“You’re banishing me to the basement?”
“That’s where the server room is.” And good riddance. Then I don’t have to deal with his chauvinism.
He takes the key from my hand. “Okay, then. I’m sure I won’t see you down there. I don’t think you’re someone who would find her way to the basement.”
“Trust me, I’ve been down there plenty of times. I’ve spent days down there. Be here when there’s an outage of some sort.” I don’t know why I’m letting him get to me and finding it necessary to defend myself.
“Have fun on your date tonight.”
As he leaves the room, I shout, “It’s not a date!”
At least I don’t think it is.
Chapter
Fourteen
I’m out the door a few minutes before six, and Lucas is already there. He’s sitting at the bar with a drink in his hand and, surprisingly, not talking to anybody. The way he is at work I assumed he would be more sociable and chatting with at least the bartender, if not women who probably flock to him. I’ve imagined him as the frat guy always surrounded by a group of sorority sisters. He’s the life of the party, kicking butt at beer pong, the crowd shouting his name. Never did I consider he’d be the lone patron at the bar.
I tap him on the shoulder and he turns his head to me. “I actually thought that I would beat you here.”
“I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that I would be here first. I’m always on time.”
I slide onto the barstool. “Me, too. Most days I’m early. It’s not even six yet.”
“A woman who is early? You don’t need all that extra time to work on your hair and makeup?”
What is it with men today? Do I have a sign around my neck that states I enjoy being talked to like this? “That’s a pretty sexist comment.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you.” He grabs a beverage napkin and places it in front of me. “For what it’s worth, I think you look pretty fine.”
Fine. I forgot about our age difference for like a minute. That’s a term I would never use. “Thank you.” I won’t decline the compliment. Those are hard to come by these days.
“Besides, I should admit that I snuck out early.”
“Which you were able to do because you’re the boss’ pet.”
“I’m hardly Terrence’s pet. Just because we’re related doesn’t mean he’ll treat me any differently than he treats you.”
I order a gin and tonic while I formulate my response. “Actually, that’s exactly what it means. Of course he’ll treat you differently. He’ll listen to your ideas more than he’ll listen to mine, and he’ll consider all of your ideas first. I’m sure you’ll never run into any issues with him.”
“My uncle happens to adore you.”
“Your uncle? So you’re referring to him as your uncle now?”
“I guess I can. We’re not at work.”
“But technically this is a work function between you and me.”
“Is it?” He takes a drink and smiles at me when he sets it down on the counter.
I take my drink from the bartender and hold it in my hand, the glass cold against my skin. Damn if Keith wasn’t right. Lucas thinks this is a date. “Yes. This is a work meeting. That’s it. Nothing more.” Let’s get that out of the way.
Lucas cocks his head and rests his head on his hand. “You don’t like me very much, do you?”
My drink slides down my throat wrong, and I begin coughing. I pat my chest as I try to regain control.
“Are you okay?” He slaps my back like I’m a baby, forcing me to put my hands up to ask him to stop.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I ask the bartender for a glass of water and that soothes my now scratchy throat. “I’m surprised by your question, that’s all.”
“Really? I think your dislike for me is pretty obvious.”
“I don’t dislike you, Lucas.” Do I? He’s interrogating me, his magical eyes winning me over minute by minute, his smooth skin begging for me to touch it. I want to hate him. I want to strangle him. But the woman in me wants to rip his clothes off and touch every inch of what’s underneath. Damnit, why am I so attracted to him? His gorgeous face combined with his rippling body and sharp brain make him hard to resist physically. So do I dislike him? Because he wants to take my job, yes. Otherwise, I want every part of him.
“Come on, now.” He crosses his arms and leans back on his stool. “The second I waltzed into your office you had my head on a stick. Why?”
I’m warming up to him, slowly, but my desire to see him fail isn’t something I want to discuss. I switch from my water back to my drink, finish it off, and order another.
“Slow down. We’ve only just gotten here. You may want to moderate yourself when it comes to your drinks.”
“You have no idea what I can handle.” This young kid hasn’t seen anything in life, raised in a well-off family and earning scholarships to big schools and jobs landing in his lap. Try living without knowing who your father is, a drug-addict mother, and then after freeing yourself from it all, spiraling into a life of overeating. I overcame it, and that’s why I’m a survivor.
“Is that a challenge?”
I really didn’t mean for it to sound that way. “Lucas, you’re like, what, twenty-two years old?”
“Just turned last week.”
“You’re a baby.”
“Last time I checked I feed myself, rent my own apartment, have a full-time job, and am built like a man.”
Even though a young man lies beneath those clothes, I don’t doubt he’s built like a man in every sense of the word. But he’s seventeen years younger than me. That is wrong on so many levels. “It doesn’t change the fact that we work together. So let’s enjoy our drinks together and discuss work like we intended.”
