That thought told me I was in deeper than I was allowing myself to believe. You couldn’t be jealous if you didn’t have feelings for someone.
“When I saw them together, he ran after me, trying to explain things. I stopped to see what he had to say to me, but all he said was that I needed to be mature about things. And that we were over, and he was going to be with Martha.” She shook her head as if shaking away the terrible memory.
“And so work became awkward, huh?” I dunked another fry into the ketchup then popped it into my mouth.
“Awkward, infuriating, you name it. Paul was careful not to put Martha and me on the same shift. And I turned into a groveling little idiot who’d constantly go to him and beg him to take me back and get rid of her. I loathed myself, to say the least.” She took a big bite of her pizza.
Groveling too? Shit!
Would I stoop to that if it I had to see Duke with someone else?
I hoped I wouldn’t, but who can predict the things you’ll do until it happens to you?
My one serious boyfriend and I had ended things amicably. There had been no spark at all. When he’d told me he thought we’d make better friends than lovers, I was surprised that it didn’t hurt. I’d agreed with him, and that was that. No hard feelings. But that was because there were no real feelings anyway.
I knew I had feelings for Duke. That was part of the reason I thought we should end the things before they could get more serious. But after spending a very romantic evening with him, learning more about him than simply how fast he liked his cock to be ridden, I found I couldn’t just stop what was happening between us.
The café was near the station and Artimus came in, followed by Ashton and Duke. All three waved at us then headed to sit on the other side of the place. Then in walked the receptionist for the main lobby. She went to sit with the men.
Nina and I watched her shake her ass as she went to sit down, taking the seat to the right of Duke. Her eyes raked over him, taking him in as he sat there in a dark brown suit that made him look a little too damn good.
“What the hell is going on there?” Nina asked. “Why would those three have Gretchen with them? Like, ever?”
My jaw was clenched tightly, and my teeth squeaked as I ground them together. There was that jealousy again.
Duke wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t looking at Gretchen, either, but why was he avoiding me?
Was this how it was going to be with us? In the same room, pretending the other didn’t matter at all?
And what was with him having lunch with other women, anyway? Was that allowed in what we were doing?
I mean, I knew we hadn’t made a commitment to each other. Nothing had ever been said about not dating anyone else. Not that Duke was on a date with the bimbo, but what was he doing, eating at a table with another woman?
And why did I care so much? Jealousy wasn’t an emotion I was accustomed to, but I couldn’t stop myself from getting angry—no matter how irrational I knew I was being. Men and women could have lunch together without it being a big deal.
But at the same time, I had to ask, how would he like it if he found me eating with some guy?
He’d hate it. I knew that for sure. So why was he doing it?
I decided to give the man a chance to explain things to me, and excused myself to go to the ladies’ room. My eyes were on him the whole time I walked toward their table. But he never looked at me.
I knew he could feel me staring a hole in him, so what the hell was he doing?
My heels clicked across the floor as I passed the table, and finally he looked at me. “Hi, Miss Banks.”
My jaw still clenched, I held up a hand to wave hello to him and the other men. I looked toward the bathroom, hoping he’d understand that I wanted him to come back there so we could talk.
The bathrooms were located behind a wall, and that would give us some privacy. I waited in the hallway for several minutes, but he never came. Peeking around the corner to see what the hell he was doing, I found he was still sitting there.
My hands balled into fists at my sides as I headed back to my table. On the way back, Duke ignored me again. When I sat down, I found Nina looking a little bit pissed, too.
She was glaring at the back of Gretchen’s head. “I haven’t liked that girl since I first met her.”
“I hadn’t even noticed her, to be honest. But now that she’s sitting there with those three men, she’s awfully animated, isn’t she?” I watched her lean over to put her purse on the floor in an over-the-top move that put her cleavage on full display for anyone interested in taking a gander.
My eyes were trained on Duke’s to see if he’d take that bait. Thankfully, he didn’t, and his eyes stayed on Ashton as the two spoke about something. But Artimus was watching her. And he didn’t look at all happy about what she was doing.
I began to wonder if she was a relative of his or something, because she was the only member of the staff who didn’t seem to be taking the sexual harassment course seriously. Did she think she could do anything she wanted because she was the boss’s niece or something?
If she was a relative of his, then I could see Artimus inviting her to join them for lunch. If not, then I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t imagine she’d had a chance to become friends with any one of them so far.
Nina’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Ashton. “I’ve got to go. I have an appointment with the doctor.”
“Are you okay?” I asked her, because she seemed to be fine to me.
“Yeah, just getting my yearly lady inspection out of the way.” She cut her eyes at me. “Hey, have you found yourself a gyno in the city yet?”
Shaking my head, I answered, “No, not yet.”
“If you’re not busy, you should come with me. My doctor is the best, and I think she’s taking new patients right now. She also takes the insurance we have. The co-pay is cheap.”
I decided to take her up on the invitation. My birth control prescription would be running out in a month anyway, so the sooner I found a new doctor, the better. I could set up an appointment and fill out the new patient paperwork while I waited for her.
