“She’ll be fine. I will avoid the human race in general today to avoid pissing off anyone. Thanks for the advice, now get out.” Derek sat down, put on his headphones and focused on work. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see that Alex was standing to leave, his mouth moving. Since Derek’s music was up full blast he didn’t get the honor of hearing more of Alex’s great advice. Derek smiled at the thought.
***
Roni tapped on her keyboard with a little more force than necessary, but she was still a little perturbed at Mr. CEO Asshole to care. She couldn’t believe his attitude, all because she preferred paper and pen to computers. She tapped the keys even harder. She looked at the clock. “Fuck a duck.” She mumbled. It was already eleven in the morning and she had forgot to order lunch and call Collin’s assistant. At least she had remembered to book the conference room, or Derek would have had another CEO temper tantrum.
Changing course, she started to look in the stupid contacts on the computer for a place to order lunch from. She scrolled through the list and found a place that seemed to have a little bit of everything on the menu. Roni didn’t know what the guys on Derek’s team liked to eat. She ordered some salads, sandwiches, pasta, cookies and pops. That should keep them happy for a bit. Now she had to call Collin’s assistant.
Luckily, that number she had in her notebook since Collin had given it to her. No need for her to curse her way through the contact list on the computer. She dialed the number she was given, surprised when a male voice answered. “Collin.” That was all the voice said in greeting. Great another snotty CEO to deal with!
“Collin this is Roni, I was trying to get a hold of your assistant so that I could set up your tour of the facility and meeting with Derek.” Roni stated in her most professional non pissy voice.
Laughter rang through the other end of the phone. “First, I don’t have an assistant. No need with a company, our size. And second, who pissed in your Wheaties this morning?”
She stifled a groan. Usually this type of humor would bring her out of her mood. Today, however, she was lumping all men into the asshole category. “Men in general.” She stated politely.
He laughed again. “All men or just one up tight CEO in particular?”
She rolled her eyes and despite herself smiled a little. Just a little though. “Just the one, but the rest of you are slowly getting added to my list.”
Collin laughed again. “Well, I would like to apologize on behalf of men for being royal assholes and beg your forgiveness.”
Roni had to laugh at that. “Ok, you Collin, are safe, for the rest of your kind, though it is still not looking so good.”
“As long as I am safe that is all that matters.”
“Now before the CEO version of Godzilla comes out of his cave to be sure I have completed his do now list, when would you and the guys like would to come for a visit?” Roni’s voice was filled with a little more polite.
“Well, let me ask you a question first, when will Godzilla turn back into Derek? Is it like Cinderella and he turns back into himself at midnight?”
Roni laughed. “Let’s hope, but I think it is going to take more than the clock striking midnight to turn him human again. A little R and R would probably do the trick.”
Collin laughed. “Does R and R stand for Roni and Raunchy Sex? Because I think that could do it.”
“Collin!” Roni screeched. Heads whipped up from their desks to stare at her like gophers popping out along the prairie to investigate a sound. She ignored the cubical animals tilting their heads in curiosity. Collin was still laughing into the phone. “Your R and R plan would never work anyway, he would have to actually leave this stupid building for that to happen.” Disappointment was laced throughout her words.
“I am so disappointed in you Roni, such a lack of imagination.”
This time she laughed. “Collin, I have a feeling you are dirty boy. Enough about Godzilla and raunchy sex.” At that moment she looked up to see Derek standing in his doorway. Arms crossed tightly across his chest, a scowl across his perfectly chiseled face. Crap! He heard what she just said. “Look Collin I have to go. Look at your schedule and let me know what works. Bye.” She hung up without waiting for a response.
“Roni, my office. Now!” With that, he stalked back into his office.
With her head hung she followed. Closing the door behind her. She looked up hoping to see some amusement twinkling in his eyes. Nope, not even a little amusement. “So… I… um… guess you didn’t like my conversation with Collin.” She smiled, weakly.
