by Hazel Keys
“Hey there boys!” Bella shouted out, a wide smile on her face. “Happy Birthday Tristan!”
“Yeah,” Rachel joined in, putting on a smile. “Happy Birthday. If you would have told us earlier we would have all gotten you a cake.”
Tristan smiled genuinely and got up to give warm hugs to all three women. “Thanks for coming ladies, really. But I’m not much for cake, especially the office kind. Beer is more of my party favor.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Bella chimed in, and turned to Martin to give him an order of one martini and two cosmopolitan’s.
“Comin’ right up, Love,” Martin promised, nodding his head. He went off to go make the drinks and as he exited the booth the Bella’s slid in, locking Tristan and Amun in the center of the half moon seat. Which left Rachel and Brad sitting awkwardly across from one another.
Rachel turned to talk to Isabella, but she was already deep in conversation with Amun about astrological signs, or something along the lines. Her eyes went to Bella, but she quickly saw that she also was lost to the conversation of gym talk and protein advice from Tristan.
“I don’t bite you know,” Brad said, lifting his beer up to his lips. “I may bark sometimes, but I promise- no biting.”
Rachel laughed, relaxing a bit. She did quite a bit of barking herself, especially at Bradley. Perhaps this would be a good moment to bury the hatchet between them; start over. It would make asking for his help so much easier whenever it came to it.
She gave him a smile, a genuine one, and fiddled with the long sleeve of her fitted leather jacket. “You look like you had a rough day.”
Bradley harrumphed. “That’s what they tell me.”
Martin came back then with the martini and cosmo’s. Rachel took one of the hot pink concoctions and downed it in almost one gulp. “I’ll have another please,” she said, placing the glass on Martin’s tray. The bartender gave her a look of being impressed, and assured her he’d be right back with another. Rachel breathed out of her mouth and felt the fire of the alcohol. She should have changed her drink order to a beer, which was more her drink of choice.
When she looked up, Bradley had a smile on his face and he too had a look of being impressed on his face.
“What?” She asked, honestly not knowing.
“Did you have a rough day, Rachel?” Brad asked, tilting his beer toward her.
Rachel let out a dry laugh. “Ha. Yeah. It was a rough one I guess.” She eyed Bradley’s beer longingly, really regretting her choice to ask for another cosmo.
“You know,” Bradley said, playing with his glass of cold, frothy, golden beer. “I’ve never tried one of those cosmo things. Any good?”
Rachel, picking up on his bit, nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh yeah, they are! They make you feel fancy too.”
“Fancy, eh?” he said, nodding his head. “I could use some feeling fancy right about now. Would you, uh,…I don’t know? Maybe wanna trade?”
Rachel knew Bradley was giving her an out of her incorrect drink order, and she smiled at him appreciatively. “That would fantastic.”
With little effort, Brad pushed the nearly full glass of beer towards Rachel, who quickly picked up the glass and took a long, slow pull of the tangy, golden nectar.
“Ahhhh,” Rachel said, taking a breath. “That’s the good stuff.”
“Here, here,” Bradley said. Martin had dropped off the cosmo while Rachel was drinking her beer, and he had quickly picked up the dainty glass. He clinked to Rachel’s glass. She giggled as he took a sip of the hot pink concoction and wrinkled his nose.
“Not your thing?” She asked. She was beginning to enjoy the evening, and with a little alcohol in her system, she was starting to even feel a little flirtatious. She batted her long, black eyelashes twice, and pulled a few curls over her shoulder to toy with as she stared over to Bradley. He was a lot cuter than she had first thought, she realized. Up this close, and with no reason to look away, she could really take a good look at him.
She had thought that he was blonde at first, but he wasn’t. Blonde was too normal of a word. His hair, which fell to his shoulder blades, was more of a golden honey. Dark, with hints of amber and sunlight. It was an extraordinary color, one that brought the tan of his skin and the blueness of his eyes. She looked down to the chiseled curves of his lips, thinking about their warmth, when she realized that they were moving.
