Falling Into You (Geek to Chic)

by Brinks, Nikki

  “I will start living in a couple of weeks when this contract has been fulfilled.” Derek stated incredulously.

  Roni sighed again. “Fine, Derek. Just promise me you will sleep tonight?”

  “Fine.” He was back to one word answers.

  “Good night Derek.” She hung up before he could even respond.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Friday morning had arrived. Not that Fridays meant anything to Derek. He worked no matter what day of the week it was. At this point Derek had slept little and ate even less this week. Since Sunday he had worked almost a hundred hours. Only taking breaks to sleep a few hours and spend a little time with Roni.

  Derek had once again been at the office all night working though the algorithms his team had written. Making tweaks and corrections as needed. He was exhausted. Stressed out. And downright irritated at the world in general. Usually at this point he would isolate himself even further from the world. Not having the energy to spare to be a socially decent human being. However, he wanted to see Roni.

  Inside work, his brilliant idea of having her work for him was not going so well. Roni had not taken to the job as he had hoped she would. Relying more on paper and pen to take notes than the computer or tablet since she was not able to run them with the same efficiency Jemma had. If he gave her something involving numbers she flew through the assignment, anything else would take her time to figure out. Time he didn’t have at the moment.

  Roni walked into his office, pen and paper in hand. He wanted to scream at her to grab the iPad and use the programs the damn thing came with. Instead, he took a few deep breaths, calming himself as she sat down.

  “Good morning Derek.” Her voice was already on the defensive.

  Just Great! He thought.

  “Morning, Roni. How was drinks with Izzy last night?” Derek was trying to diffuse the situation. He knew he had pushed her this week and she was not happy with him.

  “Drinks were good. We just went to the brewery. Nothing exciting. I wish you would have been able to join us. Although, Izzy’s wish that since you weren’t there meant no Alex was quickly squashed. ” She smiled at him, melting some of the tension away from his shoulders.

  He laughed softly. “I bet she was disappointed to have him rain on her parade. Are you still planning on girl’s night tonight?”

  “Not sure. Gracey is sick with the flu, and our other friend Emma had to go out of town on business. That just leaves Izzy and me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe we can grab dinner so that you can take a break.” She worried her bottom lip, looking at her hands. “That way I know you have had something to eat and have at least taken a break. I know you need to work a lot of hours with what you do, but I worry about the price your body is paying.”

  He had to smile at that, even if it did annoy him a little. “I’m fine, really. I’m used to these crazy long hours. I like it, in fact. But I would like to take you to dinner.” He smiled at her to show her he was really ok.

  “Ok, well let’s get to work so that later I can make sure you eat and relax for a bit. I finished the estimates for the next project. I changed some of the formulas to recalculate the costs and profit margins closer to this year’s market. They should be in your email box. I think I emailed them correctly. What would you like me to handle next?”

  He was really impressed. She couldn’t run a simple note taking or task list application, but somehow she had done Alex’s estimates in half the time it usually took Jemma. He was out of his element when it came to costing and estimates. That is why Jemma prepared the reports and Alex reviewed them. “Send them to Alex for review. I will look at them as well, but he knows the market value and wages more than I do. First, I need to meet with my team to discuss the upcoming client demo. Please schedule a conference room for noon, and send the meeting notice to the team. Also, since this will be a long meeting, please have some food brought in. I believe Jemma keeps a list of caterers and restaurants in her contacts. Pick one order enough food for ten people.” He paused, reluctantly, so she could catch up taking the notes. He wasn’t used to having to pause, or even give these basic orders. He needed Jemma back. Roni was doing her best, but her best in this position was lacking. Derek knew he was being a demanding asshole, but that is how he ended up being the CEO of a security powerhouse.

  “Please also complete the remaining points on Jemma’s task list. I believe Collin and his partners want to tour the facility next week. Call his assistant to set up the details.” He was proud of himself for his tone being even and without any edge to it. In reality his entire body felt on edge.

