Between You & I

by Susan Cairns

“Still sounds like you’re intimidated by me.”

  “Think what you will, but it’s not going to change the fact that I want to get to know where you came from so that I can get a handle on the relationships you built with the clients.”

  “I’m still not seeing how this is relevant, but I’ll play along.” I change my expression from a smirk to a smile. “What do you want to know?”

  “Did you grow up in the area, or did you come here for college and decide to stay?”

  “I grew up here. North of the city, in a small town. Less than two hundred in my graduating class. I stayed for college because my parents thought it would be a good idea.”

  “Do you regret it?” Reid inquires, furrowing his brow.

  “What, staying for college?”

  “Yes.”

  “No, UB is a great school, and being able to live at home saved me a lot of money.”

  “What about experiencing the college life? You didn’t want that?” he asks, making it seem as though he feels I missed out on something I shouldn’t have.

  “I was focused on my education. Don’t get me wrong, I had my share of fun, but I chose to save that for summer break, instead of partying through the semester and crushing my GPA. Why do you ask?” I furrow my brow, frowning.

  He leans toward me. “Just wondering if you’re going to regress and decide to live your partying years when you’re supposed to be focused on the job.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that with me. I want this. I’ve wanted it for a long time. There’s no way I’m going to let the opportunity slip through my fingers.”

  “It sounds like you’re planning to take what you’ve grown here and move on?”

  “That’s the plan. It’s never been my intention to stay here forever. Miranda knows this, I’ve never hidden my ten-year plan from her.”

  “And what’s that?” he asks, rocking the chair back a little farther.

  “I want move to the city and work for a bigger company.”

  “New York?”

  “Yes, New York.”

  “Maybe you should have developed a stronger tie to Lindsay then?” His statement sounds more like a question.

  “Lindsay and I didn’t have a rocky working relationship. I never let on to her that I was unhappy picking up her slack, so if I decide to reach out to her in the future, I’m sure she’d be willing to help me.”

  “What makes you want to move to the city?”

  “I’m sick of the mediocrity of small-town life,” I state with certainty.

  “So you want more? Let me guess, your parents are blue collar workers?”

  “How’d you know?” I shift in my chair, crossing my arms and mimicking his position.

  “Mine too. It’s why my brother and I worked hard at our education. We never wanted to struggle the way they did. My dad is sixty-seven and still working. I don’t want that for myself.”

  “My dad’s a factory worker, my mom’s a housekeeper at a hotel. They’ve struggled all my life, and I don’t want that either. They also don’t want that for me, which is probably why I have the mentality I do.”

  “Makes sense.” He nods. “What about your friends? Do they feel the same way you do?”

  “My childhood friends don’t, which is why I’ve kind of distanced myself from them, but Casey gets me. She didn’t at first—I think my drive intimidated her—but now she’s back in school and working toward her degree in business admin. She said I inspired her to better herself.”

  “Casey, the one you were standing with during the meeting this morning?”

  “Yeah,” I answer firmly with a nod.

  “And how are your high school friends different?”

  “I don’t see how this is going to help you gain the trust of the clients.”

  “It will. I still have more questions for you.” He winks, which makes my stomach do this little flutter thing and makes me a little uncomfortable at the same time.

  “My high school friends are okay with small-town life. Their ambitions consisted of finding husbands and making babies. The three I’m still sort of close to are all married and either working on baby one or two. It’s just not for me.”

  “So you don’t want to get married and have a family?”

  “Do you? I mean, clearly you’re quite a bit older than me and I don’t see a wedding ring on your finger,” I throw back at him.

  “I do. I just haven’t found the right person yet and I wanted to establish my career.”

  “So because I’m a woman, I should want those things while I’m younger?” I inquire defensively, raising my brow while pressing my lips into a thin line.

  Reid waits a beat before answering—I can almost see the cogs in his brain twisting, trying to figure out a way out of this question without sounding like a chauvinistic dick. “I wasn’t trying to insinuate that at all. I was simply stating what my plans were at your age.”

