Unprepared Daddy: A Second Chance Romance

by Bella Winters

  I had my heart in my throat, thinking that I was going to get my walking papers by the time that I stepped out of the elevator. He didn’t get what he wanted and that was more than enough grounds to end this probationary period.

  I found Miss Timmons wringing her hands and looking a little dishevelled. “I haven’t seen him like this. He’s on a tirade and he’s looking for somebody to fight with. Tread carefully. He’s lucky that I have a thick skin.” I walked down the hallway, careful not to make too much noise and knowing that what he was going through was something that I’d only experienced once.

  Tina managed to drag me to a frat party and I ended up lying on the grass wearing no panties. It was not like me. To this day, I still didn’t know which of the frat boys had my panties as a souvenir. I knew that nothing happened, but losing them was degrading. It made me feel like people were looking at me differently in the morning.

  That was the one and only time that I had taken things too far. I was conscious of every drink that I had in a bar from that moment on. I could still get that buzz, but there was no way that I was going to become that fall down drunk that didn’t know what they did.

  I opened the door slowly, gritting my teeth together to give the illusion that I was trying to be as quiet as a mouse.

  He was sitting behind his desk with his hand on his forehead. “I don’t want to hear it. I can’t even remember how I got here. I woke up sleeping outside my office. The last thing I do remember is some scantily clad stripper giving me a private lap dance. I don’t even know if I should call the client and apologize for my behavior. You would think that I would know better.” He was kicking himself, but I did notice that he had not mentioned the way that he had acted with me.

  “You might want to consider staying off the hard stuff for a while. It’s one thing to indulge on the weekend where you can live with that pain the next day, but it’s another when you have to come into the office. I doubt that you’ve had time to go over the drafts that I made. They are not the finished product, but they will give you a basic idea of where I’m going with it.” He hadn’t even looked at me. His hand was covering his face. There was a glass of water on his desk with what looked like two aspirins.

  “I always do this to make the client more comfortable. One drink turns into two and then we are acting like teenagers by throwing cash on the stage. I’m getting too old for this. Do you know that back in the day I could drink anybody under the table and still make the deal? I might be getting a little older, but I thought that I was a bit wiser. Last night was a misstep and I can only hope that I didn’t say or do anything that is going to come back and haunt me.” Come to think of it, I could have thrown this back in his face by recording what he said to me on my phone.

  In this age of technology, it was a wonder that anybody was able to get away with anything without having it show up on the Internet. Robbing banks and doing insane things like putting a pool ball into your mouth could be caught for posterity.

  “The way that you are doing things is not healthy. You want your client to change his way of thinking, but you still do the same things to seal the deal. Do you not see how hypocritical that is?” I had no interest in mentioning the way that he had treated me like I was a piece of meat. I’d given it a lot of thought and I was quite glad to see that his recollection was spotty at best.

  “I get the feeling that we saw each other last night. Did you step over me on the way out of the office? This is mortifying. I feel so embarrassed. I want to crawl into a hole and die.” I could’ve told him the truth, but he already felt bad enough as it is.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You must have stumbled in after I left.” I stood at the desk, looking down at him and seeing that he had a piece of paper clutched in his fist. It brought to mind the remedy for a hangover that I had scribbled down quickly to alleviate him of the pain that he was going to feel this morning.

  “I guess that is a saving grace. I just want to go on the record to say that I’m not like this. I do have a tendency to run my mouth when I get drinking. Some have mentioned that what I say during those drunken moments is the hidden truth. I don’t know if I see it that way. I barely remember my name after going on a binge like this.” His hand opened up and the crumpled piece of paper fell to the floor at his feet.

  “Everybody does stupid things once or twice in their lives. I’m sure that there are people that you’re going to need to apologize to. You’ll recognize them by the way that they shake their head in disbelief that you could say something so disparaging.” I was hoping that I wasn’t the only one that had found themselves on the receiving end of his forked tongue.

  “I had one such conversation with a female officer this morning. She said that I was trying to paw her last night. I apologized profusely and she agreed not to press charges. I do believe that I just dodged a bullet. It would do very little for my reputation for it to get around that I was sleeping one off in the tank. It would be worse yet if I were to be charged with some kind of misdemeanor.” The police officer should have thrown the book at him. The only way that he was going to learn was to hit rock bottom.

  “Let this be a lesson.” He looked up and there was that sort of hazy recognition that made me afraid that he was going to remember the way that he told me that I needed to learn a lesson. “You’re not in your twenties anymore.” It was harsh and being in my twenties, I really had no reference, except for that one drunken moment that I wanted to forget about.

  “Are you sure that we didn’t see each other last night. I get the feeling like I should be apologizing for something that I don’t know anything about. You can be straight with me and maybe a cold dose of reality is exactly what I need to kick me in the pants.” I thought that maybe that was giving me the opening to show him that his actions had consequences.