“I’m sorry, what?” She asked. He had been talking to her, and she hadn’t even realized it.
Bradley had an amused look on his face, and he repeated himself.
“I just said that this is most definitely not my thing.”
“Oh. Right. The cosmos,” Rachel blushed. She mentally kicked herself for being so out of it, and told herself to focus.
“The Bella’s like them, but they’re not for me.” She tried to think of more things to say, but couldn’t. She hit a brick wall and Bradley wasn’t doing anything to pick it back up. The fact that he didn’t soon began to agitate her, and she squirmed uncomfortably. If she hadn’t been focusing on how handsome he was she wouldn’t have lost focus. It was all his fault!
~
“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Rachel shouted, slightly slurring her words. “The Ewoks were a very, very important part of the Star Wars Trilogy!” She pointed an accusing finger at Bradley, as if he blasphemed the lord himself.
“Pssh, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bradley shot back. “They were just stupid fuzzy bears meant as a distraction from the already ongoing plot.”
“They are not stupid!” Rachel said, fire in her eyes.
“Okay, time to go home I think!” Isabella chimed in, wrapping her arms around Rachel. “Come on honey, scoot on out.”
“We’re not done here!” She tried to argue, but Isabella strong hips scooted her right out of the booth and onto her feet.
“Bye guys, thanks for having us out!” Bella called back to the guys as she helped lead Rachel out the door. Though she was a little tipsy, she wasn’t completely wasted, and was walking steadily on her own. They made it out of the warm bar and into the cool evening streets of the outside world.
“See Rache, I told you you could have fun!” Bella laughed, shortening Rachel’s name as she led them towards a waiting cab.
“Fun? I argued with Bradley the entire time!” Rachel slid into the back of the cab, happy to be off her feet again. She suddenly felt very tired, and wanted nothing more than the soft, unmoving steadiness of her bed.
“You might have been fighting,” Isabella agreed, “but you two were smiling at each other the entire time.”
Rachel raised her eyebrows in surprise, realizing that yes; she’d had quite a lot of fun yelling at Bradley. “I guess so.” Then, her stomach turned, and she leaned her head onto the cool window. She should have stopped after her second drink, not her fifth. “Ugh,” she said, “just get me home.”
Chapter 5
Bradley
A headache pounded in Bradley’s temples as his alarm clock went off the next morning. The very first memory that slipped into his mind was arguing with Rachel about Star Wars and Star Trek. They’d been talking at one another furiously, each working to argue their point. But what had started off as an argument had started to somehow turn into a competition, of what he couldn’t quite remember. What he did remember though, was that he had been smiling. So much so that his cheeks still hurt from it. It was an odd, but a good way to end the day that had gone so rough.
Getting up, he turned off his alarm, and found that he was smiling again. By the time he was out of the shower and getting into his clothes, he found he was still smiling. Had something changed with Rachel last night? She hadn’t felt like her shrill, normal self. Well, of course she had, but somehow it had seemed cute to him then. She was so fierce, so passionate. He could definitely get behind that.
His mind quickly switched from Rachel to work when he ran into Ryan Miller, founder and president of the com
pany.
“Bradley, good morning,” Ryan greeted. He stepped up to Brad and shook his hand firmly, a casual smile on his face. “I see you have your coffee.”
“Good morning Sir!” Brad quickly replied. “Ha, yes. Well, the others complained about how I make my coffee, so I figured I should bring my own.” The two began to walk towards the office together, and to Bradley’s surprise, Ryan made a suggestion.
“Listen, why don’t you stop by my office and talk to Marcy, my secretary? If you’re going to be stepping up as Vice President, you should at least get your own coffee maker, right? Just pick one out online and show it to Marcy. She’ll have it overnighted and here for you tomorrow morning. How does that sound?”