“I never intended to talk about work. This isn’t a job interview.” His demeanor changes to that of a professional recruiter. “Where do you see yourself in five years? What goals have you set out to accomplish? What is your greatest strength? What is your greatest weakness?” He teases me in a deep, serious tone. “Really, Cassie, there’s not much to discuss. The pilot project was the main project, which I have now taken over, and now you’re focusing on your smaller projects while I put my energy into this one.”
He’s one-hundred percent correct. There really is nothing for us to discuss. “I guess I’ll finish my drink then and get out of here.”
“Why? Why don’t you stay and we can get to know each other? You don’t have anything going on.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, for one you agreed to meet me here so that tells me you don’t have anywhere else to be. Just stay and have a few drinks. No strings attached.”
I don’t get out very often unless it’s with Shannon, and that’s so hard to accomplish half the time with all of her kid’s activities. And ever since my cousin got engaged, she kind of fell off the face of the earth. Now that she’s married, I never see her. I don’t hang out with anyone from my Dating for Decades group, so unless I do want to go home and watch Dancing with the Stars by myself, I guess this really is all I have to do. Although I’m not totally against lying on my couch and watching TV. At least I can open up my iPad and get some work done.
“Come on, Cassie. Just do it.”
“Peer pressure and a Nike slogan. I guess you sold me.”
“Great. Let’s get you a refill.”
“Should we grab a table?” My butt is getting sore from sitting on the barstool.
“No. Let’s stay here. I like the bar.”
We’re so close to one another I can practically feel his breath on my neck. I curve my body to the right so I distance myself a little. “Fine.” I loop my feet around the bars on the bottom of the stool. He scoots his stool over. I have to say something. “I’m okay with sticking around for a while, but enough with the flirting, though, okay?”
“Flirting? I’m not flirting.” He puts his hand to his chest and raises his vo
ice. “If I were flirting,” he leans in, “you’d know.”
He whispers the words and I know right then and there he’s telling me something. I’ll ignore it. If I don’t show interest, maybe he’ll stop. “So, what would you like to talk about?”
“It’s not like I have a list to pull out of my pocket.”
“You were the one who wanted me to get a refill. You direct the conversation.” He seems like the kind who wants to take charge. I’ll let him do so right now.
“Okay.” He scratches his chin as he thinks up a topic. “Tell me how you got started at the company.”
I cross my legs and there he goes looking at them again. “Well, I started at the help desk like most tech people.” I don’t think he even pays attention to the fact that I’ve emphasized the word most. He should have started off at the help desk as well. But, that’s neither here nor there at this point. “I worked my way up the ladder. I built a relationship with your uncle, and proved myself to him many times over.”
“He speaks very highly of you.”
“Does he speak of me often?” I can’t think of any circumstance why Terrence would even need to discuss me with anybody in his family.
“When I spoke with him about coming on, he raved about you. He really did struggle with giving me the main portion of the pilot project.”
My eyes leave his and I focus on my glass. Knowing Terrence didn’t hand the job to him without any thought has me rethinking my stance on Lucas. Could it be he’s not a bad guy? I may have allowed my anger mask my image of him. I know he didn’t have some master plan from years ago to come and take my job. Things worked out in his favor he ended up here. Should I hold his success against him?
“He knows how important it is to you, and that you would do a great job with it. But I think he has the impression you’re overworked.”
“Overworked? How do you mean?” I’m refocused on him, shocked over what I’m hearing. I think I do a pretty damn good job of holding myself together and meeting deadlines. This project got the best of me, and it has never happened before. I’m professional, ethical, and focused. You don’t get where I am today by being the opposite. I can’t imagine a time I could have come across as burned out, or close to it anyway.
“You work all the time. My uncle is the Chief Technology Officer and he doesn’t even work as much as you do. Let me guess. If you were at home right now, instead of out with a handsome guy like me, you’d be sitting at home, with your laptop, and working.”
I look down at my drink. And then I take one. And then another one.
“Ha! I totally got it right didn’t I? You’re a workaholic. They have groups for that you know.”
I’m not about to admit that I already belong to a group for women thirty and over who haven’t been in a committed relationship and don’t think they ever will be. Although I suppose now it’s just people and not just women since Keith came along. “Enough about me. You seem to have a very high opinion of yourself. Tell me something that you’re bad at. What can’t Lucas do?”
“I would say I’m not able to get you to go out on a date with me, but, it seems we’re already here, whether you think so or not. There’s not a lot that I’m not able to do. I truly believe that if you put your mind to something, you can make it happen.”
“So, there’s absolutely, positively, nothing you can’t do?”
Of all the things to stump him on, this is not one that makes me happy. How arrogant does he have to be? I can think of a thousand things I can’t do, but you bet your ass that I’d give them all a shot.
“I’ve got it!” He takes a swig of his drink and pounds it back on the table. “I can’t birth a child.”
And he takes the easy way out. “That’s cheating.”
