“I jut broke up with my girl, man. I’m not ready to listen to you wax poetic about some redhead yet.”
“Strawberry blonde, not red. And when you are ready, I’ll be here. I’ll even be your wingman.”
Steven stood up. “You might not be single for much longer, from the sounds of it.”
“The hell I won’t be.” Holt’s phone rang, and he rested his hand on the receiver. “She might be good, but she’s not going to hook me like that. I just wanted one more go at her, but she left before I could have one. So she’s in the past now…just like the rest of them.”
“Famous last words, dude.”
Holt flipped Steven off, and the other man left. As soon as the door shut behind him, he picked up the phone. “Holt Cunningham.”
“Hey,” his boss, Cooper Shillings, said. “Can you come to my office, please?”
“Sure thing.”
The line clicked off, and he stood. When the head of Shillings Agency called you down to his office, you didn’t waste time. You fucking went. He’d been avoiding him, since he hadn’t wanted to stumble over his words in front of the man who could fire him, but he couldn’t avoid a direct call like that.
When he got to Cooper’s door, he knocked once and heard, “Come in.”
Holt walked in. “What can I do for you?”
“I have a new assignment for you.”
“Okay.” Holt sat down in the chair across from Cooper, who looked at him with bright green eyes. ”Where am I going?”
“There’s a problem with the system in building five. It’s a fucking mess.” Cooper dragged his hands down his face and sighed. “I need you to go over there and fix it ASAP, before my dad comes this afternoon. He’s been in panic mode over all the technical changes I’ve made around here, and I don’t want to give him more reason to dig his heels in.”
Holt stood. “On it.”
“Oh, I have a question, too.” Cooper said. His brown hair was messy, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all morning long. “Before you go.”
“Yeah, boss?”
Cooper shuffled through some papers. “Are you bringing anyone with you to the party tonight?”
“Sir?”
“To the company dinner we’re throwing.” Cooper cocked his head. “Don’t tell me you forgot. I sent out reminder emails last week.”
“Of course he didn’t forget,” Gordon, the man he’d gone drinking with last night, said from behind him. He looked even worse off this morning than he had the last time Holt had seen him. His brown hair was standing on end, just like Cooper’s. And he looked like shit—like he hadn’t slept at all. “He just wasn’t going to go. Said so last night.”
“Everyone has to go,” Cooper said. “It’s a company event.”
Gordon pressed his lips together and set a file on Cooper’s desk. “So you told me. Don’t worry. I’ll be there. Here’s the VanGuard file.”
“Thanks. Since you’re at work this morning, I see you didn’t leave with the princess after all,” Cooper said, frowning.
“Nope. So it’ll just be me.”
Holt cleared his throat. “I’m not bringing anyone, either.”
“Great, I’ll let Kayla know.”
“Kayla is here, so you don’t have to let her know anything,” she said from the doorway, her long, wavy hair falling down her back.
Cooper perked up, his shoulders straightening at the entrance of his fiancée. “Hey, babe. What brings you here?”
“Wedding stuff,” she said, smiling. “I was looking at dresses down the road, and thought I’d stop in and see how your day was going so far.”