Nina just kept on proving to be a great friend.
But what was Duke proving to be? That was the real question.
Chapter Twenty
Duke
Lila had just disappeared on me after lunch. We still hadn’t gotten each other’s cell numbers for some reason, and I was regretting that again. I didn’t like the fact that I’d had to act like she was nothing more to me than some coworker in front of the people I’d been out for lunch with. But we’d been there on a mission, and I couldn’t get diverted by anything.
Earlier that same day, Artimus had caught Gretchen acting in a way he didn’t approve of. Not only was she hitting on me, but she was hitting on Ashton, too. So Artimus had set up a little trap, with witnesses to catch her in the act.
He’d sent in a group from human resources first, before we’d headed to the café for lunch. He’d invited Gretchen to join us just as we were leaving the building. Of course, she’d hurried to come with us.
At lunch, she’d tried every trick in the book to get at least one of us to look at her. Being as there were three of us, she didn’t quite know who to target with her advances, so we’d decided that two of us would leave one man alone with her for short periods of time. Just as we’d expected, the flirting had started as soon as the others had left.
Artimus and Ashton had excused themselves to make phone calls, leaving me and Gretchen alone at the table. I was sure to keep myself distant, not wanting anyone to interpret my actions for interest in her.
Gretchen was sitting to the right of me, and she leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Maybe you and I could do dinner later, Duke. I’m enjoying spending time with you; maybe we should keep things going. What do you say?”
I wanted to tell her that I needed her to say that shit a little louder. But I couldn’t do that. So I repeated what she s
aid, to let the covert ears that were listening in on things know what was up. “Gretchen, are you asking me out on a dinner date?”
She nodded. “Yeah. No one has to know, Duke. I can keep it quiet.” She made a sexy little giggling sound. “But I can be loud when you want me to be, also. If you know what I mean.”
I knew what she meant, and so did the table of people beside us, all of whom had frowns on their faces. I had to make things clear to the aggressive woman, “Gretchen, that’s very inappropriate. Do you realize that?”
She laughed and reached out to touch my hand, which I’d left resting on the table just to see if she’d go that far. I moved it so that she couldn’t touch it and she smiled. “Oh, I see. You don’t want anyone to see. I get it. So, how about we just meet at some place, maybe a dark nightclub, or my place? My roomies won’t speak a word of what I do to anyone. You don’t have to worry about that, Duke.”
“I’m not going to do any of that, Gretchen. And you really should care more about your job than that. You know Artimus has a no dating policy.” I leaned back in my chair as I saw Ashton coming back. “I think I need to excuse myself for a moment.”
As I got up, she made one more comment. “Why, have I got you all hot and bothered? Got a hard-on you need to rub out from our convo?”
She was a real winner, that was for sure. And dealing with her unwanted advances and lewd comments had me feeling a hell of a lot of empathy for what many women had been dealing with for far too long.
Fuck, if I’d heard a man say anything like that to my little sister, he’d have gotten clocked right in the jaw.
By the end of our little mission, Gretchen had said inappropriate things to each one of us—even the boss, the fucking idiot!
Artimus wasn’t an asshole, so he waited to let her know she was fired until we got back to the station. The group of human resource workers came in right behind us, letting her know they needed to see her in their office right away.
I wanted to tell Lila all about it but couldn’t, since I couldn’t find her anywhere. I half expected her to show up at my apartment later that evening, but she didn’t. And when she didn’t, I figured I shouldn’t show up at her place either.
The next morning, I woke up to a message on my phone. It was from Mrs. Baker, telling me I needed to be in Artimus’ office by nine that morning. Putting on a suit, I headed to see the boss and hoped I’d be hearing some good news.
As soon as I stepped off the elevator, I saw Lila waiting. She was sitting in a chair, her long legs crossed as she flipped through a magazine. She had on a dress that hit her just below the knee—red with large black flowers all over it. As always, her lipstick and nails matched it perfectly.
I had no idea how many shades of lipstick, blush, and nail polish the girl had, but I had to guess it was a hell of a lot. She looked up at me to say a very quick hello, then went right back to looking at the magazine, her leg now swinging back and forth, and I could tell she was a bit aggravated by something.
I took a seat next to her. “Hey, what’s up?” I whispered, “I missed you yesterday.”
Without even looking up, she said, “I don’t see how. You seemed to be occupied enough with that bimbo.”
Ah, jealousy!
“Are you talking about the receptionist?” I waited for her answer as her leg started swinging even faster. The jealousy was cute, and it only let me know she was falling hard for me.
“Of course I am.” She finally looked at me. “I had no idea she behaved that way around the men here. What were you thinking, going to lunch with a woman like that? Did you honestly think I wouldn’t get upset with you for doing that?”
Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and it swung around to fall over her shoulder as she jerked her head in agitation. “I wanted to talk to you after lunch was over, but you disappeared.”
“Oh, yeah? After it was over? Hmm.” She tapped her chin. “Was that because she picked one of the other men and not you?”
I had to laugh, and knew I’d better hurry up and fill her in on everything. So I did just that, telling her the whole thing as fast as I could before we were called into our boss’s office.