  Then he noticed she was closely studying him. Her eyes had narrowed and she was leaning in to get a closer look at him. “You worked all night! I can tell by the darkening circles under your eyes. Did you sleep at all Derek?” Her voice was laced with concern and admonishment.

  He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Yes, I worked all night. I’m fine though. I do this all the time. We have a deadline and I plan to meet that deadline.” His tone was harsher than he intended.

  Her eyes narrowed. “No one can work the hours you work and eat the crap you do and not end up in the hospital suffering from exhaustion.” Her facial expression softened. “Derek, you need to rest. You have an entire team to help.” Roni gestured toward the door. Her tone softened as she continued. “Let them do their jobs. Not everything that goes on in this company has to be reviewed by you. The estimate is the perfect example. If Alex is the finance guy, hence his title as CFO, then let him review the estimates and payroll and anything else non code related.”

  “This is my company Roni. I will review everything and anything I damn well feel the need to review.” That little voice in his head was telling him he had said the wrong thing in the wrong tone. He knew he had verbally vomited his exhaustion induced irritation all over Roni.

  “You’re right. This is your company, you have the right to review anything you want. I was only trying to help point out that you do in fact employ many other capable people who can lift some of the burden.” Roni stood. “I will let you know what conference room you are in and remind you fifteen minutes before the meeting. Is there anything else that needs to be set up prior to the meeting?” She asked with no emotion in her voice. Derek knew that when women spoke in that soft, compliant tone that all hell was about to break loose.

  “No, the conference rooms are all wired with projectors and smart boards. Please be prepared to sit in on the meeting to take notes. Preferably on the laptop.” He looked pointedly at her pen and paper. The voice in his head that had told him he had said the wrong thing earlier, was now screaming at him to shut the fuck up!

  He watched as she took in a deep breath. “Of course.” Once those two words were out of her mouth, she was out the door.

  Derek knew this was not a good sign of how the rest of his day would go.

  ***

  Roni barely restrained the urge to slam his office door as she exited. He was not a pleasant person when he was tired. Not that anyone was. However, most people were not in charge of a staff that was on the edge as well. In the week that Roni had been here she had noticed that most of the staff stayed clear of Derek. Choosing to IM or email him rather than engage him in person.

  Roni walked past her desk, deciding a cup of coffee and a time out would be a good idea. She decided to forego the free stuff in the break room for a cup at the overpriced coffee cart in the lobby. She made her way to the elevator, mumbling to herself under her breath about what a jackass Derek was being.

  “He is always an ass when he pushes himself too hard, don’t take it personally, honey.” Mrs. Frostberry said from behind her.

  She turned to look at the older woman, seeing the concern plainly written on her face. “I know I shouldn’t take it to heart. He is just Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll. Outside of work he is the kindest man I have ever met. Inside of work he is…. well an…”

  “Asshole? Is that the word you were looking
for?” Mrs. Frostberry said looking amused suddenly.

  Roni’s face flushed with embarrassment, knowing how she saw Derek as her son. “Well, yes, I just don’t understand why he feels he has to be that way.”

  “He feels like no one could ever respect him or closer to the truth like him for who he is. So he keeps everyone at a distance. You’re the first person he has let close since that girl in college.” She said the words ‘that girl’ with such distaste. Roni had no idea what she was talking about. She did, however, get the impression that Derek had been hurt, badly, with a girl in his past. Whatever the nameless girl had done to him, obviously had an impact on him beyond just his dating life.

  The elevator doors opened. “Mrs. Frostberry would you like to come grab a quick cup of coffee with me?” Roni asked, hoping to get more information about the mystery college bitch.

  She shook her head. “Now I need to get to a meeting, but thank you.”

  “Can you, bring you back something then?”

  “Yes, I will take a large coffee with room for cream. Thank you Roni.” She looked as though no one had ever offered to get her coffee before.

