Daydreams

by Marcia Lynn McClure

  “Will it sick you out if I double dip?” he asked, plunging his own tortilla chip in the bowl of salsa.

  “No,” Sayler giggled. For some reason, it wouldn’t, and it astonished her. She was normally very picky about who she ate after.

  “Then you’ve passed all the tests,” he chuckled. “And after lunch, I’ll take you back to the office and show you around.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled. She was feeling very humbled suddenly. She waltzed into a job. She’d gotten her wish and seen Bo Booker again. What more could she possibly want? Her eyes lingered on the handsome man across from her as he double-dipped his chip. He was perfect!

  Sayler enjoyed her meal with Bo. They talked about work, college, the Center, so many things. Somehow her nerves settled enough to allow her to eat. She could see why Bo knew the staff there so well; it was close, and the food was good—the perfect venue for a businessman’s lunch.

  “You said you went up to the office yesterday?” Bo asked Sayler as they waited for the light to change so they could cross the street.

  “Yes. I briefly spoke to the woman at the front desk,” Sayler admitted. Her body was rapt with goose bumps when he put his hand at the small of her back as they started across the crosswalk.

  “That’s Diane, our receptionist,” he said. “She’s really nice. You’ll like her.”

  “She seemed nice,” Sayler said, remembering how frightened she had been when she first stepped out of the elevator and into the reception area.

  They started across the courtyard toward the office high-rise. Sayler saw several workmen standing in the pond that housed the fountain. The fountain was shooting high into the air. It seemed to be twice as high as it had been, and the water seemed to be under a great deal of pressure.

  “That’s weird,” Bo said. “I thought they had that fixed.”

  His utterance seemed almost like a forewarning, as in the next instance there was an earsplitting explosion! Sayler screamed and clamped her hands over her ears, startled by the noise. A manhole in the cement in front of her popped off as a huge fountain of water suddenly gushed from it. Simultaneously, one stone wall encircling the pond gave way, spilling hundreds of gallons of water into the courtyard. The water gushing from the pond hit Sayler’s feet with a greater force than she had anticipated, sweeping her off her balance.

  Bo adeptly caught her, however, lifting her and cradling her in his arms as a torrent of water rained down on them. Sayler gasped for breath as she brushed the water from her face.

  She looked to Bo as he shook his head in an effort to rid his own face of water.

  “Well, that can’t be good,” he said, smiling at her as he carried her toward the building. People were scattering, city workmen shouting orders at one another as the water continued to shoot into the sky like a geyser.

  Without pause, and without setting Sayler down, Bo walked into the building and into an open elevator.

  Once in the elevator, he let Sayler’s feet drop to the floor, releasing her once he was certain she was stable.

  “What’s going on out there, Bo?” an older man on the elevator asked as the doors closed.

  Bo shook his head, pushed the number twenty button, and said, “Beats me, Bill. But the city’s gonna have a mess on their hands over it.”

  “And who’s this?” the man named Bill asked, smiling at Sayler. She felt ridiculous! She must look like a drowned rat.

  “This is Sayler,” Bo said. “She’s new with the firm. It’s her first day, actually.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sayler,” the man said, smiling at her. “Nothing like starting to work for the Booker boys like this, eh?”

  “No, sir,” Sayler said.

  As the elevator climbed, Bo loosened the knot of his tie, stripping it off finally. Sayler’s eyes widened as he watched the floor numbers progress on the elevator display, unbuttoning his shirt as they did.

  A familiar ding, and the elevator doors opened.

  “We’ll see you later, Bill,” Bo said, placing one hand at the small of Sayler’s back, urging her to step out of the elevator and into the reception area.

  Sayler wiped residual water from her face as Diane the receptionist said, “What on earth, Bo?”

  “A water main exploded under the courtyard,” Bo explained, stripping off his shirt then. “Didn’t you hear it up here?”

  Sayler felt her mouth gape open at the sight of his bare torso before her. In a matter of minutes, he’d gone from a nicely dressed businessman to a bronzed lifeguard type.

