”
Lauren decided she’d heard enough and moved away. Who was Katy to judge her on her appearance? Just because Lauren didn’t like to gossip and pushed Katy away most of the time didn’t mean Katy had the right to talk about her that way.
Sure, she never thought she was anything that should be gracing the cover of a beauty or fashion magazine, but she wasn’t a troll. She’d had boyfriends before. She’d dated. Just not recently.
There was no time for it. No interest either.
She wasn’t looking for love. She wasn’t looking for a relationship. Right now, she wasn’t looking for anything other than a stable job.
She had one now and she was going to do whatever she could to keep it. And that meant pushing the sexy Jace from her mind so that other people didn’t start spreading rumors about her. Katy included.
7
More Than Work
Jace returned from his trip satisfied that ordering wasn’t the issue with the yogurt chain, but poor management and poor scheduling or lack of promotions might be. Easy enough fixes in his mind.
He needed to meet with Lauren and see if she could find out how often the stores were promoted or did any advertising in conjunction with community events.
He shouldn’t be missing time spent with her when he hadn’t been spending all that much to begin with.
But that was a lie. He found a way to seek her out no less than every other day. If he didn’t see her, then he was calling her or emailing her. He’d even given her his cell phone number when he hadn’t done that to anyone else other than upper management and Katy.
Not that Lauren used it. Right now, she was just emailing him if she had anything to report.
He decided it was time for another lunch meeting. But when he looked at the clock in his office, he noticed it was almost seven. He’d have to wait until tomorrow to set it up.
He was leaning back and stretching his arms over his head when his email went off. Speak of the devil. It was Lauren. She must still be working. Excitement mixed in with annoyance. She was probably putting more time in than him.
Might as well stretch his legs out too. Anything to go see her before he went to meet with the delivery man for the pizza that would be arriving in five minutes that Katy ordered before she’d left hours ago.
“Hey,” he said, stopping in her doorway. “What are you still doing here?”
She jumped back like she always seemed to do. It was funny in a way, but he was guessing she didn’t think so.
“Working. I’m assuming you are too.”
“Yeah. Just trying to catch up, which seems like it never happens. Seriously though, I hope you aren’t staying late because I asked for those reports.”
“No. I just get my teeth in something and then can’t let go. I’m doing salary analysis right now. I find it funny the discrepancy in pay.”
“Funny how?” he asked.
“Just that some people are hired on at close to or more than someone that’s been around for years. It doesn’t make any sense. It seemed to me that the longer someone is around, they should make more for the same job.”
“They should,” he said. “I hate to ask you for that report when you’re done. But please don’t rush on it if there are other things you need to do.”
“It’s fine. Like I said, I just get doing something and lose track of time. It’s not like I’ve got anywhere to be.”
She was reaching her arms over her head right now, stretching like him. He liked that she was comfortable enough to do that and not worry anymore. If he was fanciful he might think she was flirting, but he hadn’t caught sight of too much flirting from her. Bummer.
“I’m on my way down to pick up a pizza. If you don’t have plans, how about sharing it with me?”
“I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than eating dinner with me,” she said, blushing slightly.
The blush was promising. “I’d really like your company.” He wasn’t going to push any more than that and just see what she’d say.
“If you don’t mind, then yeah. It beats the sandwich I would have made and then we could talk about work a bit if you want.”
He didn’t want to but could throw a few questions out if need be, if that was the only way to get her to agree.
“That works. I’ll meet you in my office in a few, unless you want to stretch your legs too and walk down with me?” He could see her hesitating, and added, “I don’t think there is anyone in the building at the moment that you have to worry about seeing us.”
“It wasn’t that. I mean. I don’t know what I mean. I just didn’t want you to think that. Sure, I’ll walk down with you.”
They went to the elevator and rode down in silence while he tried to think of something to ask her and take his mind off the fresh clean scent of her that seemed to follow him everywhere he went.
So many things reminded him of her and it was getting pathetic.
He was thirty-five years old and could get any woman he wanted and yet all he could do was think about Lauren standing next to him in the elevator and wondering how he could talk to her about more than work.
Someone that he’d only known a few weeks but felt extremely comfortable around. Someone that made him want to seek her out for the most ridiculous of reasons.
She made him feel good about things. About his decisions and his life. The changes he was making. She was supporting him without even knowing that she was. A validation of sorts.
And she was someone that he found he couldn’t stop fantasizing about.
By the time they got to the front door, he saw the delivery car pull up and pushed the door open to meet the guy since he wouldn’t be able to get in the door after hours.