The anger in her eyes subsided, and she actually looked sympathetic. “Oh, I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Duke. I really am. And I’m sorry for acting so jealous.” She sighed and shook her head. “Not in a million years did I think a woman would be the first to break the no dating, no sexual harassment rule.”
Even though she looked relieved, she also looked a bit worried. “What are you thinking? Do you feel like that says a lot about what would happen to us if we were ever found out?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Well, I don’t. That was sexual harassment, plain and simple. She’d been told by each one of us that we weren’t into her, and she went on anyway. That’s harassment. There’s no harassment between us.” I patted her on the shoulder. “Try not to worry, please. I will make things right. I promise you I will.”
“You better not quit,” she warned me. “I’ll be really mad at you if you do that just to keep seeing me. I’d most likely get fired even if you did quit, anyways. Artimus would know we’d had something going on while you were still an employee.”
She was right. But I wasn’t going to quit, not if I didn’t have to. I had other ideas rolling through my brain. But all of those ideas would have to wait until some time had passed. Artimus wouldn’t budge on that rule just yet, and I knew that.
The door to his office opened, and Mrs. Baker waved us in. “He’s ready for you two now.”
“Both of us?” I asked, hoping that meant good news.
She nodded. “Yes, come on.”
Lila walked into the office just in front of me. Two chairs were sitting in front of Artimus’s desk, and we each took a seat. “Good morning, you two,” he greeted us. “I’ve got the results from our surveys and would like to share them with you this morning.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Lila must’ve been holding her breath, her chest not moving at all. I felt pretty confident we were going to get our way, but still had a few nerves about it.
Mrs. Baker took two folders out of a desk drawer. “Here are the folders that have the paperwork for the new jobs you’ve both earned.” She pushed one to me and one to Lila, a big smile on her face. “Congratulations, you’re both our new co-anchor on WOLF Morning News.”
Lila and I looked at each other, and then we both jumped up and hugged as we laughed. “We got it!” Lila shouted.
“No one had to lose!” I shouted right back.
Then the sound of throats clearing could be heard, and we ended our little celebration. Artimus and Mrs. Baker both wore frowns. He shook his finger at us. “No physical contact, guys.”
“Oh, yeah.” I looked at Lila. “Sorry about that, Lila. I guess the excitement got to me. I’m just so glad no one had to lose. And I’m excited to get to work with you.”
She nodded. “Me too, Duke. And I’m sorry too.” She looked at our boss. “And to both of you. Sorry about that.”
I nodded at our bosses. “Yeah, me too.”
This shit was going too far in my opinion, but I wasn’t the boss.
“Come on, let me show you both to your offices,” Mrs. Baker said as she led us out.
We walked down the long hallway, all the way to the very end. The door on the left had my name engraved on a gold nameplate, and the one right across the hall had Lila’s name engraved on it. “Oh my God,” Lila murmured, “this is really happening!”
Mrs. Baker handed us each a card with our pictures on them. “You’ll use these cards to slide through the locking system to get inside your offices. So keep them with you at all times. The doors lock on their own once they’re closed.”
We were close to my door, so I opened it, and all three of us went inside. “This is out of this world,” I mumbled as I looked around the large corner office. I pointed at the two doors that were inside. “
And those are?”
Mrs. Baker smiled. “A walk-in closet and a private bathroom, complete with a shower. You’ll both need to be here at four every weekday morning. We’ll need you to be ready by six to start the newscasts, which will go until eight. And of course, you’ll both have your evening and nighttime slots too. We’ll need you in hair and makeup two hours before those newscasts begin. Things are about to get very busy for you.”
I could see that. “Lila, let’s go see your office.”
She was excited, and we headed out to check out the office across the hallway. She ran her card through the lock then opened the door to find another corner office just like mine. “I can’t believe this!”
“Believe it, both of you.” Mrs. Baker made her way out the door, leaving us to ourselves. “I’ve got more to attend to this morning. There’s so much to do with the network going live in only a few days.”
The door closed behind her as she left us. Lila looked at me with shimmering eyes. “We did it, Duke. We got what we wanted.”
“We did.” I had to use all my willpower not to grab her and hold her tight. “How about we celebrate with dinner at my place?”
She nodded. “I’d like that very much. Your place it is. Rehearsals will start tomorrow, so we’d better get to bed early.”
“I’m with you there.” I gave her a sexy smile. “Things will work out, you’ll see.”
I prayed I was right.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lila
Plates of lasagna were left on the table, the salads wilting, the glasses of red wine almost untouched. I couldn’t seem to help myself after watching Duke cook for me. He had on a black apron to keep his clothes clean. So manly, yet so domestic too. It proved too much for me, and I wrapped myself around the man after he’d served the meal, placing each thing on the table just so, before he took a seat.
Looking up at him, I whispered, “You’ve made an excellent meal that looks delicious, but you’ve also turned me into a hot mess. I can hardly sit still, I want you so bad.”
Dirty News (Dirty Network Book 1) Page 12