Love, Inc

by Lily Zante

  “Sorry. I’m sorry,” muttered Wayne. He truly was and he had no explanation as to why he had said what he did. “It’s just that we have the tender with McKenzie in a couple of weeks and it could potentially be a big order for us. I’m working through that right now. I’m sorry.” These last few words were aimed at Lexi. He walked away.

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into him,” muttered Greta. But she knew that the McKenzie tender was huge and WB Enterprises was in the running along with their two main competitors, who also supplied products to the building and construction industries. Wayne had been working on it for weeks and the big presentation would be in two weeks time. Poor man, he had a lot on his plate.

  Lexi didn’t know why their exchanges were so fiery. As Greta continued walking around the factory floor, showing her the different processes and the people in charge of them, she realised she wasn’t really taking any of it in.

  “You’re not listening to any of this are you?” asked Greta as she stopped and faced Lexi, her soft gray eyes looking at Lexi with concern. Then she understood. “Don’t mind Wayne, he’s got a lot on. He wouldn’t know a good thing if it hit him square across the face.” She led Lexi back to their office.

  Chapter Five

  The first couple of weeks at work flew past quicker than Lexi had ever known. Part of the reason for this was that her lingerie products were flying off the shelves. She would get home exhausted and find orders arriving all during the day. She would wake up in the morning and see that more orders had arrived during the night.

  At the post office she had become a regular, daily visitor now and they opened up a priority counter for her whenever she arrived.

  Alexis Stanning Lingerie was gaining momentum at breakneck speed and Lexi was enjoying the ride. Each day she would pinch herself to see if she would awaken from this dream. Her sales were holding strong and she was starting to get upwards of ten to fifteen orders a day. This meant extra work for her every evening once she got home from her day at WB Enterprises.

  But she awoke each morning full of excitement at what the new day would bring. And she was enjoying the work at WB Enterprises too. After that short exchange on the factory floor, Lexi did her best to stay away from Wayne and avoided direct contact with him. Though, if she was being truthful to herself, she would admit to watching him when he was busy with a phone call or otherwise engaged. She was annoyed that he could see her so clearly from where he sat, facing her side, with only a few doors and glass window between them.

  The other part of being at WB Enterprises that really appealed to her was that she and Greta were both working on making the office systems more integrated so that the information flowed to and from the relevant departments without any need for repetitive tasks and extra effort.

  One particularly busy weekend, Lexi was in her apartment packaging up her latest orders. It was the second weekend that she hadn’t met up with her two best friends, Rita and Kelly, for their usual Sunday morning brunch. They knew she wasn’t holed up somewhere with a tall good looking guy either. Her friends knew Lexi too well for that. She always had her hands busy in one business or another. And she seemed to thrive on it. They let her off this Sunday but made her promise that next Sunday they would all get a chance to catch up.

  Lexi had been busy fulfilling another thirty seven orders that had come in during the last two days. She was also working on producing some promotional material to send out to department stores. The ASL business had been a closely guarded secret with Lexi not even daring to tell her closest friends or family what she was up to. But they all knew she was up to something. She had worked for years on one venture after another. First it had been the home made custom candles but too many competitors had already secured their major slots with the big retailers. Creating a new scent of candle was harder than it at first seemed. On top of that there were safety issues which needed careful consideration. And the last thing she wanted to do was to be responsible for setting fire to someone’s house or, god forbid, their hair. This venture didn’t last long. Then there was the ecommerce store that sold Tiffany style glass lamps. But this also had not shown much signs of promise either.

  The ASL lingerie business, however, was moving in the right direction. Responding to questions from customers about delivery times, sizes and colors for the products was still the biggest annoyance for her. She ended up responding to her customers’ emails late at night, once she had seen to the new orders ready to be shipped out the next day. Her business was not yet turning over a tidy enough profit but once it did, she would be in a position to hire a part-time assistant to deal with her customer query calls. She stopped for a minute, after she had finished packing her last order. She and Wayne weren’t so different after all. Just like her, he too was loathe to delegate much of his responsibilities. Her thoughts drifted lazily to Wayne. He had a great business going there but it was so badly run and inefficient, she felt he could do so much better with just a bit of organization. She got that same butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling that she always did when she thought of him. It was very annoying. She often ended up feeling like this whenever he was around her or in her thoughts. She, who usually was so much more level headed and pragmatic when it came to affairs of the heart.

  Her cell phone rang and she answered it absent mindedly, her head still full of thoughts about Wayne.

  “Hello, Lexi?” it was that easy, going voice. As if stung by a bee, Lexi snapped out of her reverie. It was Wayne. Stunned into silence, she forgot to answer.

  “Hello?” his tone was unsure and he sounded a little off, almost apologetic for calling her at home, on a weekend.

  “Er. Yes, Wayne?” she replied, a whirl of confusion unleashed itself in her head. Why was he calling her? And why today of all days? How did he get her number? Oh, yes, he was the boss. He had access to all her details.

  “Sorry to be calling you on a weekend. I mean, sorry for calling you at all. It was Greta’s idea. She couldn’t help me.” So that was it. He’d called Greta first. Now he was apologizing for bothering her at home.