At least on the ride back up in the elevator the smell of sauce and pepperoni filled the air, taking his mind off the fact that Lauren was in a skirt that was just a little bit above her knees and a fitted sweater. Nothing provocative at all with the flats she had on her feet, but he could see that she had nice toned legs to go with her slim waist.
Once they were in his office, he walked over to a cabinet and pulled out some paper plates.
She laughed. “Do you always keep paper plates in your office?”
“Actually, I do. I eat in here a lot and it’s easier to do it this way. I should have asked if you wanted anything to drink down there. I’ve got some water and soda in my fridge here. Help yourself.”
“You’ve got a fridge in here?” she asked, looking around. “Where?”
He got up and pulled the door open to the fridge door that blended in with the same wood as his cabinet. “My father had this custom made. I have no idea why. It’s not like it’s a big deal to put one in here. In my office in California, I had a fridge, microwave, and Keurig. Even my couch was big enough to lie on there.”
“Sounds like you never had a reason to leave your office as long as you had a bathroom, which I’m guessing you did like you do here.”
He grinned. “Pretty sad but true. I spent a lot of time in my office there.”
“Not much different than here,” she said, reaching for a plate and putting a slice of pizza on it.
“Look who’s talking,” he said, smiling at her. He probably should have some kind of a life, but the problem was he was too focused on keeping his father’s business afloat and making a name for himself while not following in his father’s footsteps for that success.
No matter how much his father tried to push his opinions and thoughts onto Jace growing up, Jace was still his own man with his own thoughts that completely differed from his father’s.
Lauren tilted her head, smiled back, and he felt something he couldn’t ever remember feeling before. Something like butterflies in his chest swarming around making him want to reach out and
grab her hand and yank her close.
But he didn’t do that, because he couldn’t. He had no idea how she felt, or what she was even thinking.
“Thanks again for asking me to have dinner with you. I can’t tell you the last time I ate dinner with someone.”
He looked up sharply wondering what she could have meant by that. “Like a date?”
Her face started to get a nice red tint to it. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant that I don’t go out very often.”
“Not even with friends?” he asked. “Or family?”
“I don’t have any family other than my mother and she moved to Florida a few months ago with her boyfriend. Most of my friends are from work at my old job, and they work nights and money was always tight.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I’m talking too much. Sorry.”
“No. It’s fine. I’m glad you’re talking to me. So once your mother moved you were by yourself? Were you living with her or on campus?”
“With her. She paid the rest of the rent for me and the lease ran out at the end of May. I was lucky enough to get hired here and be able to secure myself a new apartment.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. He thought she might have had it rough, but not what she was describing. Not that her mother just moved like that and left her here all by herself.
“My mother left when I was ten,” he said before he could stop himself. He knew it wasn’t the same thing. He still had his father...when his father was around and oftentimes Jace kind of wished he wasn’t.
“I’m sorry. Your parents are divorced?”
“Yeah. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that my father was a hard man to work for. He was an even harder man to live with. My mother had enough and left.”
“You didn’t want to go with her?” she asked.
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
He wasn’t going to go into detail. That his mother didn’t want him. His father wouldn’t have let him go anyway. To his father, back then, Jace was a possession that they would have fought over and his mother had no chance in hell of winning. She knew that and took off. There were times Jace wished he could have too.
Moving to California years ago was the solace he needed. But he knew in his heart he’d always end up back here. Just not the way it happened and not so early.
“Then I’m really sorry.” She reached her hand over and seemed to hesitate, then laid it on his. There was a spark that started in his palm and ran right up his arm into his chest, causing him to fight back a gasp. “I get it in a way. My father left when I was a few years old. He never paid support and the few times I heard his name it was surrounded by curse words,” she said grinning.
He was surprised she could smile about it. “I think you’re trying to make light of your childhood.”
“It’s in the past. No reason to hash it over, right?”
He wished he could feel that way. He wished he didn’t harbor such sour thoughts for his mother and that he’d never had much tenderness in his life. Like the hand Lauren just laid on his.
He had spent most of his time with fast women that he never stayed with long. Why bother when he was so focused on his career?
That for years he thought for sure he was destined to be just as hard and difficult to be around as his father since he knew no other way.
When he realized that he was acting in a way he hated, he had started to make some changes. But one change he’d never made concerned women. He just didn’t take them seriously. Or serious enough.
When his father got ill, he’d seen the change in him. Maybe it was that his father was looking death in the eyes—since they’d said he’d coded on the table twice—that he decided to change his ways.
Once Jace realized his father was genuinely trying to make amends, he decided it might be time to let go of all the hurt and anger he’d held in for so long at his parents.
The problem was, it all shaped him into who he became, and that was someone that could never see himself being in any kind of a long-term relationship. He just didn’t know how.