“How is that cheating? You asked me to name something I can’t do. I physically cannot birth a child. That’s an honest answer.”
“You know what I meant.”
“I may know what you meant, but that’s not what you asked me.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
“That means you asked me to name something I cannot do. What you should have asked me was to name something I’m unable to do in relation to work. Or to name something I’ve tried that I’ve been unable to accomplish.”
“You’re telling me that I need to be that specific with you in order to get an answer?”
“It’s more fun that way.” He clicks his teeth and taps my knee. I surprisingly don’t pull it away. “How about another drink?”
Technicalities. He’s getting away with this on a technicality. That’s so incredibly frustrating. Lucas irritates me to no end. But there’s something about this guy. While his remarks are a tad annoying, he kind of lightens up the mood. I’m laughing and actually enjoying myself. I can’t believe it, but I let him order me another drink.
A couple of drinks later, and we’re adding dinner to our little outing. We both order a cheeseburger and fries to share. To share. I hope that Lucas realizes what type of a commitment that is for me. I don’t share my fries.
“Well, your uncle tells me you just graduated. Where did you graduate from?”
“University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. I was able to attend mostly on scholarships. My parents made me start applying as early as I could, and they managed to pay for most of my tuition. The rest of the time I worked odd jobs and fixed computers around the dorms to make some extra cash. It came in handy because I was able to get a car and find a place to rent.”
“Impressive. Is your degree in networking?”
He takes a bite of his fry. “Programming, actually. It just seemed to interest me more at the time. But I can’t really see spending all my time living in a basement while I code things. I really think I want to take the same path you’re on.”
So this is it. This confirms he wants my job. I’ve now lost my appetite, thoughts of my being fired swirling in my brain.
“I don’t want your job.”
“Can you read my mind?” I never thought I had a bad poker face. I’m not the best at lying, but I don’t suck at it.
“My uncle got me this job because I need to stay close to home right now. My dad is sick, and I’m helping take care of him.”
“I had no idea. Is that Terrence’s brother?”
“No. My mom’s. My plan is to move out-of-state, but not until…”
“You don’t have to say it. That’s pretty commendable. Especially at your age.”
“I may be small in number, but I’m pretty damned grown up. I’ve got my head on straight, money in the bank, and I’m smart.”
And horny, I want to add. But this doesn’t seem like the appropriate time. Taking care of a parent is something I have never done nor want to do. I wonder if my mother is curious why I haven’t replied to her. I shake the thought away. Why do I care? Just because I’m here with a twenty-two-year-old man who has a close family and loves his dad enough to take care of him when he’s sick doesn’t mean I should feel any shred of guilt about my mother. She is the one who is covered in guilt and shame. Not me.
“Look, let’s get out of here. Let’s do something fun.” He takes my plate and shoves it aside as he motions for the check. “I’m sick of chatting. I honestly could talk for hours. Let’s blow off some steam.”
There are only two ways I blow off steam — yoga and sex. I wonder what he has in mind, and if it’ll get me in trouble because if there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s to do something I’ll regret.
Chapter
Fifteen
I slide my arm through the vest and fasten it in the front, careful when I detach the phaser from the clip, as though it’s a real gun. When Lucas mentioned relieving stress, laser tag was the last thing I had in mind. The flashing is playing with my mind, and I’m worried vertigo may set in. I practice my pranayama breaths as I wait for the rest of the participants to prep.
“Is this your first time?” Lucas holds up his phaser and practices aiming it. I’m really
going to suck at this.
There are so many things that go through my mind with that question. No, I’ve never done something like this and I never intended to in my life. I’m pretty sure I’ve passed that stage in my life to participate in things like this. Being stealth in the dark while trying not to get shot is not really my idea of a good time. I’d much prefer to be sharing a glass of wine over my TV show. I didn’t want to admit my obsession with Dancing with the Stars, but that may have been a better option.
“It’s okay if you’ve never done this, Cassie. I’ll walk you through it.”
The two other people who are joining us in our game keep putting on their gear but look over at me, and I’m sure they’re judging me. The young couple, so madly in love, trying to impress each other. The woman is tall, sun-kissed hair falling in curls over her shoulder. The man looks like he’s straight out of a heavy metal band. But they’re young, agile, and easily entertained.
Why couldn’t Lucas’s friend own a coffee shop or a bookstore or anything other than something that involves running around like a teenager? I’d even a settle for a comic book store and force myself to read the latest Superman comic.
“No, I’ve done this before.” I brush off his doubt in me quickly to avoid showing my depressing poker face. “It’s been a while, that’s all.” As in thirty-nine years.
“Probably since college, right? So almost twenty years?”
I point my gun at him and pretend to shoot. “You better watch yourself, boy. Never ask a woman her age and definitely never comment on it if you want to survive.”
Valley Girl and Bret Michaels giggle and the girl whispers something to the boy. This behavior annoys me. We’re standing three feet from them. Whispering is very impolite.
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