  “And what about Super... I mean Alex? Would he like coffee?” Roni was glad she had been able to stop herself before she referred to Mrs. Frostberry’s boss, and other adopted son, as Super Asshole.

  Mrs. Frostberry smiled as though she knew what Roni had almost called Alex. “Yes, I am sure he would love a decent coffee as well.” With that she was on her way down the hall.

  Roni continued on her journey to calm down and now grab a few cups of coffee. The petty snotty girl in her wanted to get only three cups of coffee, instead of adding one more for Derek. Fortunately, that voice was a quiet voice compared to the kind, sweet girl who was screaming for her to get the tired overworked man a cup of damn coffee.

  She went to the coffee cart, taking the bills out of her pocket to pay. Roni looked out the window as she waited for her turn in line. From behind her, she heard two vaguely familiar voices.

  “Did you see the agenda for the meeting today?” Male voice one asked.

  “Yes, the man is insane if he thinks we can get through all of that work in that short of time.” Male voice two replied.

  “No, he’s not insane, he just forgets that we non-cyborgs need to do such things as eat and sleep.” Male voice one quipped in return.

  “My wife is going to leave me if I don’t start getting home before midnight. I think a small part of her thinks I am cheating.” Male voice number two commented.

  Roni not being able to completely place the voices in her head, casually turned to put a face to the voice. Once she did it hit her full blast that they were talking about Derek. The voices were none other than two of his top programmers, Jim and Craig. They looked even worse than Derek did. And Craig’s wife thought he was cheating? Not good, she had to get Derek to back off. All of these guys needed some rest.

  Before she could turn around, Jim, the owner of male voice one, caught her looking at them. His eyes almost bugged out of his head. “Oh shit.” He mumbled as he looked down and shook his head.

  “Hey guys. Getting some caffeine so you can make it through another long day?” She went for overly nice.

  “You heard?” Craig cringed.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I know he is working everyone, including himself way too hard. Maybe I can talk to him, so that you guys get to see your families this weekend?” She wanted to defuse this situation.

  “How would that conversation go? You telling him we were whining like Jemma does?” Jim was clearly not a fan of Jemma.

  “No, I will leave you two out of it completely. I think all of you would come back with fresh ideas if you had more time off.” She shrugged.

  “Roni that would be great if you can pull it off. I really need to spend some time with my wife.” Craig was all but begging.

  “I’ll do my best. “ She turned to order her coffee, ending the conversation. Now she had to figure out how to get Derek, CEO workaholic, to give his team a breather. Yeah, that should be easy!

  ***

  Derek was impatiently waiting for Roni at her desk. Jemma never wandered off. He tapped his fingers along her desk, then stood and paced. He needed the numbers she was going to email. Apparently she decided that a break was in order first. Derek knew he needed to take a breath. He should just stomp back to his office and lock himself away from humanity until he could get the asshole CEO under control.

  He dragged in a deep breath, ran his fingers through his hair, ending his pacing he turned back to his office. He took two steps and saw Roni coming back from Alex’s end of the office suite carrying two cups of coffee. He is overloaded with work and needed a focused assistant, and she went to get coffee? Derek could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears.

  Roni smiled hesitantly at him as she closed in on her desk. Breath, don’t yell at her. Breath, don’t yell at her. This became Derek’s mantra for the day. “Roni, the email you sent me didn’t have the attachment for the reports for Alex. I need those reports. You need to resend them. Where did you go?” Ok, he succeeded in not yelling at her, but his tone was lacking any type of kindness.

  She scowled at him. She grabbed one of the coffees from the carrier and thrust it at him. Spilling some of it on his pristine white dress shirt. She smiled. “Oops, sorry about that.” He didn’t think she was sorry at all. In fact, he thought she would have dumped the entire cup on him if she could. “As you can see, I went to get some decent coffee. I thought maybe, your shitty mood had to do with a lack of caffeine and this would fix it. Apparently I was wrong.”