  “So not being married by this point in your life wasn’t part of the plan.”

  “Not really, but you have to be sure of the person—”

  “Does online dating make that easier?” I cut him off with my smartass question, since he’d gotten defensive when I made the comment earlier.

  “Ha! Touché, Ms. Lewis, but I don’t think I ever said that I was doing online dating.”

  “Hmm, you got a little defensive when I mentioned it earlier, so I thought I’d take a stab at ‘getting to know each other.’” It’s more like he’s grilling me, so I have to get mine in where I can.

  “That might be a little more personal than what I was going for, but since you went there…” He gives me an appraising look. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “When you answer my question, I’ll answer yours,” I throw back, sounding way more flirty than I mean to.

  Reid shakes his head and laughs. “I guess I deserve that answer.”

  “Maybe we should actually get to the clients now,” I say, nodding toward the untouched folders in front of me.

  “Probably—” Reid’s interrupted by the shrill ring of his desk phone. He turns to face away from me as he answers, which has me nosily craning my neck to get a look at the caller ID. “Hello, Miranda... no, that sounds good, but I’m still with Taylor. Do you mind if I ask her to join us?” Reid pulls the receiver away while covering the mouthpiece with his hand. “Miranda’s invited me to lunch with the other account executives. Would you like to join us?”

  “No, thank you. I made lunch plans with Casey, but I appreciate the invitation,” I respond, sounding formal.

  “You sure? It’s on Miranda’s dime.” He wiggles his eyebrows, making me giggle quietly.

  “I’m sure, but thank you again.”

  “All right.” He lifts the phone back to his ear. “It’s just going to be me. Taylor and I will get back to it when we return.” He listens to Miranda for a beat. “Great, I’ll meet you out front in five minutes.” Reid hangs up then turns back toward me.

  “I guess it’s break time?” I ask with a shrug and a small smile. I slide to the end of the chair and stand, making sure to push the folders to the middle of the desk so I don’t knock them off when I squeeze by.

  “Yeah, I didn’t even realize how much time had passed,” Reid says, following suit.

  “Time flies when you’re interrogating your new coworker,” I throw over my shoulder as I walk out the door, not bothering to turn and look at Reid, although I hear his laughter follow me out into the hall.

  Since I stash my lunch under my desk, I head back to my cube to grab it before going to meet Casey outside. What I don’t expect is the slam of her feet as she stops my chair from spinning.

  “Shit, you scared the hell out of me!” I practically yell.

  “Geez, calm down, we don’t need the whole office to know. Why are you so distracted anyway? New guy got your mind or just your panties in a twist?” Casey asks, cocking her head to the side with a brow raised and her signature smirk.

  “Seriously?
You know what I’m trying to do, or don’t you remember the little pep talk you gave me this morning?”

  “I remember, but I also saw the way the two of you were looking at each other during the meeting.”

  “I was just sizing up the competition,” I explain, moving my right hand to my hip to add emphasis.

  “You were sizing something up, that’s for sure.”

  “Shut up, right now.” I point my finger in her face. “I don’t need everyone to start gossiping about something you think you saw. I’m doing exactly what I said I was going to do—working on proving to Miranda that she made the wrong decision.”

  “Whatever you say. Let’s go outside. I’m starving and I need a smoke,” Casey says, launching herself out of my chair and swinging our lunch bags toward me. “You know you’re going to spill as soon as we make it through that door.”

  We walk side by side down the hall. “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “I call bullshit,” Casey says firmly, stopping in front of the outside door.

  I roll my eyes. “Are we going to eat?”

  “As soon as you promise to tell me every detail that went on behind that office door.”

  “The door was open. If you really wanted to know what was going on, you could have stood outside and listened,” I say, trying to push the door open by wrapping my arms around her.

  “That would have been too obvious. I didn’t want to draw that much attention—for your sake.”