Brad was baffled. Since when was he going to be VP? Was that was yesterday’s cancelled meeting supposed to be about?
“Um, thank you Sir, that’s very gracious of you.” They stepped into the elevator. Bradley pushed four; Ryan pushed five, the top floor. “However, I’m a little confused. You see, when you postponed that meeting with me yesterday I thought”-
“Ah, yes, sorry about that,” Ryan said, interrupting. “My four year old fell off the jungle gym yesterday and broke her nose, poor thing. The nanny hasn’t been on top of her game lately, and her mother is, well, to be honest, I have no idea where her mother is.”
The surprises just kept on coming, Brad thought. He’d been working for Ryan for nearly four years and he’d never heard about his personal life. Now he was finding out he not only had a daughter, but also had an estranged wife. As he looked at the young millionaire, handsome, and well polished, he started to see past the refinement and into the cracks, where his real life was.
“Are you- are you all right, Sir?” Brad asked. Bravely, he put a hand out on Ryan’s shoulder, grasping it lightly. The slightly older man sighed, and put on a smile.
“I’ll be fine,” he reassured Bradley. He looked down at his watch as the doors opened to Brad’s floor. “Listen, I have a phone call I have to hop on here in ten minutes, but in an hour I have a twenty minute window. Why don’t you come up then and I’ll give you more details about your promotion.”
Bradley stepped off the elevator, still confused. “What promotion?”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Ryan asked as the elevator doors began closing. “I’m closing down Rachel’s department, moving her to yours, and making you Vice President.”
~
Bradley walked into the office, dumbfounded. He had left work yesterday so sure that he was going to get reprimanded, maybe even demoted. But instead he found himself in a promotion and in charge of not just one department, but also the entire company.
“Hey man, you all right?” Tristan asked, walking up to him through the bullpen. “You’re never late.”
“Um, yeah, sorry. I was just talking to Ryan.”
Tristan’s eyebrows went up in surprise, and he listened intently as Brad relayed the conversation that he’d just had with everyone’s boss. He left out the part about why Ryan had rescheduled the meeting yesterday. If the roles were reversed, he was sure that he’d want to keep his private life just that. Private.
“Well that’s great news man,” Tristan congratulated, patting him on the back. “See? You were worried about nothing. Everything is going to be fine!”
“Is it?” Bradley asked, leading Tristan to his office. “I mean, unless I’m missing something here, this means that Rachel lost her manager seat, and I’m basically her boss now. We butt heads bad enough as is, and now we’re going to work closely every day together?” He shook his head and poured himself a cup of his coffee. “I don’t know how that’s going to work man.”
Tristan nodded his head in understanding. “Yeah. I could see how that would be difficult.” Then his face lit up. “But hey! It looked like you two were getting along really well last night. Maybe things could change?”
“Sure,” Bradley agreed, nodding his head. “If I got her wasted at work everyday then things could be great.”
Tristan rolled his eyes and got up out of his seat. “No need to be a smart ass. I was just trying to think positive, just like you should be doing.” He turned to head out the door, but paused as he reached the threshold. “On a more serious note though, let me know how your meeting goes. As the Social Media manager, I want to be there to provide anything you might need.”
Brad nodded his head, thankful that he had such a good coworker and friend. “Thanks man. I’ll email you some suggestions right now. Get your team to make a few mock ups and maybe we can get something out by lunch.”
Tristan disappeared from his office, and Bradley found himself stretching in his seat to peer into the break room. He was looking for Rachel. He was actually surprised that she hadn’t confronted him already. Then again, maybe she didn’t know about her demotion, and that she was about to be his assistant manager. From where he was sitting he could just make out her long curls that draped down her back. She was talking to someone, rather boisterously; it appeared, because her curls were bouncing around her derriere as if she were bobbing her head.