  “What’s the problem?” she got up off the bed and walked around in her apartment. The soft chenille tapestry rug felt luxurious and warm against her bare feet.

  “Well,” he sounded rather reluctant and she could tell that calling her really had been the last resort. Did he really find her so odious? “I’m working on the McKenzie tender and I couldn’t retrieve some of the documents I needed. The actual hard copies are what I’m after. Greta said that you had scanned them all in and she couldn’t remember where you’d put the originals.”

  Shoot! Lexi bit her lip in annoyance. Yes, why oh why oh why had she not put everything back?

  “Weren’t they in your off-,” she began, not sure what she was trying to say. In fact she was buying herself more time while she tried to remember where she had put the files. She remembered that Greta had bought over last year’s orders and while trying to identify a new system of working, both of them had decided to photocopy and put the last three year’s worth of orders online. She had knocked up a database so that each order could be searched via its order number, company number or by date. It was still a new and shaky system and she was trying to put it together with basic skills. Now Wayne wanted the orders from last year to put into a report. He was working on putting together a huge presentation for McKenzie and Co and wanted to show them that his company had dealt with large orders before. He wanted to prove to them that they could easily fulfill this one.

  “It’s over in our office, where Greta and I sit,” said Lexi, trying unsuccessfully to steady her faltering voice.

  “I’m in there now and I can’t see it.” He was starting to sound irate.

  She could hear it in his voice. It had gone from apologetic and a little embarrassed at first to now becoming just plain annoyed. Wayne paced around Greta and Lexi’s office. He had been hesitant to call her, but since
Greta had suggested it and since she clearly could not help him, he did.

  He admitted to himself that he had felt a slight pang of excitement at calling her. He wanted to hear her voice again. He wanted to talk to her again. Since that rather cold meeting on the factory floor last week, they had kept out of each other’s way the entire time. He hadn’t seen her much, she hadn’t come to speak to him about anything and he really had no reason to go and speak to her.

  After all they both had Greta to ask questions. She was like their buffer.

  But he often watched Lexi as she worked on her computer. He found himself intrigued by her. She was beautiful, with a slim line nose, lovely features and dark coloring. On top of that she appeared to have a good head for business. He knew this because Greta kept telling him so. He relied on Greta’s advice and the woman positively gushed over Lexi. He was getting annoyed because……..because he really wanted to see her. He had tried looking for the documents. He had been working here since five o’clock in the morning.

  Unable to sleep, he had sneaked out early on Sunday morning and started work on the last part of the proposal. Their presentation to McKenzie and Co was only a few weeks away and he was almost ready. He had worked late for most nights the past month. Terri knew to stay away from him and since that last night out at Alberto’s with her, when he had stood in the hallway talking to Lexi, on her first day there, he sensed that Terri was starting to back off. Though, as he had since heard from Greta, Terri was painting a completely different picture to her and Lexi. He felt this was more aimed at keeping Lexi away, rather than trying to get Terri into his favor. Women. Who understood them?

  He shrugged his shoulders then heard Lexi saying, “Under the printer cabinet, take a look there. We had a few files to go through, I really can’t remember.” What did she say? He vaguely tried to remember. He walked over to the printer cabinet, but there were no files lying anywhere near there.

  “No, sorry, there’s nothing here,” he told her. He was exhausted and he was hungry too.

  “I’m so sorry, Wayne. We got carried away with the new system. Look, I’ll come by right now. I can find what you need.” She was surprised at herself for making this suggestion, though under the circumstances, it was the least she could do to help. And she sensed that he was rather stuck right now. But inside, her heart fluttered. She was quite looking forward to going to the building, where Wayne would be waiting. And it would be only the two of them. He sounded genuinely surprised to hear her offer.

  “Are you sure, Lexi? I feel bad enough that I’ve disturbed you on a weekend.” He scratched his cheek. The stubble was starting to itch him and he knew he needed a good shave.

  Lexi wondered whether this guy really wanted her help or not. Trying her best not to get angry and provoke another argument, she said, “No, it’s fine. I’ll be over. Give me fifteen minutes.”

  *

  No later than fifteen minutes, Lexi turned up at the warehouse to find Wayne typing away on his computer. He looked red-eyed and tired.

  “Have you slept at all?” she asked slowly, tentatively walking into his office. He was pleased to see her. In actual fact, he was really pleased for it to be just the two of them.

  They had been avoiding each other since that angry exchange on the warehouse floor over a week ago. He had missed seeing her face to face. He tried not to stare at her too much, but even in her jeans and white shirt, she looked so delectable. He felt suddenly self-conscious of himself. He hadn’t even showered before he’d left his apartment so early that morning.

  “I woke up early,” he said, getting up and walking towards her but he kept a healthy distance. He was conscious that he might smell a little; not be as fresh faced as she was.

  “You’re working really hard on the tender, huh?” she glanced over at the table.

  “Yeah,” he said, stretching out. “It’s a chance for me to get this business moving in the right direction. I really want this to work.” He had dark circles under his eyes.