  He actually rolled his eye, she was turning him into a teenager. “I can see you went to get coffee, what I don’t understand is why. You just got here after all.”

  She scowled again, her face tighter this time. “If you will recall, Mr. Callaway. I was late this morning because I had to have the stitches removed from my hand.” She help up her hand to show him. “And thank you for asking how my hand is doing, sir.” At that point she pushed past him slamming her coffee on her desk as she sat down in her chair. Her back was now to him.

  He ran his hands through his hair again with more frustration this time. How could he have neglected to ask her about her hand? “Roni, I am sorry I was caught up in my own crap. How is your hand doing, baby?” He had moved closer to her as he spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder attempting to turn her.

  Just like the first night in the bar when he had approached her from behind, she startled and turn quickly. Her elbow connected directly with his favorite body part. His eyes rolled into his head, as the pain radiated through his body and he hit the ground with a big “oof”. Kneeling, cupping his balls he looked up to see her looking at him half in horror, half in amusement.

  “Shit, I am so sorry! I didn’t realize you were so close when I turned.” Roni said looking down at him.

  He wanted to tell her it was ok, that he should have been known better than to startle her. And really at this point he should. However, he could not form any words. All he could do was whimper in distress.

  “Christ, Roni. What did you do now?” Alex booming voice was over him now. Maybe Alex could drag him to his office so Derek could check to see if his testicles were in fact in his throat like they felt.

  She stood up to defend herself. “He came up from behind me and I turned. It’s not like I meant to wrack him!” She folded her arms over her chest. “Derek, I really didn’t mean to.” She added softly. All he could do was nod.

  “Come on, I’ll help you up.” Alex reached down for Derek’s arm, pulling him to his feet. Standing straight hurt, but he manned up.

  “Roni.” His voice came out a few octaves higher than normal so he cleared his throat before he continued. “I know you didn’t mean to rearrange my anatomy. Although, I may have deserved it for not asking about your hand.” He tried to pull off a smile, but was sure his face was still contorted in pain.

 
Alex turned to Roni with a horrified puzzled look on his face. “You wracked him because he didn’t ask about your hand? Isn’t getting stitches out a daily occurrence for you?”

  “You remember that she was getting her stitches out? Wow, that makes me look really bad. Go ahead Roni hit my boys again.” Derek said, pulling off a true smile this time.

  “Dude, I don’t know what kind of kinky shit you are into but don’t offer a free nut shot to a woman! Ever!” Alex interjected, covering his junk protectively.

  Roni shook her head at the two of them. “Alex, did you actually need something or did you just come over to annoy me?”

  “I came to get the numbers from you. And to thank you for the coffee.” Alex gave his best smile.

  “Ugh, you two and those numbers.” She reached for a folder on her desk, thrust it into Alex’s chest. “Here, take the numbers and leave me be. Both of you!” With that, she sat down and turned around.

  “Um, Roni. Not to be a dick, but could you please email this to me? I need to be able to extract the data.” Alex took a step back as he asked her to email the file. Derek was glad that Alex had posed the question, his boys were still recovering after all.

  “Ugh, yes, I will email it to you!” She mumbled without turning around. They had obviously worn out their welcome.

  “Okey dokey.” Alex backed away from Roni’s desk, Derek decided to follow his lead. Making it to the safety of his office. “Wow, Clumsy Barbie is in a mood today.” He sat down in Derek’s guest chair.

  “Make yourself at home. I have nothing to do today, but entertain you.” Derek sneered at his friend.

  “Oh, so your winning attitude is why Clumsy Barbie is in a mood. You should take a break, leave for a bit before you really piss someone off. Or before Roni decides simply wracking you is not enough punishment for breathing fire at everyone and takes your balls clean off.” Alex was sitting in a relaxed fashion, spewing his unnecessary and unwanted advice.