“Hi there,” she said, as she came into the room. Leo, who’d been crashed in the corner, finally noticed her presence and jumped up like his bed had suddenly become electrified. “I know you’re busy, but I’m going to guess you haven’t eaten. Plus, it’s Friday night and you should be able to have a cocktail on a Friday night, even if you’re still working. You can’t go to happy hour, so I’m bringing happy hour to you.”
I sat there, speechless, and just took her in as she set things on my desk. She must not have had any client meetings today because she wore soft-looking jeans, a navy blue long-sleeved top, and a lightweight scarf in a dark blue and light blue paisley print. She looked casually elegant, her hair falling in sunset-colored waves around her shoulders. I watched her hands as she pulled containers out of the bag, and I knew she’d gotten the food from ChopStix.
I opened the containers she set in front of me. Chicken lo mein, steamed rice, two spring rolls. She pulled up one of the chairs opposite my desk and sat down, opened her own containers, and then handed me a fork. I looked at my food, then looked up at her, a question in my eyes.
“Mary helped me,” Alicia said, a sexy glint in her gorgeous blue eyes. “I wanted to do something for you to apologize for the boxes. And Brandon.” She grimaced. “So I asked Mary what I could do, and she said you work late during this time of year and you forget to eat.”
“She knows me well.” I dug my fork into the rice and put a huge scoop into my mouth. That’s when I realized I’d eaten nothing all day but an apple.
Alicia opened the bottle, which I saw was the remainder of the champagne from yesterday, and filled both cups, leaving just a small amount. She handed one cup to me, then held hers up in a toast. “Here’s to new offices, new friendships, and the removal of boxes, albeit late.”
I touched my cup to hers, then sipped. The champagne was still bubbly and the carbonation danced on my tongue.
Alicia sat down and Leo immediately jumped into her lap. I scolded him, but she waved me off. “He’s fine. I don’t mind.”
I swallowed a mouthful of lo mein and studied her. “What’s the deal with Brandon anyway?” I finally asked. Because I had to. I needed to know who I was dealing with and if I wanted to avoid him like the plague in the future.
Alicia took in a long, slow breath, let it out, took a bite of what looked like cashew chicken to me, and chewed. “Brandon is…” She gazed off into the distance. “I’ve known him for a long time. He’s brilliant. I couldn’t ask for a better right hand at my company. He catches things I don’t. He’s got fantastic ideas. He’s…I don’t know what I’d do without him.” She sipped from her cup. “That being said, he’s also overprotective and a bit…socially inept.”
“Overprotective of what?”
“Me.” She shrugged and went on before I could question further. “He’s tough,” she said, and I tried not to notice that she didn’t try to reassure me. “But I’d be lost without him.”
A thought occurred to me then. “Are you guys—?”
Alicia’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, God, no. No. Not at all. Not even a little.”
“Never?” I asked, as her protests seemed…almost unnecessarily firm.
“No.” That one was the firmest. “He’s not my type.”
“Got it. Thank you, by the way,” I said, pointing at the food with my fork. “This is great. I was just about to order this very meal, as a matter of fact.”
She held up her glass. “Cheers to good timing, and you’re welcome.” We ate in happy silence for a while, and I was surprised by how comfortable it was, how not awkward.
“Where was your office before you moved here?” I asked finally, wanting to talk with her but keeping an eye on the clock. I really needed to get back to work.
“We were in the basement of this warehouse-type building. It was small, cold, and had no windows, which was really not at all conducive to creativity.”
“Ah, that explains the blinds open all the time.”
Alicia gave me a grin. “When you’ve been without daylight for a long time, you want all you can get.”
“Is that why you moved?”
“We should’ve moved sooner, but you see all the stuff we have. A move is such a daunting task. It’s huge and takes a ton of organization. But I needed a money person. I’d been doing all the books and accounting myself, which was killing my schedule as far as searching for clients, so I hired Justin. And when he came on board, it was super obvious we needed more space.”