  “I heard something, but I didn’t realize that’s what it was,” Diane said, stepping from behind the desk and moving to Sayler.

  “You’re soaked to the skin!” Diane said.

  “This is Sayler, Diane,” Bo said. “She’s the new addition to my office staff.”

  “It’s…it’s nice to meet you,” Sayler said, wiping more water from her face.

  Diane smiled. It was a friendly, welcoming sort of smile, and it made Sayler feel instantly more comfortable.

  “Well, Diane,” Bo began, “I think it’s safe to say the city will be shutting off the water to the building any minute. So let’s just send everyone home for the rest of the day. Okay?”

  “You got it, Bo,” Diane said.

  “What’s going on, Bo?” Joey Booker asked as he stepped into the room. “There’s no water.”

  “A water main burst under the courtyard,” Bo said.

  “And just what were you doing when it happened?” Joey asked. His eyebrows raised as he looked at Sayler.

  “Joey, you remember Sayler,” Bo said. “From the rehab center a few years ago.”

  “Oh yeah!” Joey chuckled, studying Sayler from head to toe. Delighted amusement fairly danced across his features. “The candy stripper.”

  “Be careful, man,” Bo said. “She works for us now.”

  “Does she indeed?” Joey said, offering a hand to Sayler. Sayler brushed a wet strand of hair away from her cheek and shook his hand. “Well, welcome to Booker Architecture and Contracting, Sayler.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Sayler said. Her face was on fire with the severity of her blush. Furthermore, her teeth were chattering. She was freezing! Being completely soaked and standing in the refrigerated air of the office caused her to feel incredibly cold.

  “Here,” Bo said, retrieving a suit coat from a hook near the elevator. Placing the garment around her shoulders, he said, “I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for orientation.”

  “This will be ruined,” she said, trying to give the coat back to him.

  He smiled. “Well, the pants are already ruined,” he said, tugging at the waistband of his trousers. “So don’t worry about it. Besides, I’ve got a change of clothes here. But you better get home before you catch a cold.” She nodded. “Sorry about the shower,” he said, running one hand through his dripping hair. “But at least lunch was good.”

  “Yes,” Sayler said. She smiled as he winked at her.

  All at once, the reception area was flooded with a crowd of questioning people.

  The elevator doors opened, and Bo took hold of Sayler’s arm, directing her into it. “Can you be here at eight in the morning?” he asked.

  “Yes, of course,” she assured him.

  “Great! Just have Diane call me up here, okay?”

  “Okay. Thank you, again, Mr. Booker,” she told him.

  “Bo,” he said as the elevator doors closed.

  Sayler bit her lip and giggled. Drawing the lapels of the coat up around her face, she inhaled deeply the familiar scent of his cologne. She leaned back, relaxing against one wall of the elevator. Bo Booker. She was working for Bo Booker! And it was going to be fabulous. Look what had transpired during the first ninety minutes!

  Sayler didn’t care that she looked like a half-drowned kitten as she crossed the courtyard wearing Bo’s suit coat. She didn’t care that her own suit and shoes were ruined. It had been well worth it to be swept up in Bo Booker’s arms
for a few minutes and wrapped in his suit coat like a vulnerable heroine.

  She had the odd sensation life was debuting anew, that a fresh chapter had just begun. At that moment she didn’t care what worries, trials, or heartaches lay ahead. All she could think of was the way Bo Booker had smiled at her, how adorably boyish he’d looked standing in his office shirtless and dripping wet.

  She would work hard for him, please him with every aptly completed task. She would gain his respect, maybe his admiration in some way. Whatever the case, she would make sure she got her fill of staring at him, drinking in his dazzling character. Heaven had blessed her with one last, lingering daydream of Bo Booker come true, and she would relish it!

  Tossing her wet shoes in the backseat of her car, she pulled the coat lapels up to her face once more.

