by C. C. Wood
I shrugged. “Not bad. Someone kept emailing me about work though,” I teased.
He looked at me, surprised, then saw that I was joking and smiled. “Yeah, I get a bit obsessive when I have a project.”
“I can see that.”
Charles chuckled. “Okay, I think that’s enough.”
We climbed past the second floor entry and up the next flight. I noticed he wasn’t even breathing hard. I wasn’t panting or anything, but I definitely felt the burn in my thighs and I did have to suck in a bit more air. Okay, maybe I was nearly panting. I needed to figure out a way to get to the gym. I hadn’t realized how out of shape I was.
“Doesn’t that bother your girlfriend?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I winced inwardly. Great, he was going to think I was on a fishing expedition. The question asked by desperately single women everywhere.
“Nope. No girlfriend. The last one decided she wanted to trade up when she realized that I had no desire to be a CEO.”
I made a face. “That’s horrible.”
He shrugged. “Probably. It was a while ago but we hadn’t been together long, so it didn’t exactly break my heart.” He paused. “What about you?”
By this time we were passing the third floor door and I didn’t have the breath to laugh. I really needed to go to the gym. “No man for me.”
“That’s surprising.”
We were almost to the top of the last flight of stairs and the look in his eyes distracted me. I tripped on the next step and started to go down. Two strong hands caught my waist before I could even throw up my hands to break my fall.
Charles managed to catch me, but he must have lost his balance as well because he ended up with his back to the wall, my body pressed against his. I vaguely heard my coffee cup hit the steps and tumble down the stairs.
His eyes were the prettiest mixture of blue and green and he had the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man. I stared up at him, too lost in the color of his eyes and the heat of his body to even apologize.
Quickly, I realized that I was breathing hard, my breasts pressing against his chest and my hips against his in a position that felt sensual and intimate. My palms were resting on his pectorals and I could feel the steady thump of his heart.
Finally, he spoke. “Are you okay?”.
“Yeah,” I murmured, my voice breathless and low. I blinked quickly and started to pull out his arms. “I’m so sorry. I’m such a klutz.”
I pushed against his chest, trying to straighten. For just a moment, I thought I felt his arms tighten around me, but he quickly set me on my feet. He shoved himself away from the wall and looked down the stairs.
“I need to call maintenance and have them send someone to clean up the mess.”
Okay, maybe I had imagined the chemistry between us because it had been on my mind last week. Now, he seemed to be all business.
I nodded. “I’ll wait here in case someone comes up.”
I doubted anyone would. In my four years at the company, I only ran into people on the stairs around New Year’s. Everyone made all these resolutions to be more active, to take the stairs, but, by February 1st, I was back to being the only person in the stairwell.
“Great. I’ll be right back.”
I watched as Charles jogged up the last three steps and my eyes somehow got stuck on his tight butt in his gray suit pants. I managed to tear my gaze away, mortified that I was openly ogling a man who hadn’t remembered my name correctly for the first month we worked together. Obviously, I had issues, but he did have a very nice ass.
“Do not start this, Yancy. No crushing on your coworker,” I muttered under my breath.
I jumped when I heard the door open as Charles came back.
“Hey, someone is on their way up. I’ll wait if you want to go to your office,” he said with a smile.
Since I needed to have a chat with myself about Charles Faulkner and staring at his sexy tush, I nodded. “Sounds good. Okay. See you later.”
I lifted my hand in a quick wave and made a beeline from the stairwell to my office. As I dumped my bags on the floor next to my desk and dropped into my chair, I heaved a huge sigh. How, in less than a week, did I go from thinking Charles was annoying to drooling over his butt?
I needed more sleep and maybe a vibrator.
ONCE I FINALLY got my head on straight, I booted up my computer and settled in to work. An hour later, my phone rang. When I picked up, it was Judith, my boss.
“Yancy, I need to speak with you briefly about the project you’re working on with Charles.”
I felt my heart sink. Judith hadn’t had time last week to meet about the account, so I knew it was time to face the music. Like most of my colleagues, I was mildly terrified of her, but I still respected her as well. While she didn’t cut her subordinates a lot of slack, she wasn’t a bitch about it. At least, I didn’t find that to be the case. There were a few people in the office who thought she had a permanent case of PMS, but I sensed it had more to do with the fact that they had been reprimanded by our boss on more than one occasion for shoddy or incomplete work.
In the case of the project with Charles, it was me who had fallen down on the job. I should have caught the mistakes that he found. I worked on that account with Darla before she left.
“Sure,” I answered. “What time?”
“If you don’t have anything scheduled, now.”
The pit in my stomach yawned into a gaping abyss. I guess I was about to get my first official reprimand from the boss. I felt like a school kid getting called to the principal’s office, only now there was more at stake than getting detention. If this problem was large enough, I was in danger of possibly being fired.
“I’m free, so I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Good.”
With that, Judith disconnected. Mouth dry, I rose from my chair and brushed the wrinkles out of my black slacks. I made my way out of my office, through the maze of cubicles and hallways. Sarah, Judith’s assistant, smiled at me as I approached her desk. She was young, maybe twenty-three, and fresh out of college. I remembered being surprised when Judith hired her, but that was short lived. The girl was phenomenal. She was intelligent, efficient, and more organized than Martha Stewart.