  “I… I’m sure that I would remember something like that.” I was this close to throwing it in his face, but I didn’t feel that I would’ve been doing him any favors. He already knew that his actions were deplorable.

  “The only thing that I ask is that you keep it down to a dull roar. I’m not even sure how I’m going to concentrate. I only wish that there was some kind of remedy.” I could’ve easily picked up the paper and gave him some peace. I didn’t do that because I thought that he deserved to feel miserable for as long as possible.

  It served him right for making me look at myself in the mirror differently in the morning. He wasn’t wrong and I did somewhat regret not taking him up on his offer. I was just lucky that he didn’t remember. I wasn’t going to have to play the innocent victim.

  “I’m sure that I can keep things quiet.” I purposely moved the chair across the floor making it squeak like fingernails down a chalkboard. His fingernails gripped the edge of his desk and he snapped his head forward with a look of shock on his face. “I’m sorry about that. What was I thinking?” I was laughing inside, knowing that I was causing him pain and feeling that I was justified from the way that he tried to make be one of his conquests.

  “This whole thing could have been avoided had I just met the client here at the office. I always tend to think that getting them away from the stuffy day to day stress is a good idea. I don’t know how many times that I’ve gotten a call in the morning from some irate wife ready to take a switch off of me. I don’t play nice and sometimes playing dirty is the better way to go. I don’t use vinegar. The honey trap of those girls’ obvious attributes gets them more in the mood to talk about business.” I could see that men would feel almost at home around naked women. That was what I considered a man’s club. A woman could not break that glass ceiling the same way.

  “You might be starting to realize that there is a better way. I don’t want to beat this to death. I would like to know your opinion of my work. Not to be modest, but I do find that it’s some of my best stuff.” I was putting that bug in his ear and maybe that would manipulate him psychologically to like it before he even saw it.

 
“I’ve been meaning to get to it, but you can imagine that it has been a slow morning. I might even take the afternoon off. You and Miss Timmons can look after things without me.” He looked around and then I helped him by placing the file in front of him.

  This morning, I was not wearing the same dress. I had on a pair of dark slacks and a heavy blue sweater to keep him from getting ideas. It didn’t exactly hide my endowment. I didn’t think anything could. I was all natural with no sag and looking like a wet dream come true.

  August was not as polished, his sleeves rolled up with his eyes bloodshot. His hair was out of place. It made me look at him as more human and not that unattainable fruit at the top of the tree. I liked the way that he could show his vulnerable side.

  “I can leave and give you some time to go over it in private.” I did make a move to leave, but I was only going to do so at his request. There was no way that I was going to make this easier on him by vacating the premises.

  I took my place in the chair in front of the desk. I picked up my pen and I began to tap it ever so slightly against the surface of his desk. Each time that I made that impact, his eyes would shoot wide open and his back would straighten like somebody was screaming in his ear.

  He dropped the papers unceremoniously and placed his hands-on top of one another. He gave me the look that a principal gives a student after they are brought to their office.

  “I’m sure that it’s not intentional, but could you stop doing that.” I feigned surprise by dropping it and making him put his hands up to his face. “I need absolute silence.” I put my finger and my thumb together and used it to indicate that I was going to zip my lip.

  I was having fun at his expense. I did on some level hate the idea that he didn’t remember. He had made me feel desirable. All the way home, I felt this newfound confidence. I was always self-conscious about my big thighs, but he had made me feel good about myself.

  Chapter five

  We very carefully went through my drawings. He had some good points to make. It was a little surprising considering that he wasn’t working on all cylinders. I found his insight to be an eye-opening experience.

  “For a first draft, I would say that you more than lived up to your previous creations. We really do work well together and maybe we can get a drink after work.” I wasn’t sure what to say, but it seemed rude not to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “Are you sure that it’s a good idea to drink after what you have been through? It would be better that we have dinner together. I know of a nice Italian place down the street that has the best ravioli that money can buy.” If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn that he had tricked me into asking him out and not the other way around. “I think that we can get a lot more work done on a full stomach. We might even come up with some kind of brainstorm at the table.” I had turned the tables and made it into a work thing.

  “You do know how to get to a man’s heart through his stomach. I love Italian and I make my own spaghetti sauce. Don’t let this get around, but I like to dabble from time to time in the kitchen. I get back to my Italian roots. My grandfather gave me the benefit of his expertise. He told me that a man wasn’t a man unless he could cook for his woman. I have used his recipes to get any woman that I fancied to drop their guard.” I did see the reason why some women would find his cooking to be the catalyst to them dropping their underwear on his floor.

