“It was great!” Her face was lit up as if she had the best time ever.
“Really? That great? What happened?” I asked as she got up and followed me into my office, practically skipping.
“Tommy’s roommate!” she chirped.
“Tommy? Who’s Tommy?”
“Tommy Brecken” She pointed to the sales floor and it dawned on me who she was talking about. Tom’s sales were really down and he was one of the guys I was going to spend more time with to train.
“What does Tommy’s roommate have to do with you having such a great weekend?”
She rolled her eyes, still smiling bright. “Ryan,” she sang. “His name is Ryan. And he’s almost as tall as you. And he’s got a fantastic smile. And he’s just so sweet!” she trilled. Fuck. She found someone. Not that I didn’t think she would at some point in time, I just didn’t think it would be so quick. My look must have matched my thoughts. “Are you upset, Matty? I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have told you anything,” she fretted.
I shook my head, feeling ridiculous. It’s not like we had something exclusive. I just thought that…I don’t know what I expected Kara to do since she wanted to stick to the company non-dating policy. “No, Kara, you’re fine. It’s good. I’m happy for you. When did you meet him?” Suddenly I felt more like an over protective brother and needed to find out more about this guy.
She continued to tell me about meeting him when she went out for drinks with several of the sales staff after work on Friday. They hit it off and he asked her on a date for Saturday night and then they hung out all day Sunday.
I knew my face said it all as she rolled her eyes and told me, “No, we didn’t sleep together.” She blushed and then shrugged. “I read this book that said to make him wait if you really want to keep him.”
I chuckled wondering which book she read. Then I turned serious knowing my feelings for her were mixed. “Just make sure he respects you Kara. Don’t let him treat you like the other guys you’ve tried to date.”
I watched her swallow and look up at me from under those thick lashes. “Did you respect me, Matty?” she quietly asked.
Definitely not. I took a deep breath and looked around the room as I answered her. “I didn’t treat you the way you deserve to be treated, Kara. I’m sorry for that, I really am,” I said sincerely.
She looked away briefly and then back to me, nodding. “It’s okay Matty,” she said softly. “Thanks for being honest.” She took a deep breath. “Well, I’ll get back to my desk. We should get the day started,” she told me, looking a bit sad.
“Kara.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m happy for you. Really.” A huge smile swept over her face as she bit her lip and she nodded. She turned and left my office.
Damn. I’m going to miss her. I decided to dive into work, realizing I needed a distraction from my personal life. I checked my emails and noticed one from Vanessa’s assistant, copying Kara about my address change. I wonder why she didn’t send it directly to me. Probably because it’s the way management is supposed to do things. Kara came into my office with the form, placing it on my desk.
“Just needs your signature and I’ll run it over there. Do you need me to change your address on any other forms or companies?” I sat back thinking about it. I nodded my head and told Kara to get her notepad so I could tell her all the companies that needed notification of my new job title.
I signed the form and was about to hand it to her when I realized I could walk it down and see Vanessa myself. She might be in a better mood than she was this morning. If so, she might want to head out to lunch with me.
“What are you doing, Matty?” Kara asked as I took the form back and glanced down at it.
“I’ll take a walk over there. I need to stretch my legs anyway.” Kara pressed her lips together as her eyes squinted with her brows pulled together.
“You have a thing for her?” She asked.
“What? No. I just need a walk, that’s all.”
“Hmm, just remember the corporate policy,” She trilled as she walked out of my office.
I KNOCKED on Vanessa’s door quickly and stepped into her office. She looked up from whatever paperwork she was reading and then quickly looked back down. “Can I help you Mr. Williams?” Mr. Williams?
“I thought I’d walk that form over to you to change my address.” I walked in and placed it on her desk since she still wasn’t looking up at me. She glanced at the paper and then placed it into the “out” bin on her desk.
“Thank you,” she said without glancing up.