  “Mmmm!” she sighed as she inhaled the masculine scent of the coat’s owner. She couldn’t wait for the day to end, for the next one to begin. When it did, she’d be at Booker Architecture and Contracting working for the handsomest, most charming boss a girl ever had. She had to call Monica.

  “Monie?” she said into her cell as she pulled out of the covered parking area. “You will not believe what I’ve got to tell you. Are you sitting down?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Summer was warm and bright. Not one single cloud dotted the azure sky as Sayler crossed the courtyard on her way to the office. She smiled, happy in the beauty of the morning, anxious as always to get to work and see Bo.

  Nearly a month had passed since she began working at Booker Architecture and Contracting. She couldn’t believe how quickly the time was passing. Her first few days at Booker had been filled with varying levels of anxiety mingled with excitement. She knew nothing about the type of business Bo and his brother were in and knew no one at the office save Bo and casually his brother. Still, she’d settled in fast and felt comfortable and accepted by the staff.

  Sayler began her employment at Booker by trudging through the unorganized disaster area Bo called an office. The moment she stepped foot in his domain, she knew which Booker brother did the majority of the creative architecture work for the firm. Piles of paper, plans, and general stuff cluttered his office like nothing Sayler had ever seen. Yet she soon discovered he designed the most breathtaking office buildings and homes imaginable.

  “I can be organized or creative,” Bo had said. “One or the other—never both at once.”

  And it was true. It had taken Sayler nearly two weeks to get his office, files, and computer in order. She loved doing it too! It was like being a part of his life—really a part of his life. And she learned so much about him in doing it.

  The bad thing was she was becoming more and more attached to him, more and more infatuated, more and more desirous to be in his company every moment. For some reason, she had thought working for him would help her become rooted in reality. She thought perhaps she would see his bad habits, that he would treat her like any other employee, thereby taking some of the mesmerizing wonder off him.

  This theory proved to be entirely untrue. Certainly, he had faults, as did everyone. But instead of treating Sayler with a casual regard, she found he smiled at her, laughed with her, and talked with her more than anyone else at the office. He took her to lunch periodically too—often enough that the hostess, waiters, and waitresses at Winkel’s knew Sayler by her first name as well as they did Bo.

  Of course, she did work for Bo. It made sense he would pay more attention to her than some other members of the staff. Yet Sayler liked to imagine he paid more attention to her because he chose to, wanted to, not just because she worked so closely with him.

  She’d even been given a desk in the area outside his office and often answered his phones and took messages. “Miss Christy will help you” had become one of his favorite taglines to use when he was overwhelmed with work and didn’t have time to attend to more trivial matters with clients. Thus, Sayler had to learn a great deal about his business and learn it fast.

  Of course, she still had her daydreams of him. Often she would catch herself imagining romantic scenarios involving herself and Bo Booker. She imagined him asking her to come into his office, shutting the door behind her, taking her in his arms, and violently kissing her with unrestrained passion. This was one of her favorite daydreams of Bo. She knew it was unhealthy, that such a thing would never come to pass, and that she shouldn’t believe everything she read in her favorite romance novels.

  Yet she loved him, and she couldn’t help dreaming about him, day or night. She did love him—that much she had been able to admit to herself. How she would handle the reality of it all she didn’t know. For the time being, she was just glad he didn’t have a steady girlfriend. She was certain when he did, their relationship would change. Necessity would require it.

  Still, for the time being, she reveled in his attention and her well-paying job working for him.

  “Hi, Diane,” Sayler said as she stepped out of the elevator. “How are you this morning?”

  “Frazzled!” Diane answered. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and released a heavy sigh.

  “Something already happen?” Sayler asked.

  “Bo’s in a tizzy about that stupid Bennett Ball thing,” Diane said. “Came in this morning like a tornado, moaning and groaning about it.”

  Sayler sighed. The Bennett Ball was a stressful subject for Sayler too. Sayler was dreading the event for an entirely different reason than Bo, however. Bo simply did not want to go. He was as anxious about it as he had been three years earlier when he’d received the invitation at the Center.