“That is not how I expect for my executive assistant to be speaking to a potential partner! For fuck’s sake Roni I need Collin to sign on to be part of CPST! Now I am going to have to call and apologize for your behavior. Why can’t you be as good with everything as you are with numbers? You don’t even know how to run a simple computer program. ”
She walked closer to him stood her full 5 foot 7 inches tall and poked him in the chest. “You are acting like a spoiled overly tired two year old, you know that! I was joking around with Collin, who A started the joke and B isn’t just some random guy you are trying to hire. He is also becoming a friend.”
He stepped away from her. Rubbing his eyes. He started to speak, but she cut him off to continue her rant. “I know you need Collin to join CPST if not for the simple reason that maybe, just maybe you would be able to handle some things off and rest. You are working not only yourself, but your entire staff into the ground! They are all about to snap. They need a fucking day off Derek! And so do you. Cancel the meeting to let them all go home and sleep, see their families or whatever else they want to do. I promise a little good will would go a long way right now!”
Derek seemed frozen in his spot. Not blinking. Not moving. She wondered if he was even breathing. I should have kept my big mouth shut! They stared at each other for a few minutes. “First, you sneak off to grab coffee without even bothering to tell me where you went or email me the reports first. Second, you have an inappropriate conversation with a potential partner, friend or not. And now, you are telling me to give my team the day off so I can what win some kind of popularity contest? You, Veronica Atlas, are out of line.” With that, he walked to his desk and sat down.
Of course Roni stocked after him not willing to give him an inch. “No Mr. Callaway you are out of line. You treat your staff like they are robots created to do nothing more than to write your fucking code. They can’t work 100 hours a week and manage to have a life! Plus at this point you have worked the creativity and productivity right out of them! Just like you have yourself.” She stood there with her fists resting on his desk. Her chest heaving from her anger. Part of her was happy she had wracked him earlier.
Derek once again became quiet and still. The only movement she saw in his body was the small twitch in his jaw. Anger, and if she was being honest a thick sexual tension, was taking up all the space between their bodies.
He broke the stare. Rubbed his hand down his face. “Fine, they can all have the day off. Let them go see their families or whatever. Hell, let them all take the whole fucking weekend off.” There was no anger in his voice as he spoke.
“Ok. Good. Your team will appreciate that.” She didn’t know what to do now.
“Now I have some work to do, since my staff is off for the day.” He turned to his computers essentially dismissing her.
“Um, I was hoping that you would also take a break.” She said quietly.
He sighed. “No Roni I need to finish. You see this project means everything to me. I want to meet the deadline and have nothing go wrong. Jemma would understand all of this. I won’t have lost hours teaching her new programs or listing off normal task for her to complete. She would have known. Maybe it was a mistake to hire you.”
Roni was shocked. She had been here all of four and a half days and he expected her to be at Jemma’s level already? A woman who had been with him for four years as his assistant. Who had learned to anticipate e
verything he could possibly need. She had a simple solution. “Well, let me help you out on that front. After I tell the staff they have the weekend off, I quit.” She walked out of the office, hearing him call her name and not giving a shit!
Chapter Seventeen
I fucked that up royally! Derek chastised himself. He knew how what he said sounded and had regretted the words the second they left his mouth. He meant he shouldn’t have hired her because she was distracting him. As in her body, her voice, her everything was making him lose all focus. Yet, his mouth and brain made it her fault by pointing out all of her shortcomings.
In reality he wasn’t pissed at all about her lack of professionalism with Collin. He knew how Collin was and had no doubt he initialized the joking. It had more to do with the fact that he had not made her laugh all day. Hell, he had not even managed to have a civil conversation with her.
When he heard her flirty voice and the word sex while she was on the phone with Collin, he will admit to being a little jealous. His caveman had roared and wanted to lock her away where no other man could speak to her or look at her. He had to roll his eyes at himself.