What the fuck? I stood there wanting to get her attention, but wasn’t sure what else to do. Most women are eager to talk to me. I’ve never had a problem striking up a conversation. I started thinking about how fun and flirty she was at the wedding. How her hair was down and so was this bitch attitude she seems to have again. It must be the office. Maybe if I get her out of the office she won’t act like this. That’s gotta be it.
“I was wondering if you have any lunch plans. I wanted to try out that new deli on the corner. It’s a little overcast today, but I don’t think it’ll rain. We could walk over.” Why asking her out just made me nervous perplexed me beyond reason. I don’t get nervous that often, especially chatting with a chick. Vanessa was putting me on edge and it was annoying the hell out of me. So much that I found myself knowing that I had to get her out of my system somehow.
She barely glanced up from her paperwork before responding, “I’m sorry, I can’t get out for lunch today. I need to get this project done. Maybe next time.”
I nodded even though I knew she wasn’t looking at me. “Okay. How about dinner tonight?”
She snapped her head up; her huge gorgeous grey eyes were wide with surprise. “I…why would you want to have dinner with me?”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Why would you ask that?” I walked in closer to her desk, leaning with both hands on her desk. “I thought we had a great time at the wedding before you had to take off.”
I watched her swallow and glance around her office. “I should apologize for running out of the wedding. I was just taken aback by Mrs. Weber. I’m sure you understand.”
I nodded and sat down in one of her chairs. “I completely understood. Now that you’re single, not to mention live across the hall, I thought maybe we could at least have dinner together.”
“I don’t…We work together Mr. Williams. We have a no dating policy in place for a reason. I…we need to set an example for the rest of the employees, not to mention we could be terminated.”
“Terminated? For dinner?” I chuckled and gave her my best smile. “We’re just gonna have dinner.” I watched her flush the most gorgeous shade of pink I’ve ever seen. Sweet satisfaction rushed through me that I caused that.
“I’m sorry. I just…I assumed.”
“I know what you assumed. Let’s just start with dinner. How’s that?”
“Right. I. I’m sorry. I just can’t.”
“Okay. Maybe another time.” I wasn’t going to pressure her if she didn’t want to. I’ll just have to go about pursuing her a different way. I’ll just fuck with her little world.
“KARA, do you have your gun?” I called out from my office as I stood up to get ready.
Kara popped her head in the door just as I was stepping through it. “Yeah, but are you sure about this? I mean I know you sent out the email, but is everyone going to go along with this?” She asked, clearly concerned.
“Hell yeah they will. It’s an ice breaker. A game of Lunch Tag is a perfect way to release some tension.” I headed out of my office with my bright yellow Nerf Blaster. I walked by several of my key sales people, knowing they were big kids at heart and would join in and get the game going. I shot at Marcus, who ducked just in time as the Nerf dart brushed past his shoulder.
“Holy shit, Matt! Is it time already?” I watched him as he jumped up excitedly and grabbed his gun while I ran to the other side of the
room, shooting at Kelly while I took a dive into Miriam’s cube. She looked down at me and laughed, shaking her head.
“I didn’t think you were really serious about this. Hard Ass Hargrave is going to piss herself on this one,” she said as she grabbed her gun and popped her head up to see if anyone was aiming at her. She ducked just in time as a dart came flying past her head, landing on the cubicle wall right behind me.
“You let me worry about Hard Ass Hargrave. Your mission is to attack and have fun. Get everyone into it for a half hour and blow off some steam.” She nodded as she left her cube while I covered her, just as Kelly came rounding the corner.
The “war” continued for the entire half hour until fits of laughter could be heard throughout the office. Release of stress — mission accomplished. I was on the floor laughing, out of ammunition, as Kelly put a dart to my head, emptying her chamber. She grabbed my arm and helped me up. I watched my full sales team, now at 130 people, laugh and smack each other’s backs.
Kara came running up to me, also laughing, and told me that the food was here.