  “It’s boring,” was the reason he’d given Sayler. But she’d been around the office long enough to know he was understating his reasons.

  Joey Booker himself told Sayler in passing one day the reason his brother hated the Bennett Ball so much was the social and public pressure. Apparently in years past when Bo had not taken a date, he had been hounded by every single woman in attendance. It wore him out to be constantly pleasing and polite to such a crowd of women. On the other hand, the years he had taken a date had proved to be just as stressful. Once on his arm, every girl he had ever taken had turned into the Bo-Booker’s-wife-wannabe of the century, demanding not only his undivided attention at the ball but all his attention for weeks thereafter.

  Sayler’s anxieties about the Bennett Ball were borne of the same fabric, but for different reasons. It infuriated her to think of a crowd of women hanging on Bo. It infuriated her to think of his dancing with any of them. Yet it infuriated her, frightened her even more, to think of one woman gaining his sole attention. Oh, she knew one woman eventually would. It was inevitable. Still, it made her sick to her stomach, brought tears to her eyes every time she thought of it. She would have to face it one day, she knew. But she wasn’t ready to face it yet.

  “So he’s in a bad mood?” Sayler asked Diane.

  “He’s…he’s wound up is more like it,” Diane said. “Good luck with him today is all I can say. Thank goodness the stupid thing is tomorrow night. Then he can let it go. Until next year, at least.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll go throw myself into the volcano,” Sayler said. “See you later, Diane.”

  “Good luck, girl,” Diane said, shaking her head.

  Sayler took a deep breath and walked toward Bo’s office. As she approached, she could hear voices—Joey’s and Bo’s.

  “I’ve gone every year for ten years, Joey,” she heard Bo say. “So what if I miss one?”

  “You promised Mom you’d go, Bo,” Joey said. “Just suck it up. It’ll be over in less than forty-eight hours.”

  “Suck it up? You remember what it’s like, man,” Bo said. “You’re married now. You’ve forgotten. Besides, you took Ashley to a couple of these things before you guys were even married. I promise you, you’ve forgotten.”

  “Then quit whining, and get a date. Anybody you ask will go with you,” Joey said.

  “I don’t want to go with just any
body. You know that,” Bo said.

  “Then ask her. I know she’ll go with you, bro. What’re you waiting around for anyway?”

  “I’m not asking her. Not to this. It’s such a joke. She’ll think I’m an idiot,” Bo said.

  So there was a woman he was interested in. Sayler swallowed hard. The large lump in her throat seemed to be swelling. She blinked back the tears in her eyes. She’d known all along a man like Bo Booker, a man with any woman he wanted just waiting for the taking, had to have his eye on someone. She secretly hoped it was just his eye he had on her and not his heart.

  “She’ll go with you, Bo. Just ask her,” Joey said.

  “No,” Bo growled. “I’ll think of something else. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be there.”

  Sayler stepped out from behind a partition and walked to her desk. She tried to appear innocent, unaffected, as if she hadn’t just been eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “Hey, Sayler,” Joey greeted first. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning, Joey,” Sayler said, forcing a smile.

  “Good luck with Bo today, Sayler,” Joey said, patting his brother on one shoulder before stepping out of the office. “He’s pouting.”

  “Thanks for the heads up,” Sayler said.

  “I’m not pouting,” Bo said. Sayler bit her lip. She couldn’t help smiling at his boyish frown. He did look like a little boy, pouting over having just been disciplined and set in a corner.

  “He’s pouting,” Joey mouthed as he moved past her and out of the office area.

  “So what’s the matter, Bo?” Sayler asked, attempting to feign ignorance.

  “Nothing I can’t handle,” Bo sighed. He sat down on her desk, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples for a moment. “Did you get those plans over to Mike Smith yesterday?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Sayler told him. “And the ones to Simmon’s Construction too.”

  “Thanks,” he said. He looked up, frowning at her for a moment. “Hmmm,” he said then, his expression softening slightly. “How would you like to make time and a half for a few hours?”