“So, he was your moving catalyst?”
“Exactly.” She finished her champagne. “But it was the right thing, hiring him. We’ve increased our business by nearly twenty percent so far this year.”
“Wow. That’s impressive.”
“Thanks.” Her expression was one of obvious pride. “What about you? Have you always been here in this spot?”
I nodded as I finished my second spring roll and crumpled up the wrapper. “My father began this business, like, three decades ago. Right here in this very office.”
“Seriously?” Alicia’s eyes went wide, like I was dazzling her with a fairy tale or magic trick of some kind.
“Yup. I started to help him when I was a kid. Then I sort of picked up on the job, found not only did I like it, but I was good at it, and he hired me full-time. When he decided to retire, I took over.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Two years, roughly. Mary worked for him, and she wanted to stay on for a while.”
Alicia’s head bobbed up and down. “That explains why I’ve seen so many elderly clients come in here. They were your dad’s.”
“Yes. I have his clients, and I’m picking up new ones on my own all the time. I get quite a few referrals, which is awesome.”
“Right? Referrals are the best because it means somebody likes your work enough to recommend you to somebody who trusts them. It’s very validating.”
“Totally validating.”
We finished eating and began cleaning up our mess. I finished my champagne and there was enough left in the bottle for Alicia to give us each what amounted to maybe three more sips. We touched glasses again and emptied the cups.
“All right,” she said at last. “I’m going to let you go back to work. I feel better about doing so knowing you’ve eaten some dinner and experienced a tiny bit of happy hour.”
“You can rest easy,” I said with a nod, playing along.
“I’m relieved.”
“Good. Alicia, this was great. Again, thank you so much for keeping me company for a bit.” I felt like I could now finish up my work in a short span of time and go home. I felt relaxed. Content. Happy. I didn’t want to get into all of that and send her running off into the hallway screaming, so I simply smiled at her.
“You’re very welcome.” Alicia took the empty champagne bottle and the cups, squatted so she could kiss Leo on the head, then looked at me. Her eyes darted off to the right as if she was suddenly shy. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye.” I gave a little half-hearted wave, strangely sad to see her go but more than happy to watch her ass in those jeans as she left. The door clicked shut behind her, and I looked down at Leo, who was looking up at me with accusation in his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sorry your girlfriend left. You’re gonna have to get over that.” I patted my thigh, and he took a moment to think about it before hopping up into my lap. “Just a bit more work to do and we’ll go home,” I told him, kissing his head right in the same spot Alicia had.
Chapter Five
By the end of the last week in March, I’d hit my not-quite-insane-but-awfully-damn-close level of work stress. My workload was larger than even I’d anticipated, and I absently thought about the idea of hiring somebody next tax season. An assistant of some kind. An intern, maybe. Leanne knew a woman in administration at one of the local colleges. I jotted myself a note to ask her about it.
It was Wednesday, just after lunch, and I’d been seeing clients nonstop since nine tha
t morning. I finally had an hour between the Hardings, who’d just left, and the Newcastles, who’d be in at one thirty. My brain wasn’t quite fried, but it was a little bit mushy, and I dug in my messenger bag for the apple I’d tossed in there that morning. Normally, I’d take this hour to catch up on email and paperwork, but I decided I wanted to decompress a bit, give my head some downtime, so I stared out the window as I ate, watching the people come and go in the parking lot below and trying not to hear the bassline thumping through the wall I shared with Just Wright.
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’d been doing my best to be more flexible, to relax a bit more around the antics of the staffers at Just Wright, around the things they did that annoyed me, ever since Alicia had coaxed me to have drinks with her. I figured it was the least I could do. Sure, it could’ve been her subtle way of bribing me, thinking I’d do exactly what I was doing: not complaining about the noise/inconveniences/irritations caused by her people, but I couldn’t make myself believe that about her. She’d been far too genuinely nice.