  “Case, really? Will you open the door?”

  She blows out a huff. “Only because I’m hungry, but I’m telling you, you better give me the goods.”

  “You’re ridiculous.” I shake my head and follow her through the door as she holds it open with her ass.

  “But you love me anyway and that’s why you’re going to fill me in on Hottie McTight pants.”

  “Oh my god, that’s the name you’ve come up with?” I ask, following her to the picnic table.

  “Well, you need to give me something else to go on. I had to come up with that on a whim.”

  “No code names, Case,” I say to her back as she takes a seat on the bench.

  “But if we use his real name, he’ll know we’re talking about him,” she retorts as I take the bench across from her.

  Ignoring Casey, I dump the contents of my lunch bag on the table and go through what I brought, setting my things next to what she brought to make sense of our combined meal. Taking a slice of cucumber, I scoop up some of the hummus Casey brought and pop it into my mouth. It’s not until she cracks her Diet Pepsi open that I chance a look at her.

  She sips with raised eyebrows, waiting for me to offer something, which I’ll do. Even though I’m not sure exactly what to tell her. She knows my plan was to go in there with my game face, but she doesn’t know I completely failed. For some reason, Reid is easy to talk to—so much so, I couldn’t even keep my bitch face in place.

  “What do you want me to say?” I finally ask.

  “Everything! What did you talk about? What is he like? Were you a bitch to him like you wanted to be?” she rapid-fires questions at me.

  “Ugh, it’s really nothing. I helped him set up his computer, then we talked. He wanted to get to know me, said it would help him understand how to gain the trust of the clients, since they trust me.”

  “So you told him personal things about yourself? Did you ask him anything?”

  “I told him about school, that I grew up here, and that I planned on working my way to the city.”

  “That’s it, nothing else?”

  “There might have been a little flirting and maybe some talk of online dating, but it was all in good fun. I’m actually really disappointed in myself for being so agreeable.”

  “It’s because you’re attracted to him,” she states nonchalantly.

  I grind my teeth before I shoot back defensively, “No, I’m not, and this is exactly why I didn’t want to have this conversation. I don’t need rumors started.”

  Casey snaps her head back as if I’ve slapped her. “What the fuck? I’m a little insulted. Are you accusing me of being one of those rumor-starters?”

  “I didn’t say that you’d start the rumor, but there are ears everywhere around here. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone was hiding in the bushes all TMZ style, just waiting for one of us to say something juicy.”

  “Now who’s being ridiculous?”

  “Whatever, I just don’t want to deal with the ‘Taylor’s fucking the new guy’ bullshit.”

  “Then don’t fuck him and you won’t have to.” Casey sounds so serious, but the look on her face has me tossing a cucumber at her.

  “Har, har, I’m not going to fuck him.”

  “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that you fuck him before you’re done training him.” She holds out her hand for me to shake.

  I take her hand and the bet. There’s no way I’m going to sleep with Reid. Not only is he a coworker—which is a big no, no—but he’s also, like, fifteen years older than me, or damn close to it. “You’re on, and you better pay up when you lose. None of this ‘I’ll pay you in drinks’ bullshit that you usually pull.”

  “I am so not losing this bet.” She grabs my hand tightly, giving it a few hard pumps. “Just remember who called it when you’re planning your wedding and need someone to be your maid of honor.”

  “Good god, now you’re really pushing it.”

  “Nope, you’ll see. I’m gonna take a walk and smoke so it doesn’t bother you while you finish eating. Leave my bag on the table. I’ll grab it on my way in.” Casey stands while digging her cigarettes out of her pocket, then she walks into the parking lot. “Oh and Taylor, enjoy getting to know Reid. Don’t be a pussy. Ask him the questions you really want the answers to.” She gives me a smirk before walking away.