8
Wanted to Fit In
Lauren finished up the meeting with Jace and closed her binder. She’d been employed for over a month now and things seemed to be going pretty smoothly.
She was loving her job and loving the time she spent working at it, even if it was significantly more than other employees.
Had she heard others say she was kissing up or brown nosing with the big guy? Sure, she had and she ignored it all. Too many people her age were classified now as lazy and not caring and she didn’t want to be lumped into that category. Not if she wanted to succeed and she desperately did.
There was nothing she wanted more in this life than to not worry about being able to pay a bill, being on the street, or having food in her belly.
Too many years of moving around because her mother barely held onto minimum wage jobs that just didn’t cut it. Between that and her mother’s uncanny ability to move from one loser to the next, Lauren was always wishing to grow older faster.
Once Lauren started working at fifteen, she was able to use that money to buy what she needed that her mother didn’t supply. Clothes, food, or activities for school. She was too embarrassed to say she didn’t have the money and just wanted to fit in back then, so if working more than the average kid was needed, she did it.
Most knew her background, but she was smart and a hard worker and she was determined to get herself out of the nasty hole of poverty her family had lived in for generations.
She’d pushed looks, comments, and speculation aside her whole life and she could continue to do it with no problem now.
She was just getting ready to stand up when Jace said, “Are you going to watch the fireworks on Friday night?”
The Fourth of July fireworks at the Empire State Plaza. It was a big event in the area. There were lots of firework shows in the Capital Region, but that was one of the largest.
“No. I’m not much for crowds.”
She’d never been to a fireworks show before. Just seen a few go off at a school event, but nothing like what would be presented. When she got older, she worked those nights, gobbling up as many hours as she could so other part-timers her age could go out and party.
“Believe it or not, neither am I. I can see it from my rooftop deck.”
Figures he’d have one of those rooftop decks that she’d only ever heard about or seen on TV. “That’s nice.”
He laughed at her. “Why don’t you join me and watch them there?”
“What?” she asked. He didn’t just ask her on a date, did he? No, she had to be imagining it. He was just being nice. He was like that a lot, even if others never thought so. She was getting good at the deaf monkey act here.
The same as she was good at pushing aside all the sparks that ignited in her body when he accidentally touched or brushed by her. She never should have laid her hand on his that first time letting her know what a reaction it would have in her body.
“Not a big deal. I just figured I’ll be sitting up there by myself watching it, that maybe you’d like to see it too. But I’m sure you’ve got plans.”
She snorted but hadn’t meant to. “No plans.”
“Then watch them with me.”
“Why?” she asked.
She’d never considered herself naive before. She might not have a ton of dating experience, but she was pretty sure she knew a date when it was presented to her. Either way, she wanted everything spelled out nice and clear.
“Because I’d like to spend some time with you outside of work but completely understand if you don’t want to and it won’t hurt my feelings at all.”
Guess he wasn’t gay like Katy thought when she’d overheard her and MaryAnn talking weeks ago.
But then the question was, did he work his way through women like MaryAnn suggested? And how do you ask that without offending the guy that signs your paycheck each week?
“Do
you think it’s wise? I work for you.”
“If you didn’t work for me, would you accept the invitation?” he asked her.
She paused for a second and thought. “I’d want to know why you’re even asking me regardless. Let’s be honest, you’re way out of my league.”
He burst out laughing. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“I would,” she argued. “Aside from the fact you’re a lot older than me, you come from”—she held her hands up and waved them around the office—“this. This building is yours. Multiple businesses are yours, not to mention all the stuff you did when you were in California.”
“Not as much as I would have liked,” he said.
“But you worked for start-ups, right?”
“I did. I had to leave the last one to come here.”
“I bet you’ve got stock options in every company that you worked for, and if they take off you’d be sitting pretty just from that alone.”
He smirked at her, but only said, “The big word there is if.”
“Again. Another point. I’m an entry level position right out of college with barely two pennies to rub together and you’re asking me on a date.”
“I am,” he said. “Money doesn’t mean anything.”
“Says the person who’s had more of it than he’d ever need.”
She was known for being honest but was wondering where the heck all her boldness was coming from. But she figured if he was going to venture down a personal road, then she could wipe the business face off too.
He sighed. “Point taken. So push the money part aside for the moment. Push the age part aside too. Unless that bothers you.”
“I don’t think it does. I mean it’s not like you’ve got any gray hair.” She leaned forward a bit and tried to look around his head. “Maybe one there on the side, but I can overlook it.”
“Cute, Lauren. Okay. Age and money aside. Me being your boss aside. What is holding you back from saying yes?”