I’m gonna sleep good tonight, I think. I’m glad I gave Jon a piece of my mind. I feel like I’ve closed a chapter. With everything from home that I was carrying around like a giant weight on my shoulders for the past week --- I’m glad I made that call, sent those messages.
I hear a door. I look to my right and see a head in the dark approach the railing just around the corner. A bare-chested male person. Aiden. That’s the door to his bedroom. He spots me and steps back in and shuts his door without saying anything. Maybe he does have company. Or maybe he just doesn’t feel like people-ing.
I go back into my room, closing the door harder than necessary so that he maybe hears and knows he can make use of the outdoor space if he needs to.
I plug in my phone, making sure the volume is loud and the alarm is set so I don’t sleep in again. Tomorrow, I’m going to rock my day at work.
Tonight, I’m going to sleep like a baby.
/> ***
It’s the next day at work and it is not a good day. He’s in some sort of tyrant mode.
He hollered out that there was a typo in a tweet. It’s not my tweet. It was scheduled from weeks back, but I get hollered at.
“How do people who do this for a living not know you don’t pluralize a word with a goddamn apostrophe?”
“I agree. But A) it’s not my tweet. B) Autocorrect is ducked.”
That’s my autocorrect humor joke and it never fails to get a chuckle. Until now. He just glares at me.
When I manage to convince him it wasn’t my tweet, my face is burning red because the whole office can hear him yelling at me.
And then he needs something for a meeting and Stacy the intern, is having a problem with the photo copier and a paper jam. I’m in the copy room, trying to help her, and he comes in and barks at both of us to call a repairman instead of wasting time.
Blake, another intern comes in and gets the paper jam fixed for us fast.
In the late morning, I’m in the coffee room and the machine is overflowing, so I try to clean it up and he comes in with his father and they see me cleaning the mess so I’m betting they assume I’ve made it.
“Someone must have pushed the button to brew a new carafe when the carafe was already full,” I say.
“Oops,” Mr. C smiles and looks on sympathetically as I’m dropping paper towels all over the place.
“We’ll get coffee downstairs,” Aiden grumbles, and they both leave me with the giant mess, not even offering to help.
Other than those mishaps, I’m determined to rock my day.
Ally and I go for lunch down the road to a little sandwich place and we run into Austin Carmichael while we’re there.
Ally tries to chat him up. He has no idea who we are, even with her pink hair standing out at the office, so she introduces us.
He apologizes and tells us it’s fiscal year end so he’s a bit of a zombie. He joins us for lunch and there’s small talk for a minute, about Ally being from Baltimore and me being from Buffalo and then, strangely, out of the blue, while Ally has dashed to the bathroom, Austin leans over.
“Go to dinner with me tonight?”
I’m in absolute shock over it.
But, he’s charming and good-looking, and seems almost, but not quite shy about it. Maybe it’s not shyness. I can’t quite put my finger on it. He’s as handsome as a soap opera actor. He’s got a beautiful smile and striking blue eyes.
“But we already have a date,” I say, flirtily as Ally’s coming back to the table.
Austin’s eyes go wide and intrigued.
“Not that kind of date,” I tease “Just kidding. A girlie night out. Meryl from the Philippines is coming.”
He gives me a beautiful smile and it strikes me that he looks an awful lot like his brother. But he doesn’t have that bad boy edge about him.
Aiden’s smiles are rare so far but are always a little bit salacious.