  My appetite now gone, I pack up our bags and leave Casey’s on the table when I head inside. Instead of walking down the hall, I take a left and walk along the outside wall, where Reid’s office is. To see if he’s back from lunch, of course. But who am I kidding? Since the words left Casey’s mouth, all I can think of is Reid’s bed, what he looks like under his clothes, and what he’ll look like when I’m beneath him. Damn it, Casey! How the hell am I supposed to work with him this afternoon?

  Chapter Five

  Reid

  After a quick end-of-the-day meeting with Miranda, I prepared myself for a long traffic-filled drive home, but Buffalo rush hour is a cake walk in comparison with Chicago. On the drive, I have just enough time to make a quick call to my parents.

  After the third ring, Dad’s gravelly, tired voice cuts through the speaker of my Jeep.

  “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?”

  “Ah, ya know, same old, different day. Give me a second, I’ll have your mother pick up the line in the kitchen.”

  “Sure,” I reply, rolling my eyes. Nothing good will come from chatting with my mother.

  Not more than thirty seconds later, I hear the click of another phone pick up. “Reid! How was the first night with Jennifer?”

  “Hi, Mom, the night went well. I actually called to let you know how my first day of work went.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you did great. Now tell me about her place? Is it in a nice neighborhood, someplace the two of you will want to raise kids?”

  “Rose, he said he called about the job, not the girl,” Dad pipes in.

  “Thanks, Dad. I just wanted to let you know my first day went well. I think I’m really going to enjoy working at Great Lakes.”

  “Reid,” Mom says with her stern voice, “I know you’re going to do great wherever you work. I’m more interested in things with your girl.”

  I bite my lips before blowing out a big sigh. “Mom, things with Jennifer will progress the longer we live together. How about you just let us get to know each other better? When something happens, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know.”

  “You better! I’m counting on this one. Your father and I are gett
ing old. We want grandchildren before we die.”

  “Christ, Rose, you’re being a little dramatic. Listen, Reid, we’re glad to hear about the job. Don’t pay any attention to your mother. Things will work out the way they’re supposed to with the girl.”

  “Thanks again, Dad. Hey, listen, I’m coming up on my turn, so I have to let you go. I’ll call soon, okay?”

  “Fine, but make sure you’re giving this girl a chance. I don’t want the next call telling us that you’ve already broken it off with her,” Mom states firmly.

  “All right, I have to go, bye.” I quickly end the call before either of them can get another word in.

  Unsurprisingly, when I walk into the condo, its quiet. However, the smell of something amazing assaults my nose before the door even closes. After throwing my laptop case on the couch, followed by my suit coat, I loosen my tie and head into the small kitchen to find what’s making my mouth water.

  Sitting on the counter, next to the sink, is the slow cooker, steaming away with a note from Jennifer under a box of rice. Just as I had thought, she’s working late, but considerate as she is, she made sure I would have something to eat when I got home. The short note states to take the broccoli from the refrigerator and put it in with the chicken for a half hour, then to make myself a cup of rice while it cooks.

  It’s simple enough, but completely unnecessary. Another thing I’m going to have to discuss with Jennifer when she gets home. I’ve lived alone for a long time, and I don’t need her going out of the way to make sure I have a hot meal. Again, I feel like a broken record with these thoughts, but this isn’t how I want things to work between us. It’s got to be a two-way street, which I thought I made clear last night during the whole grocery shopping conversation. I want to pull my own weight, so on nights when she’s going to be late I should be the one making dinner for us.

  Before I let myself get too worked up by her generosity, I throw the broccoli in the crock pot then set the timer on the microwave for thirty minutes. I have to open and close a couple of the overhead cupboards until I find a casserole dish to make the minute rice in. Once I have everything ready, I head down the hall to change out of the rest of my stiff work clothes. I take a deep, stress-relieving breath and blow it out as I walk through the door, noticing Jennifer made the bed before leaving this morning. I’m not sure why these little things are bothering me. It’s not like I didn’t see that the condo was immaculate when I got here yesterday, but every little thing is annoying me right now.