“Food is served people. Get your butts in there and eat quick and then head back to sales! We’re going to have an awesome sales day – I can feel it!” I announced to my team.
“Uhh, umm, Matty. Vanessa is headed this way. She looks pissed,” Kara whispered to me, her eyes were huge and full of fear. Damn. Vanessa really knows how to do that to people. I couldn’t wait for this fight. My dick was getting hard just thinking about how she’d take it out on me. Wow, where did my mind wander just then?
Laughing at my own personal joke, I turned around and faced Hargrave. Fuck, she’s hot. Her gorgeous deep grey eyes were blazing with fury as she stopped in front of me with her hands on her hips. I glanced over her outfit. Black pants that were just the right fit on her perfect legs. Heels high enough so she was almost as tall as me. A lavender silk shirt that was opened just enough that with her hands on her hips showed just the swell of her breast peeking out. I can’t wait for her to walk away so I can see her fantastic ass. Her full lips were pursed just enough that I imagined them wrapped around my cock.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” She practically screamed at me.
I glanced around as I noted my sales staff standing away from us, but close enough to hear the argument. Most of them were wide-eyed and some were snickering. I wanted to grab Vanessa and kiss the living shit out of her. Thrust my hands through her hair. Hike her leg up and feel her ass. I took a deep breath, trying to get my wits about me so I could really mess with her.
“Having a game of Nerf tag. I thought that was obvious,” I explained as I gave her my sexy smile. I glanced around and noticed some of my staff continued to snicker.
Vanessa’s face was serious as she took a deep breath and asked, “Could we speak in private please?”
“Absolutely.” Fuck yes. I waved my hand so she would walk in front of me and I could follow. Her hips swayed and I realized she has to have the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t stop fantasizing about bending her over my desk and grabbing her amazing hips hard while I thrust my cock into her as she’s face down on my desk. Shit. I wonder how flexible she is. Maybe she can grab her ankles while I fuck her hard. I looked up and realized we were in my office already and I quickly averted my eyes back to hers. I didn’t do it in time. She caught me staring at her ass.
“You can’t play gun games inside the office. It’s against our no gun policy.”
“Umm,” I chuckled. “But they’re not real guns. They’re Nerf darts.” I held up my big yellow gun, slightly upset that I didn’t have one more dart to shoot at her for fun, just to antagonize her a little more.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “They may be fake guns, but what if someone thinks it’s a real gun and calls the police. Then the police don’t know if it’s real or not and then a whole shoot out could occur.”
I laughed and as I did she threw me an angry glare. “Oh come on,” I stretched my arms out wide. “That’s a pretty far-fetched story, don’t you think?”
“Well…no. There have been incidents at schools and offices and…it’s against our policy.” I gave her my best “incredulous” stare as she folded her arms across her chest in defense of her position. “It could happen.”
“Yeah, okay, you keep believing that. Are we done here?”
“Just don’t have another gun war in the office, okay?”
I shrugged as I walked out. “Fine. I’ll take everyone out to laser tag during lunch. Thanks for the idea, Hargrave.”
A COUPLE DAYS LATER, we had our new promo blitz and had a vendor come in. I can admit, the guy was louder than I anticipated, but he did manage to get everyone riled up and excited. He even brought his own bell. Anytime one of my staff made a sale above their quota, they were allowed to write their name up on the board and then ring the bell. Everyone stands up and claps, congratulating the sales person on their achievement.
Now, in my heart of hearts, I knew that bell was disruptive to the rest of the floor, but I also knew that Hargrave would come over and I would get to see her again. Pissed off with fire in her eyes. I’m thinking any reaction I get from her right now is a good reaction, right?
Living right across the hall from her, and not seeing her for some odd reason, was weird. You’d think we’d bump into each other heading out to work. Nope. I haven’t seen her nor heard from her. So, this bell would surely bring her out of her office and give me an excuse to talk to her again.
Sure as shit, by the fourth bell ring of the day, Hargrave popped her head into my office.