Though she hadn’t brought me dinner again, Alicia still popped in on occasion. Sometimes to bring food to Mary, sometimes to borrow Leo for a brainstorming session, sometimes just to say hello. She never stayed to hang out with me—probably sensing how busy I was—but I saw her at least a couple times a week.
I liked that. Maybe too much. I wondered if she did, too.
My mind was just about to jump onto that merry-go-round, which would drive me nuts, I knew, when there was a rap on my door, causing Leo to jump up from his bed with a little yip. The door swung open wide, and there stood my brother in all his handsome glory.
“Hey there, Lace-Face,” he said, as if I were ten again. That nickname changed to Brace Face when I was thirteen, for obvious reasons. When the metal came off, it was back to Lace Face. He was dressed in his usual suit and tie; today’s was gray with a white shirt underneath and a blue-and-silver-striped tie. He needed a haircut, but I’d always liked his hair a tiny bit too long. His blue eyes sparkled as he crossed the office, kissed the top of my head, and plopped himself into one of my guest chairs, uninvited, parking one ankle on the opposite knee. Leo went back to his bed and curled up, and I made a mental note to reward him for that later. “That little bastard in his Charger almost killed me on my way in.”
I gave a nod. “Happens to me at least three times a week.”
“What year is that car? Sixty-eight? Sixty-nine?”
I gave him a look. “How the hell should I know?”
Scott looked at me for a beat before saying, “You look tired.”
“Uh, yeah, Captain Obvious, it’s March twenty-seventh. Of course I’m tired.”
He took his time scanning my office, his eyes roaming over my photos, my diploma and certificates on the wall, the scattered papers on my desk.
His slow perusal made me feel impatient. “What do you need, Scott?”
His sandy eyebrows rose slightly. “What, I can’t just pop in on my little sister for an impromptu visit?” His tone was all innocence.
“You absolutely can,” I said. “Except it’s tax season, and I’m slammed, so…” I left the sentence dangling, my meaning clear.
He sighed in defeat, and I was surprised he’d given up so easily. He must be busy. “Dad asked me to stop by, see if you needed help. Looks like you might.”
“He did not,” I said, but my expression of disbelief was lame and I knew it. Because of course he did.
Scott shrugged. “I told him you had it under control, but he insisted. You know how he is.”
“I do.”
Scott made a show of running his gaze over the mess on my desk, then the stack of customer folders and manila files on the floor, and raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure, though?” His concern was actually kind of sweet.
“I’m sure. Promise.”
At that moment, Leo sprang from his bed and shot across the office to the door before I could even comprehend it. I followed him with my eyes and saw Alicia standing in the doorway, an uncertain expression on her face, a paper plate in her hand. She picked Leo up, kissed his head.
“I don’t mean to interrupt you and your client,” she said, lifting one shoulder. “I just came over to drop off some pizza, but Mary must already be at lunch?” She posed it as a question, clearly hesitant to intrude.
“Oh, no worries,” Scott said, and popped up from his chair almost as fast as Leo had. He crossed the room, hand outstretched. “I’m Lacey’s big brother, Scott, just here to make sure she’s not drowning in tax returns.”
“Believe me, your sister holds her own.” Alicia held my gaze for a beat while my heart swelled from her support, before turning to Scott and shaking his hand. “Alicia Wright. Lacey’s neighbor.”
“Ah, so you’re the one who moved into that perpetually empty space.” Scott’s eyes never left Alicia’s face. Not that I could blame him, though I tried to shoot laser beams at him with my eyes.
“Guilty as charged.”
“And what do you do next door, Alicia Wright?” Scott’s flirtatious tone was so glaringly obvious, I almost felt sorry for him. But Alicia smiled warmly and answered his question. I could take a lesson from her in how to deal with my brother.
“Marketing. Graphic design. Promotions. Advertising.”
“A little bit of everything, huh?” Scott leaned against the door frame, making himself comfortable.