Now he was stuck with no staff, no assistant and he imagined no, for lack of a better term, girlfriend. His CEO asshole persona had really done a number on his life this time.
He starred at the monitors in front of him, not able to focus on the code. “Fuck!” To make matters worse, she was right. He was burnt out. At this point he doubted he could write a simple game app for his stupid iPhone. He needed a break. Needed some sleep and to eat. He also needed to beg Roni for forgiveness.
He powered down his computer. Forcefully cramming his laptop into his messenger bag.
Quickly crossing his sparse office, Derek was determined to find Roni and make amends. Pausing with his hand on the door knob. Derek realized he had no idea what the hell he was going to say to her. He knew he had behaved like a world class asshole, but how did he back track that kind of behavior?
Derek suddenly felt defeated. With no real plan he decided to head home to work or sleep or join Assholes Anonymous. If he was being honest, he was going to go home and sulk. He knew everything that had occurred today was entirely his fault, but he still he wanted to sulk that his day had been derailed after a five minute conversation.
Taking a deep breath, he manned up and opened the door. Of course Alex was sitting at Roni’s desk. His feet up, his body leaned back in her chair reading something on his phone. Without moving or looking in Derek’s direction Alex simply said, “So it only took you one week to get the girl of your dream to quit. She looked really upset when she came to say goodbye to me. Want to tell me your side of the story? Or can I guess?”
“I’m going home.” Derek stomped away. When he saw Alex start to follow him, he turned. “And no I don’t want to talk. No, I don’t want to grab a beer. No, I don’t want anything.”
“Yep, it would be that attitude that made Roni practically run out of here. But I agree. Go home. Go rest. Do not, I repeat for the stupid CEO, do not call her, text her or otherwise communicate with her until you have returned to Derek the person not Derek the fuck head CEO. Then you can beg, on your hands and knees, for forgiveness.” With that Alex walked to his office.
“I am a royal fuck head” Derek whispered. He decided that for once he was going to take his friend’s advice and not contact Roni. Well other than the two work text he was sending to her now.
Derek: I’m sorry
***
Roni sat on her couch with the remote in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. She decided a glass was pointless since she intended to drink the entire bottle herself. Roni knew that drinking and watching crap TV were not the answers to her problems, yet somehow she couldn’t find it in herself to find a better alternative. Nope, she was going to stick with her pity party.
“How can one man be wonderful and caring one minute and an asshole the next?” She asked to the empty house. Sighing, she went back to flipping through the endless amount of crap on TV. She heard her phone chirp in the kitchen alerting her to a text message. This was the third time it had done so and the third time she had ignored the damn thing.
Her phone chirped again. Roni blew out a large breath and decided she better go answer the stupid text. Walking into her kitchen, she grabbed the phone from the island. Roni stabbed the text message icon with her finger. Much like her keyboard earlier, her poor phone was taking the brunt of her anger.
Derek: I’m sorry
She snorted after reading that one. I bet you are!
Alex: These numbers are fantastic! I didn’t have to make one change! Since you are no longer working for that monster of a CEO, I want to offer you a job in my department. Call me.
Roni didn’t remember giving Alex her cell number, but this was Alex and he had the resources to get a girl’s number. She laughed to herself. Work for Alex? He was more relaxed than Derek and she was going to have to think about that offer though. It was nice to know that she had done something right though.
Roni: I’ll think about the job offer. I have a feeling a certain uptight CEO may have an issue with me working for you.
She scanned the rest of her text. She had one from Gracey giving way too many details about her stomach flu. Yuck! The other was from Emma saying she was still out of town. Those two texts officially killed her dreams of a girl’s night somehow coming together.
Her phone chirped again.
Alex: Screw what the monster thinks! I need you on my team! Better title, better pay and best of all you get to stare at me all day J
Despite her sour mood, she laughed.
Roni: Staring at you all day is not a selling point. J
Alex: You know you want me, all the girls do.
