He's Not My Boyfriend

by Jackie Lau

  “I really don’t want to go,” she muttered.

  Emma looked up from her computer. “Why not?”

  “I have lots of drawings I need to go over this afternoon, and...”

  Emma got up and walked the short distance between their desks. “Are you having a problem with any of the people on the project?”

  Iris hesitated.

  “Is it Alex?” Emma asked. “I only met him a couple times, and he was always nice to me, but of course, that doesn’t mean...” She looked away.

  Iris knew exactly what her co-worker was thinking about.

  Earlier that year, Emma had confided in Iris that Dave, one of the other engineers at Lowry, had been harassing her for months. Emma had told him repeatedly to stop, to no effect, and she was thinking of finding a new job. She’d been reluctant to tell their boss, Scott Lowry, but Iris had convinced her to do so before she started sending out resumes. Scott had believed every word Emma had said—the texts and Facebook messages probably helped—and fired Dave. The next day, Scott had called everyone in the office into the meeting room and emphasized that such behavior was not to be tolerated and if there were any problems, he wanted to know, whether it pertained to one of his employees or someone else they had to work with.

  At least her employer seemed to have their backs. That wasn’t as common in the workplace as it should be. Iris had heard many awful stories of human resources refusing to do anything.

  She considered herself fortunate. Even though she had an older white man as her boss, which was fairly common in engineering companies, she didn’t feel like she had to work harder to prove herself because she was a woman. Scott had never treated her inappropriately, and he wanted to do everything possible to make sure she didn’t face harassment in the workplace. He was hardly what one would call friendly, but he’d always treated her fairly.

  “Alex isn’t harassing me,” Iris said to Emma. “It’s just...” She lowered her voice. “We, um, slept together. Before we knew we’d be working together—we met at a bar. It’s a little awkward, that’s all.”

  Emma’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t say anything.

  “I can handle it,” Iris said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “It’s fine. It’s only once every week or two. Don’t worry, it’s not affecting my ability to do my job.”

  She could have done without some of his comments, though. Like his complaints about her leaving before he woke up. If he did that again, she would tell him to stop, and she suspected he would listen.

  But as it turned out, she didn’t have to say anything.

  She went to East Markham Hospital and met Alex by the trailer. He walked around with her as she looked at the progress to date, and everything he said was related to the project, aside from some small talk about the weather. He did say “steel erection,” but with absolutely no innuendo, and it was a perfectly reasonable thing to talk about given the subcontractor was, in fact, erecting steel.

  She was almost disappointed.

  He walked her back to her car afterward. “I want to talk to you.”

  Her heart rate kicked up a notch at that.

  Alex was handsome—she hadn’t changed her opinion there. He’d look better without a hardhat, but that was true of pretty much everyone.

  “I apologize for my behavior last time,” he said, “and I promise I won’t bring up that night again or make any more inappropriate comments. You don’t have to worry about that. I also told Carlos not to tell anyone. I’m not sure whether he listened, but he’s the rebar guy, and I doubt you’ll have to see him again. I will have no problems working with you, and if I do anything to make you uncomfortable, please let me know.”

  She nodded at him. “Thank you.” She appreciated that they could be professional about the whole thing, and she respected him for admitting the error in his ways.

  Still, she wouldn’t have minded a little teasing, just at the end.

  * * *

  It was another week before Iris returned to site. She was signing in at the trailer when Alex walked over to her, and her skin heated as he approached. He was wearing a blue shirt under his safety vest today, and dammit, she wanted to see him without all the construction gear. The corners of his lips turned up slightly when he saw her, but it barely qualified as a smile.

  “Hello, Iris.”

  “Alex.”

  They walked around and she made sure everything was as it should be. They were on schedule so far, but there would inevitably be delays at some point. There always were.

  “Just one thing that needs to be changed,” she said, stopping at the south side of the building under construction. “The mechanical layout has been adjusted, so some adjustments were made to the structure, too...”

  She and Alex talked about it for a few minutes. Satisfied, she started back to her car, and Alex hurried to catch up to her.

  “You don’t have to walk me to my car,” she said. “It’s broad daylight, and I’m quite capable of walking fifty meters by myself.”

  “I know I don’t have to,” he said, “but I want to. However, if you don’t like it, tell me right now, and I won’t do it again.”

  She stopped and looked at him. They were a few paces from her car. His eyebrows were drawn together slightly; she didn’t want him to look quite so serious when he was with her.

  “I like it,” she said at last.

  Something flickered in his eyes. “Good.”

  She felt a flutter in her stomach at that single word. “It would serve absolutely no purpose for us to talk about why I left so early that morning, but if you want to make comments about steel erection that aren’t entirely to do with construction... Well, I would be agreeable. As long as nobody else overhears us, of course.”

  Although their banter had annoyed her the first time on site, she missed it now. She wanted to have a joking conversation about drilling and vibrations, and this completely serious, non-teasing version of Alex bothered her. It didn’t feel natural.

  “Hmm.” He rocked back on his heels. “Have you...vibrated any concrete lately?”