“Really? A bell? How old are you guys? Do they get a lollipop too and a sticker on their cubicle?” She actually asked that with a straight face.
I laughed. “Actually, that would be good too, but I’m sure they’ll settle for a gift certificate to a nice steak dinner instead.”
“Mr. Williams, the whole…”
“Matt. You need to call me Matt. It’s getting annoying that you call me my father’s name.”
She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes in pure frustration. “Matt,” she enunciated. “Could you please either do away with the bell ringing or at least get a quieter bell? I’ve had numerous complaints. If your sales staff were on a separate floor, I wouldn’t have a problem, but you’re not. We need to figure out a way that we all work together.”
I cringed, knowing she had a point. “Fine. The bell goes.”
The look of surprise on her face was priceless. I hadn’t meant to do that, but it was fantastic. “I…just like that? You’re giving in?”
“I’m not giving in. I’m just agreeing with you.” Ding. Ding. Ding. The bell rang out and we heard cheers from the sales floor. I held my hands up. “I’ll go put an end to it.”
She gave me a small smile. “Thank you, I appreciate that.”
As I brushed by her, I leaned in and whispered, “See, I can be agreeable sometimes. Have dinner with me and you’ll see how nice I really can be.” I didn’t wait for an answer. I just kept walking out.
THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY, I had the beer cart rolling around. Yep, a beer cart at work. Our sales quarter was ending and it was the biggest quarter inside sales has ever had. I was beyond thrilled and couldn’t wait to celebrate after work at our huge party tonight at my brother’s bar, Allure.
I was standing out on the sales floor, talking to various sales members and congratulating each of them on a job well done. I was also making sure they’d all be there tonight at the party. I was just giving Angel a pat on her back when I turned around and found Hargrave. Angry stance, hands crossed over her chest and I swear she was tapping her foot.
“Hey Vanessa.” I threw her a smile as I turned back and handed Angel her beer.
“What are you doing?” She asked as she followed me while I rolled the cart to the next cubicle.
“Serving beer. Would you like one?” I asked her as nonchalantly as possible. As if we serve beer everyday
, which is something I’ve been considering.
Her lips here pressed tight together as she sneered, “Beer? At the office? Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.” I popped a bottle open and handed her the bottle.
She snapped at me, “No thank you. I should remind you about our rule about drinking alcohol on the premises.”
“I did read that and I also read the part where upper management has the right to waive that policy for a specific celebration and where it is agreed upon by management.” Her nostrils started flaring and I could see the fire brew hotter in her eyes. Damn that’s sexy.
“Alcohol at work? You’re just trying to get them drunk? How is that going to help sales?”
“They’re not going to get toasted. They’re each having one to take the edge off.” She seemed to relax slightly at that. I couldn’t have that, so I added in, “I’m sure they’ll get plastered later at the happy hour party tonight.”
“Happy Hour? You didn’t clear that with me!” She started raising her voice. “Listen Matt, let’s get one thing straight here, if you do things like this, from now on it all has to come through me. Do I make myself clear?” She spoke to me as if I were a child. In front of my staff. Screw the fact that she’s gorgeous, especially when she’s angry, but I’ll be damned if I get yelled at in front of my staff by anyone.
I pressed my lips together trying my best to not go off on her. I waved my arm out to motion her to start walking. She glared at me and I gave her the same glare back. I was pissed now and motioned for her to walk to my office. She walked in and crossed her arms. She was about to speak when I closed my door. I tried my best not to slam it, but I’m pretty sure it closed harder than I had wanted it to.
“What the hell was that?” I asked her with my arm outstretched pointing to where she just yelled at me.
“Me? What the hell are you talking about?” Her eyes were wide with surprise that I even asked her that.
“Don’t you ever yell at me in front of my employees! That’s rule number one in any fucking company.” I couldn’t help but swear since I was so pissed off. Who yells at another officer in front of their own employees?
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