“Hi, Yancy. Judith said to go right in.”
“Thanks.”
I went to Judith’s open door and knocked on the frame. She looked up from her computer and smiled.
“Yancy. Come on in and have a seat.”
I blew out a breath as I entered the room and shut the door behind me. Judith didn’t seem overly angry, which bode well. Once I was settled in the chair across the desk from her, she leaned back in her own chair and folded her hands.
“Did you have a good weekend?” she asked amiably.
I nodded and smiled. “Yes. You?”
She waved a hand. “It was as good as it gets.”
My smiled widened slightly. Even though it could be a little disconcerting, I still enjoyed Judith’s no-nonsense attitude.
With a sigh, she leaned forward and folded her hands on the desk. “How’s the work with Charles going?”
“Fine. We’re almost done going over the spreadsheets. I don’t know how I missed the error before. Once we’re done, we’ll pass the file off. Reports and presentations will need to be rewritten.”
Judith surprised me by waving a hand. “You have a little time. While this is cutting it closer to the wire than I’d like, the data analysis isn’t due until the end of next week.”
My nerves calmed slightly. “Look, Judith, I’d like to apologize for not catching this discrepancy earlier.”
“Stop. There is no need to apologize. I have my suspicions that Darla knew that she screwed up and that’s the real reason she left the company. You may not have caught it the first time around, but I think, upon closer study, you wouldn’t have missed it. Charles told me the only reason he noticed was because he was making an effort to familiarize hims
elf with the data.”
I blinked at Judith several times. “Uh, ok.”
She smiled slightly. “Were you worried that I was going to chew your head off?”
I laughed. “A little. You’re aware of your reputation around here, right?”
Judith chuckled. “Yes. I’m the Dragon Lady, but only with those that have repeatedly earned my wrath. Even if this mistake was your doing, I wouldn’t breathe too much fire in your direction, Yancy. You work hard and, in the four years you’ve been with the company, you’ve never made a mistake of this magnitude. Even if you had, you would have owned up to it and done everything in your power to correct it.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
She shrugged. “It’s the truth. Now, how are things going with Charles?”
I felt a blush rising up my neck as I remembered how he held me against his body in the stairwell this morning. I cleared my throat. “Fine. It’s going fine. I think we work well together.”
Judith leveled a stare over the top of her glasses at me. “Good.” She paused. “You look a little flushed. You okay?”
I fidgeted in my seat. “I’m fine.”
She grinned. “Charles is a good looking man, isn’t he?”
My blush intensified. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Judith studied me. “Well, handsome or not, he’s excellent at what he does and I’m glad the two of you are working well together.”
If she only knew. I nodded.
“Great, well I think that covers it,” Judith said. “Keep me up to speed.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She rolled her eyes. “Get out of here. You know the M-word makes my skin crawl.”
I grinned at her. I did know. She hated when I called her ma’am. “I’ll email you when we’re done.”
She nodded, already turning back to her computer. “Great. Go. Work.”
I walked out of her office feeling a lot better about the entire situation, well, with the exception of my growing crush on Charles Faulkner. How in the heck did I go from thinking he was an arrogant ass to thinking he had a sexy ass in less than a week? It had to be hormones. They had been without satisfaction for so long that they were inhibiting my ability to think clearly.
I sucked in a deep breath and headed back toward my office. Starting today, I would ignore the fact that Charles looked like Captain America and smelled incredible, and focus on doing my job. Office romances were better left to the steamy novels I read rather than real life. It sounded like fun on paper, but I’d seen several that ended with all the carnage one might see in a train wreck.
A little voice told me that I knew of at least one office romance that worked out, but I ignored it. Lucy and Chris were a completely different situation. She had already turned in her resignation before he pursued her and was no longer his employee as of last week. While Charles wasn’t my supervisor, we worked in the same division of the company. I would have to see him often, which could be awkward should things not work out.
No, an office romance was not in the cards for me. Yeah, famous last words, right?
Chapter Five
ON MONDAY AND Tuesday, I managed to keep my interaction with Charles strictly limited to email and phone calls. I felt a little silly for avoiding face-to-face meetings, but I was self-conscious about my reaction to him. I felt exposed and didn’t want him to see how much he affected me. I justified it to myself as avoiding awkward situations in the office. Otherwise I might have to admit that I was a complete dork who went from loathing her coworker to drooling over his pretty blue-green eyes.
By Wednesday, I couldn’t avoid him any longer. Our deadline on the project was Thursday and I needed to meet with him before we handed over the file to Judith. I called his office as soon as I got to my desk.
“Charles Faulkner.”
The sound of his voice and his faint Southern drawl made my neck tingle, as though his mouth had replaced the phone at my ear.
“Hi, Charles. This is Yancy. Are you free for a meeting today?”
“Hi, Yancy. Sure, I can meet with you after lunch. Does that work?”
“That’s fine.” I hated that my voice sounded a little stiff, but I couldn’t seem to stop it.