  She rolled her eyes. “That was terrible.”

  “Have you...thought about me while vibrating your concrete?”

  “You wish,” she said, opening her car door.

  He smiled at her as she sat down behind the wheel, then waved as she backed out.

  What was she doing?

  * * *

  It was the following Tuesday, and Iris was coming to site at the end of the day.

  It wasn’t like Alex had been looking forward to this for days. He hadn’t been wondering what she’d be wearing underneath her safety vest, nor had he thought of a whole bunch of lame sexual construction jokes.

  It wasn’t like that at all, of course.

  Well, he’d thought of a few jokes, but they were horrible and he wouldn’t use them.

  Iris was game for a bit of flirting, though. She’d made that clear to him last time, and he would be happy to oblige, though he was under no illusions it would lead anywhere.

  She arrived at four o’clock. The steel subcontractor had just finished for the day, so there weren’t too many people on site.

  “How was your weekend?” he asked her as she was signing in. “Did you drink any beer that tasted like juice?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” she said. “You know my friend Crystal, the woman who was with me at The Thirsty Lumberjack?”

  He nodded. He hadn’t been introduced to Crystal, though he’d seen her talking to Iris.

  “She’s dating Jared, the guy she met at the bar that night. He’s really into the craft beer scene, so I went to another craft beer bar with Crystal and Jared and a few of Jared’s friends on Saturday night. I got a flight of tasters, and my God, some of them were terrible. I almost spit out the first one on the guy across from me. But the last one was tasty. You would have considered it alcoholic juice. I thought of you as I drank it.”

  “Did you, now? W
hat, exactly, did you think about?”

  She lifted a shoulder and smiled. “Time for me to get to work.”

  She walked around and studied her drawings to make sure everything was going according to plan. She found a couple minor adjustments that needed to be made but nothing major.

  He walked Iris to her car after she was finished.

  “Looks like the steel erection is going just fine,” she said.

  “I’m glad it meets your approval.”

  “Mm. It does.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Did you see any other steel erections on the weekend? Meet anyone at the bar?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know.” She winked at him.

  He was pretty sure she was just playing with him. She hadn’t actually gone home with any of Jared’s lumberjack friends.

  Or maybe she had. It was none of his business, and he had no claim on her. Still, he couldn’t help clenching his fists in frustration.

  Iris looked at his hands pointedly. “It seems like you have a problem discussing steel erection, which is going to cause a bit of a problem as, unfortunately, the addition to the hospital is made of steel. Bet you’re now wishing it was masonry. Or concrete.”

  “Of course,” he murmured. “Then I’d get to make jokes about concrete vibration.”

  “Perhaps we should stop. We both seem to have the sense of humor of a teenage boy.”

  “I don’t know why you bring out this side of me.”

  “You do the same to me.”

  He put a hand to his heart. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  Alex didn’t think it was all that funny, but somehow, perhaps due to his deadpanned delivery, it was enough to make Iris bend over and laugh...which made him think of all the things he could do to her when she was bent over.

  When she stood up straight again, she took a tiny step closer to him. It was like they were in a tightly-packed subway car, even though they were surrounded by lots of space. He couldn’t help but breathe in sharply at her closeness, and he inhaled her scent. Something floral. He wasn’t quite sure what, but he remembered it from the night they’d spent together. The next morning, he’d smelled it on her pillow.

  But as tempting as it was, he wouldn’t kiss her now.

  Even if they were both okay with making comments that were somewhat sexual in nature—and even though he’d already slept with her—they were working together.

  Besides, although she was flirting with him, she’d left him early in the morning. He doubted she was interested in a repeat experience, even if she’d resisted the charms of Jared’s friends, who, in his mind, were all strapping men with big beards and ridiculous man buns.

  It wasn’t like he wanted more than sex anyway. He’d never had any interest in a serious relationship; the idea of being that close to someone had never appealed to him. His mother had told him that he just hadn’t met the right woman yet, and one day, he would meet her, and everything would change. However, since his mother’s death, he’d had even more trouble imagining that happening. He felt even more detached from the world.

  Except when...

  He pushed that thought aside.

  “Alex?” Iris said. “You okay? You seem a bit spaced out.”

  “I’m good. Just thinking about...pipes and drilling. Yes, drilling.”

  “You’re a nut. But don’t you dare try to work ‘nut’ into a dirty sentence.” She climbed into her car.

  “See you next week.”

  He didn’t say anything about how much he was looking forward to it.

  Chapter 9

  When Alex got home from the gym on Saturday morning, planning to hop in the shower and then make something for lunch, he heard some strange noises in his apartment. His first thought was a burglar, but he quickly pushed that thought aside. It was likely just his father with another box of food.

  Sure enough, he walked into the kitchen to find his father pulling out a bag of snow peas.

  Dammit. Why had he given Dad a key to his apartment?

  “Ah, there you are.” Dad deposited the snow peas in the crisper. “Where were you?”

  Alex gestured to his sweaty shirt. “At the gym.”

  “You sure seem to spend a lot of time at the gym these days.”