  She understood. She was doing the same thing herself. She looked at him sympathetically, “You’re doing it all alone, it’s so much hard work. But if it works out, it will be worth it.”

  The silence in the room filled it completely. He looked at her and wanted nothing more than to hold her tight in his arms. But she seemed so aloof, so distant and so not in his reach.

  Lexi wandered off to her office.

  “I’ll go and find those files you were looking for,” she said breathlessly. She had to get away from him. She could feel his animal magnetism. She felt drawn to him by some invisible string and she fought the urge to put her arms around his shoulders. He was so big and huggable. And so damn sexy looking too. Even with his five o’clock shadow which seemed dangerously darker than usual. If the guy could look so sexy and gorgeous even when he looked so rough, she wondered how clean he would turn out when he was scrubbed, showered and suited? Though, deep down, she knew that the man underneath was the same. Those eyes. That face, the chiseled cheekbones. The strong jaw line. His smile. Goodness, this was ridiculous. She pinched herself. Get a grip, Lexi, she thought. He always had this effect on her. The minute she was in a room with him, she went to smithereens. No man had ever had this effect on her. And she wasn’t even one of those flimsy, airheaded types of girls either. She prided herself on being in control of her emotions to the point that many people thought of her as cold and unfeeling. And here she was all over the place. She looked around the room, conscious that Wayne had followed her into the office she shared with Greta and was trying to look for the files.

  “Aaaaahh!” she cried and disappeared under her desk. The pile of folders had been placed neatly underneath her table, where she often placed her Prada bag. Why on earth had she put them there? Then she remembered, she had put them there while she answered the call from Karn. Apparently, a new temp job had come up. News of leaving WB Enterprises had so saddened her that she had placed the folders on the floor and forgotten all about them. No wonder Wayne hadn’t been able to find them. She got up quickly and in doing so banged her head on the table.

  “Ow!” she burst out, more because she felt so silly for banging her head than for it hurting. Wayne came rushing over, “Are you okay?” he looked concerned.

  “I’m fine, really.” Lexi groaned bravely, as she handed him the pile of folders, whilst still kneeling on the floor. For some reason, she wanted to stay on the floor and hide because she felt so silly.

  Wayne took the files from her and put them on the desk. He held out his hand to help her up.

  “Are you alright? That sounded pretty painful,” his green eyes bore down into hers and he maintained that stare as he bought her up to standing position. She was standing so close to him. He had her hand clasped tightly in his own. For a brief second, their bodies touched, and sent a flutter of sparks through her body. It was electric.

  Lexi looked up at Wayne, into his eyes and then her gaze fell to his lips. They were so tempting. What was she thinking? She felt the way she often felt when she had had a couple of glasses of chilled Chardonnay. Light and floaty. She couldn’t utter a single word. She could barely nod her head.

  Wayne held her tightly, and without thinking about it, his free hand brushed her temple and floated across her head, as if looking for the imaginary bump on her head. He looked into her dark brown eyes, so smooth and velvety and he wanted nothing more than to bend down and kiss her fully on those luscious lips. But he managed to pull himself away. Partly because it dawned on him that he didn’t smell too good and he didn’t want Lexi to smell his body odor and partly because, as a boss, he knew he had a responsibility and he had already made a mistake with Terri by letting things get too close there. Reluctantly he stepped back. It tore him in two to do so.

  Lexi saw the pained expression in his eyes and wondered what he was thinking. Had she just imagined this? Or did she really feel her heart pulsating wildly and uncont
rollably? She was certain that he had felt it too. But he was too hot and cold and she couldn’t figure him out. Although it was hard to deny it now; there was definitely something about him that drew her towards him.

  “Thanks for coming over, on your day off,” he offered, trying to sound nonplussed. Inside, his heart was racing. What had just happened here? He so badly wanted to kiss this woman and it was taking all his might to fight his feelings and do nothing.

  You’re so cold, thought Lexi, looking at him and trying to read his body language. He was walking away, with the files clutched in his arms. He hadn’t felt a thing. Perhaps it had all been in her head.

  “I can stay if you need help,” she offered, hoping that she didn’t come across too desperate. She knew she could help him to put that proposal together. The poor man looked so physically shattered. In the corporate offices where she usually worked there were teams of people working through the night to get the big business tenders completed and polished. Of course WB Enterprises was smaller and in a completely different line of business to the complex legal documents she was usually required to help type up but she had a good enough grasp of this type of last minute, eleventh hour pressure to know she did a good job and executed it perfectly. After all, didn’t the corporate big guns always ask for her when they went to Karn? She could see that he was already engrossed in his work. He was already at his desk and going through the files. He had what he wanted and clearly she had only imagined those sparks of electricity that she had felt going through her when their bodies had touched. He hadn’t felt a thing. “No, thank you Lexi. I’ll be fine.” His voice was insistent, almost bordering on the edge of angry. She could tell he wanted her to go.

  “If you’re sure, Wayne.” She was relieved that her voice didn’t betray any of the sadness that she felt.

  “I’m sure Lexi. Thank you. See you tomorrow.” She turned and was gone.