  “Let’s make that our reward for all the hard work that we are putting into this. I know that you not feeling well, but I really do need your input. I can’t possibly do this alone. I would like to say that I would be able to take on that kind of responsibility, but I don’t know if I have the confidence.” I found the way that he was looking at me a little like I was being put under the microscope. It was almost like he had something on the tip of his tongue.

  “That is a wonderful idea, Amanda. I’m already salivating. I know exactly what you’re talking about when you mentioned their ravioli. I admit that it’s one of my guilty pleasures. I don’t know how we haven’t run into each other. I would have remembered you. You are a hard woman to forget.” He sounded sincere, but his body was telling an entirely different tale. Even in his condition, he was still able to rise to the occasion like an unfurled flag inside his pants.

  “I only go there for takeout. I’m not that comfortable with eating alone in a restaurant with everybody staring at me. It’s not much better when I sit in front of my television. The only thing that makes it bearable is that I don’t have to contend with the looks of pity.” He was going over the details and this time I was the one that was looking over his shoulder.

  We were deep into it and not even the thoughts of impropriety were keeping me from coming up with some ingenious designs. I felt like we really did play off of each other well. If he wasn’t such an ass, then maybe I would have considered a long-term engagement with him.

  It was almost quitting time and I did see that he was still dealing with the remnants of the hangover that he had gotten last night. I found myself showing him some mercy by using my thumbs and my fingers to massage some of that tension out of his shoulders. It was not meant to be sexual.

  “I’ve no idea when was the last time that somebody gave me a massage. You do have magic fingers. I really don’t know what came over me last night.”

  I felt like I was living in two pairs of shoes. The one that I was wearing currently was that of a professional young woman on the cusp of finding her passion. The one that I was afraid of falling into was those 4-inch pumps that accentuated my legs and made me feel ready to give him more than lip service.

  “I thought that you needed this.” I actually enjoyed touching him.

  My nipples were rubbing up against him. I wanted to give them the attention that they deserved, but I that would only be sending up the smoke signals from between my thighs.

  “We have done more than enough. Amanda. Let’s treat ourselves to an Italian dinner on me. I can always claim it as a business supper. We can always come back and pick up where we left off.” His hands were touching mine and I didn’t know what to do. I played it off, going to get my coat and then opening up the door in a reversal of the gentleman role.

  “I’m famished and I took the liberty of calling ahead to have our order placed. It should be ready by the time that we arrive. As you know, it is in walking distance and they have a table set up for us in the back.” He followed from behind and my attention to detail wasn’t necessarily limited to what was on my drawings.

  “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.” There was nothing that I could say to that.

  There was a chill in the air and I pulled my coat closer to my chest. He walked at a good clip, this time opening the door to the restaurant for me and then guiding me to the table in the back. We barely sat down when he ordered a bottle of champagne and had it chilled in a bucket.

  “I thought that we decided that we weren’t going to have anything to drink.” I didn’t want a repeat performance of last night, although I really couldn’t get the feel of his hands off of my mind.

  “I don’t see any harm in a little bit of the bubbly.” He popped the cork with a flourish, and then poured me half a glass with the foam reaching the top.

  “I don’t mind, but I really don’t think that you want to go down that road again. I’m not your mother. I’m not going to tell you what to do. It’s your life.” I took a sip, feeling that it was tickling my nose and then I set it back down to watch for his reaction. I saw the hesitation in his eyes and he overcame that by downing that one glass in one swallow.

  “I have heard that some people think that I have a problem, but I only drink during social occasions. It’s not like I have a trash bag full of empty bottles back home. I don’t mean to raise my voice, but I’m getting a little sick and tired of people trying to police my life.” I could understand where he was coming from and maybe we could build on those things that we had in common.

  I had no interest in
getting into a relationship. It was a dangerous play and one that was ripe with the kind of sexual tension that you could cut with a knife. He was not fooling me. There was that evil twinkle in his eye. It didn’t hurt that he proved my point by moving his sock covered foot up along my leg. It would have had more impact had I been wearing a skirt.

  “I don’t think that it’s right for us to consider something more than a professional working relationship. It might be fun for a moment, but then things are ultimately going to turn awkward in the workplace. I enjoy working with you and I don’t want to do anything to upset that delicate balance.” I was letting him down gently. I was close to screaming and grabbing him by the collar, but I refrained myself from doing that.

  “I speak from personal experience when I say that it would be a whole lot of fun. I don’t mean to brag, but I am pretty damn good. You can believe me or not. The only way that you’re going to find out is to put me to the test. We can start simple enough.” His leg had not stopped that constant movement of rubbing like a cricket against my own. He was getting very close to rubbing me in a way that was going to have me moaning in the kind of pleasure that I hadn’t had in quite some time.