  Yes, he’d had a strong need for physical activity in the past several months, but he didn’t mention that now.

  Dad pulled out a package of frozen wontons and opened the freezer. “Your freezer is full.”

  “Because you keep bringing me food I don’t need.”

  Dad somehow managed to shove the wontons into the freezer, then took a package of Rainbow Chips Ahoy! cookies out of a box on the table. “These are your favorite, aren’t they?”

  What the...

  “They were my favorite when I was, like, six. You’re almost thirty years behind the times.” Alex was thirty-three now.

  “Ah. Perhaps I should listen to Madonna on cassette tape.”

  Was that...a joke?

  Alex didn’t know how to respond to his father cracking jokes.

  “You don’t need to keep bringing me food,” he said.

  “You work out all the time.” His father gestured at him. “You must need to eat a lot.”

  “Most of the things you bring me, which I assume you buy because they’re on sale, aren’t the sort of things I eat on a regular basis. Like pomelos, for example.”

  “They’re good for you. They have lots of vitamin C, don’t they?”

  “So does orange juice.”

  Dad frowned. “Are you saying I should buy you orange juice rather than pomelos?”

  “No, I’m saying you don’t need to buy me any food. I can do my own grocery shopping.”

  Some of the things his father gave him would just end up in the garbage. Some he’d give to the foodbank, but he couldn’t do that with the perishable stuff.

  Dad nodded. “Okay. I understand.”

  They were silent for a minute, and Alex felt guilty. His father was just trying to be nice, but he really didn’t need a dozen packages of wontons in his freezer.

  It was all so awkward between them now, but maybe it always had been. He just hadn’t noticed because whenever he saw his father, his mother was always there, too. They were rarely alone together, and they hadn’t talked much on the phone, either.

  “I meant to ask you something,” Dad said. “You had a friend...his name starts with J. I can’t remember it now. I met him once or twice.”

  “Jamie,” Alex said.

  “Yes. Jamie. I meant to ask you how he was doing.”

  This was a very odd conversation.

  “Jamie is fine. Actually, he’s engaged, and they’re planning to get married next summer.”

  “Ah,” Dad said. “That’s good. Very good. Actually, that reminds me of the other thing I mean to ask you. Do you remember the Moks?”

  “Um, yes.” Alex hadn’t seen them in a decade, but they’d been friends of his parents.

  Actually, now that he thought of it, they’d been at the funeral. That was a bit of a blur to him, though.

  “Do you remember Rose, their youngest daughter? She’s five years younger than you.”

  “Sure. I remember Rose.”

  “I was wondering...” Dad ran a hand through his hair, then adjusted his glasses. “Well, we were talking, and we were thinking, maybe we could set you up with her. Would you like that?”

  Alex looked at his father like he’d grown three heads.

  “You’re trying your hand at matchmaking,” Alex said faintly. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Well, it wasn’t my idea. It was Jan’s.” Jan was Rose’s mother. “But I said I’d ask you. Rose is a pharmacist—did you know that? She had a boyfriend for a few years, but Jan says he wasn’t a very good guy. They were living together, and one night, he just...left. Wrote a note saying he’d found someone else, and Rose found it in the morning.”

  “Right. I see.”


  “So, what do you think?”

  “I think,” Alex said slowly, still not quite able to wrap his head around this weird conversation, “that I do not need my father interfering in my love life.”

  Dad nodded and didn’t try to change his mind, which was a relief.

  “Do you have one?” Dad asked.

  “Have what?”

  “A love life.”

  “Sure. I go on dates on occasion.” Alex hoped that answer would be the quickest way out of the conversation. Saying he had no love life might cause his father some concern.

  He felt like he was in the Wild West, and there were no rules anymore.

  At least, the rules that governed how he and his father interacted seemed to have gone out the window. He had no idea how to predict what was coming.

  “I was just wondering,” Dad said, “if maybe dating had been tough for you since...”

  He didn’t finish the sentence. He never did. Never mentioned Alex’s dead mother, even though she was a looming presence in every conversation. It was like Dad thought he would upset Alex by mentioning her, but Alex didn’t see how that would be any worse than the way it was now.

  It wasn’t like either of them would forget her.

  The only time Dad had actually said her name was when they went to the cemetery for the Ching Ming Festival—Tomb Sweeping Day—in April. Otherwise, he just ended his sentences with “since” or “before,” and Alex knew what he meant.

  “I forgot,” Dad said. “I didn’t actually tell you anything about Rose Mok other than what happened with her ex-boyfriend. She’s a pharmacist—wait, I already told you that. She likes traveling, badminton, and fine dining, and Jan said something about her being interested in cosplay, but Jan also said I shouldn’t tell you that.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Anyway. Too late. Do you know what cosplay is? I had to look it up.”

  Alex shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he said, “Rose sounds very nice, but I’m not interested.”

  “Why not?”

  “Like I said, I don’t need you interfering in my love life.”

  “Has another girl already caught your eye?”

  Alex immediately thought of Iris and how they’d frantically ripped off each other’s clothes.