Roni: I can think of two in this house that don’t fall into that category.
Alex: You are wrong.
She was hoping for a better response to her sarcasm. Shrugging, she decided to tell him she would think more about the position. Bringing her phone with her, she went back into the living room and back to her pity party. She took a large swig of wine. In an attempt to kill the disappointment from only getting one crappy text from Derek.
Snuggling under the fluffy blanket she allowed herself to think about the day. She knew the Derek she dealt with today was not the real Derek. The Derek she faced today was one that was tired and stressed. She understood that he was working way to many hours and under a great deal of pressure. Had he not said the last part about how he shouldn’t have hired her, she would have let his behavior go.
Unfortunately, he had hit a nerve. She wanted to be good at this job. She was always good at her jobs. Although this was different from anything she had done. Numbers were her thing, keeping an office running not so much. She took another big swig of wine.
She passed the time refusing to think about Derek the man (not the CEO), flipping repeatedly through the channels and drinking her wine. She must have been doing this longer than she thought because Izzy walked through the door. Home from her day of shaping the minds of the youth. Roni giggled at the thought of her COD addict friend being in charge of a hoard of kindergarteners.
“Oh no, this can’t be good.” Izzy stated as she sat on the opposite end of the couch. Taking in the sight of the now empty bottle of wine and a second one ready to be opened.
Sighing, Roni launched into the story of her day. Roni was sure Izzy was having a hard time keeping up with her drunken story telling that was interjected with pointed opinions of what an ass Derek was. Izzy being the good friend she was, simply nodded in agreement and opened the second bottle of wine.
“So where does this leave you two?” Izzy asked innocently.
“No frickin idea! I haven’t heard from him other than the one text, and I haven’t bothered to contact him.” Roni had crossed in belligerent drunk zone and will happily live there for quite some time.
Izzy took a swig of wine, looking up as if she was in deep thought. “I guess
it is time to drown your sorrows in pizza, wine and chocolate.” Izzy left the couch, on a quest to order the pizza and find the chocolate stash. “Then, maybe, we can TP his house later!” Izzy called from the kitchen. Roni burst out laughing. She loved that her friend didn’t call him an asshole or tell her she was being a drama queen. No, her best friend just stuffed her full of food and wine and offered immature (and impractical) ways of getting back at him.
***
Derek had fallen into bed with the intention of only sleeping an hour or so. Instead, he slept for 5 hours. That was not a nap that was a full night’s rest in his book. The first thing he did was grab his phone from his nightstand hoping that Roni had sent him a text or called. Hell at this point he would have settled for any words from her, even if they were “fuck off”, at least he would know she cared enough to fight with him. Instead, he had nothing. Which was completely unusual for him. No text from Roni, Alex, Caroline. Not even a whisper from work.
He knew he should take it as a sign that, either people were resting like they should be if he gave them the day off to get their productivity back or they were avoiding him. Thinking he had finally lost his mind all together at work today. He had to call Alex. But first he needed to test the waters with Roni. Now the question was, what to say? He spun his iPhone in his hand. Over and over again.
He typed “I’m sorry” again thought about it and erased. He spun his iPhone some more and stared at the ceiling.
Derek: Roni, I am really sorry for my poor behavior today. My CEO asshole and my caveman asshole hooked up and took over. That is my best explanation. You were right, I needed rest. You would be proud I slept for 5 hours. Please forgive me. Don’t let my CEO baby side win. He needs a woman like you to kick his ass into shape so he never turns into (cringe) Alex! Please save him from that fate.
Derek read his text over a few times. Finally, he determined it was enough parts apology and enough parts self-deprecation. He took a deep breath and hit send. Placing the phone down on his bed. He paced the room a few thousand times or so. Then he grabbed the phone convinced it was broken and sent a test text to Alex knowing he would answer since that man had his phone glued to his hand.
Falling Into You (Geek to Chic) Page 14