We set a time and I agreed to meet him in his office. I spent the morning finishing the work I needed for the meeting. I wanted to be well prepared. I might feel nervous around Charles, but my pride demanded that I present my best work. As long as I remembered to act like the professional I was, I would be fine.
At 11:30, I got a text message from Tanya.
Tanya: We on for lunch today?
I rubbed my eyes. I hated to take a break, but I needed it. I was almost done with the final check of the file and I definitely needed a latte. A headache was burgeoning behind my eyes and I knew ibuprofen and caffeine would be the only remedy.
Me: Yes. Noon?
Tanya’s response was quick. Perfect. Just us today.
I had forgotten that Grier was on vacation and Chelsea was in Austin with Chris for business. Lucy was with them, probably to make sure that Chris didn’t work poor Chelsea around the clock. He had workaholic tendencies, something that Lucy was trying to help him control. Now that she was his girlfriend rather than his assistant, she might have better luck.
I ignored the small stab of jealousy that pierced my gut. I didn’t begrudge my friend her happiness, but it only reminded me what I was missing in my own life. When I married Cooper Stevens, I had visions of our future; making meals together, snuggling on the couch while we watched TV, making love late at night after the kids were asleep, if we had children. What I dreamt about was not the reality of my marriage. I shook my head. I couldn’t have it both ways. Yes, I wanted those things for myself, but I doubted I could bring myself to trust another man any time soon. Especially now that I had my daughter to consider.
With a sigh, I put the depressing thoughts out of my mind and focused on finishing the task at hand, all the discomfort I felt about seeing Charles later disappeared. I felt flat, empty. It was a stupid crush that would lead nowhere. Instead of thinking about how attractive he was, I needed to focus on my career and taking care of my daughter. That was all I needed.
IT SEEMED THAT my decision to forget about my infatuation with Charles Faulkner meant that I wouldn’t be able to avoid the subject. I went downstairs to meet Tanya for lunch. We walked to the bistro around the corner, bought our lunch, then I stopped at Starbucks for a quadruple shot non-fat caffé mocha. Tanya gave me a searching look when she heard my order.
We came back to our building and found an empty table in the atrium. With so many offices housed in the high rise, they had a coffee shop near the front entrance and seating in the atrium. Though we usually brought or purchased our lunch elsewhere (the coffee shop was typically packed at lunchtime), the girls and I did enjoy eating in the open area, talking and people watching.
As soon as we were settled, Tanya opened the lid on her spinach salad and casually asked, “Is something bothering you?”
I was just about to take a bite of my club sandwich, but I paused at her question. “No, I’m fine.” I stared at her. “Why do you ask?”
She uncapped her bottle of sparkling water and took a sip before she answered. “Well, you only order a quadruple caffé mocha when you’re feeling down in the dumps. Otherwise it’s a hazelnut latte or caramel macchiato.”
I realized that she was right. Even my coffee order was giving me away. I shrugged and took a huge bite of my sandwich so I wouldn’t have to speak. Tanya, being a divorce attorney, immediately recognized the stall tactic.
Arching a brow, she fixed her piercing grey eyes on me. “You do realize that I can recognize a lie when I hear one, right? I mean, I see liars and cheats in my office on a daily basis. I also see deluded men and women, and you, my dear, are in denial if you think there’s nothing on your mind.”
My appetite departed abruptly. I put down my sandwich and sipped my mocha. “I feel l
ike an idiot,” I muttered.
Tanya’s expression became sympathetic. “What’s the problem, Yancy?”
With a sigh, I told her about my unexpected crush on Charles and the almost kiss I imagined in the stairwell. My cheeks heated as I explained everything. At the age of thirty-one, I felt as confused and awkward as a thirteen year old girl. When I finished, Tanya didn’t speak, only sipped her water and appeared to contemplate my words.
Finally, she spoke, “So what are you going to do about it?”
I blinked several times. That wasn’t the response I was expecting. While Tanya wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, I thought she would express at least a modicum of understanding. Maybe even a little sympathy.
“I can’t do anything, Tanya. We work together,” I answered.
“Does your company have an official policy on fraternization?”
I shook my head.
“Then, I repeat, what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m not going to do anything! Jesus, I’m not even sure if he’s attracted to me, so this entire conversation is just a waste of time. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Now I saw the sympathy I expected earlier. “Nothing like the fear of rejection, is there?” she asked. “Especially since your ex-husband seems to have mastered the art of escape and evade.”
I squirmed in my chair as her words perfectly expressed the crux of the matter. The fact that Charles and I worked together wasn’t even the major obstacle. It was my own fear of rejection. Cooper Stevens abandoned more than his sick daughter when he left. He ran away from me too. As much as I hated to admit it, that screwed up my self-confidence and my ability to trust in others and, most especially, myself.
Tanya leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “Look, I can’t tell you what to do. Just promise me that you won’t let the actions of your fuckwad of an ex keep you from finding something better. Will you give it some thought?”
I nodded.
She released my hand. “Okay, enough of the girlie shit. I’m too hungry for that.”