“Listen, you guys, I’ve got a ton to do here, so if you don’t mind…” I kept my voice light and pleasant. No reason not to, right? I just didn’t want to be privy to this conversation any longer.
“Oh,” Alicia said. “I’m so sorry. Um, we’re working on a pitch session at one thirty. Could I borrow Leo? You know how much we love having him over there.” That face she made, that hopeful, kind, gorgeous face of hers made it impossible for me to say no. She made me weak. I freely admitted it.
“Sure,” I said with a nod and then forced myself to turn my focus to my brother. “Hey, don’t you have to get back to the office?”
“I’ve got a little time,” he said, offering me the sparest of glances before going back to Alicia. “And we’re looking for a new marketing firm to rep us. Why don’t we get out of Lacey’s hair and go over to your place and you can impress me?”
I swear to God, it took everything I had not to groan out loud at Scott’s obviousness. You almost had to feel sorry for the guy.
“Sure. Let’s go.” Alicia shot what seemed like a genuine smile in my direction. “I’ll bring him back in a bit,” she said, holding Leo up enough so I knew she was talking about him and not Scott.
I nodded and took a bite out of my apple to show how fine I was. Perfectly okay. Not bothered at all. Nope. I’m good. It’s all good. The second they shut my door behind them, I wanted to throw up.
* * *
“That was nice of Scott to stop by,” Mary said later, as she donned her coat and gathered her things.
I grunted, then realized how much like my father that made me sound and decided to use my words. “Oh, yeah, it was awesome. Dad sent him to check up on me.”
Mary knew it was true and didn’t bother to try and convince me otherwise, so she got points for that. Instead, she glanced at the puppy calendar she’d hung on the wall. “We’re in the home stretch.”
“We are. Thank God. Thank you so much for staying late tonight.” It was almost eight, and Mary had stayed through my client appointments.
“I’m happy to help.”
“And you know what to do if you come in here tomorrow and find I’ve slit my wrists, right?”
“Yup,” Mary said and ticked off the list on her fingers. “You want to be cremated. You want ‘Born This Way’ played at your memorial service. You want your ashes scattered along the Schuylkill Banks. Which I’m pretty sure is illegal, by the way.”
“You’ll figure it out,” I said with reassurance.
On her way out, one hand on the knob, Mary turned back to me.
“Maybe use pills instead? Blood would be really hard to get out of that carpet.”
“Good point. I’ll think about it.”
She winked at me and was gone.
I sat back in my chair, trying to summon up the energy to tackle five more returns so Leo and I could head home. Speaking of Leo, I missed having him and his big-dog-in-a-little-body attitude sitting in my office with me. I heard no music thumping through the wall I shared with Just Wright, so I wondered if they had mostly cleared out for the night. I was just about to get up and check when there was a knock on the door and in sauntered Alicia, Leo flying past her to leap up into my lap and kiss me on the chin.
“Well, hello there,” I said to him, through almost-closed lips. “I missed you, too.”
Alicia gestured to my face with a finger. “Is that how you avoid him French kissing you?”
I nodded. “Took me months to perfect it,” I said, talking without moving my lips. She smiled that smile I’d grown to look forward to. Then I wondered if she’d used it on Scott as well. “I hope my brother didn’t take up too much of your time.” I didn’t look at her as I said it.
“Actually, he took me to lunch,” she said, and when my head snapped up to see her, she wasn’t looking at me.
“He did?” I hoped it didn’t come out too shocked or disapproving, but I wasn’t sure.
“He’s quite the charmer.”
“Yeah, he’s something, that’s for sure.”
Alicia gave me an odd look. “He’s looking for some marketing direction for his company, so I’m going to pitch to him next week.”
“That’s great.” My tone said otherwise, but I couldn’t seem to help it.
“Do you…have a problem with me working with him?” Her brow furrowed, and I had the almost irresistible urge to smooth it out with my thumb. Instead, I wrapped some of my own hair around my finger and twirled.
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