A half smile slid across his face as his eyes moved lower, to her backside. She had a small, toned butt that went along with the rest of her slim, athletic build. As he stared, he found himself thinking back to the night before again, and how fun she had been. They had been yelling, yes, but yelling at each other was what they did best. He was so busy thinking about the night before, that he completely forgot about what he was staring at. That was, until Rachel took a step back and made eye contact with him.
Startled, he quickly looked away and poured all of his attention into his computer. He knew he’d have to talk to her soon, but he wanted to be better prepared for it. Thankfully, she didn’t pop up into his office after she caught him staring, and by the time his meeting with Ryan rolled around he had his own coffee pot picked and printed for Marcy to order for him.
Chapter 6
Rachel
“Was he looking at my ass?” Rachel asked Bella. Bella looked up from her yogurt and peered out the break room doorway towards Brad’s office. She caught a glimpse of him looking completely submerged in his computer screen and shook her head no.
“No, I don’t think so,” she replied, spooning another spoonful of granola and yogurt into her mouth. “Have you talked to him yet?”
“About him saving my ass even though all we do is argue and fight with one another? No. I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
Bella ignored her friend’s sarcasm and took another bite of her breakfast. Sometimes Rachel was chilly, yes, but only when she was nervous. At home, she was a completely different person. She was relaxed, laid back, and actually a really good cook. The three of them had set up a cooking schedule, with all of them cooking twice a week and then on Fridays they usually all ordered take out. Most times she made traditional Jewish dishes, like keugel and matzo ball soup.
Why she was so different at the office, Bella wasn’t quite sure. She had a hunch though, and it involved Bradley. In the two years that the Bella’s and Rachel had been living together, Rachel had never brought a guy home, not even just for fun. It was, in Bella’s opinion, that Rachel liked Brad just as much as she ‘disliked’ him.
“Ugh, is he not going to bring the coffee in today?” Rachel asked impatiently. She waited around for a few more minutes then slammed her empty cup onto the counter. How was she supposed to sneak a cup of his coffee if he was going to start keeping it in his office?
Frustrated, she decided to walk back to her office and pour herself into work. She still had an open project to finish and tons of research to do. If it was going to be her last one, she decided, then it was going to be the best one she ever had.
Hours passed by as Rachel configured her designs into her computer. On one screen, she drew out the design of a cute young couple, sitting on their couch together with a RushIt box sitting across their laps. In their hands they were holding new couch pillows and a new throw fo
r the couch they were sitting on, and they looked absolutely happy. On her other screen, she researched what throws and pillows they had available for purchase, and added the links of the possible purchases to clickable spots on the drawing.
When that was done, she began to expand further into the little details. She drew the lamp, a tall, slim modern one that sat behind the couch and illuminated the couple. She added the links to the lamps that their company offered in the style, just like she did with the throw. Then she worked on the side tables, the coffee table, even down to the little coffee cups and centerpiece bowl on the coffee table until everything in her drawing was both clickable and available for purchase.
The idea was something new that she was working on. In fact, she had hoped that it would have been what had saved her department, but she had been too late. At the end of the week, she was going to present it to both Ryan and Brad, hoping that the work would save her from being unemployed.
By the time she was finished with the coffee cups, she realized that she needed one of her own, whether it was filled with Brad’s special coffee or not. Rolling back from her computer, she stretched in her chair and looked up at the clock.
“Jeez, one o’ clock already?” She asked.
The Bella’s were already standing up, fiddling with their purses and their jackets. “Yeah, we’ve been trying to ask you to come to lunch with us but you were really zoned in on your work,” Isabella said. “So, you want to go? We were just going to hit up the little French bakery down the street for some croissants and coffee.”
“Absolutely,” Rachel replied, elated. “I’d love an espresso. She grabbed her jacket and wallet and followed the girls to the elevator.
“When did it start raining?” She asked as they stepped outside.
Bella raised her eyebrow in surprise. “Are you serious? It started like as soon as you sat down to work. Didn’t you hear all of the thunder?”