“Does coffee count?”
She giggled and shook her head as I stood from my chair. The beautiful sound tugged me over to her, and I went to sit by her on the couch. I leaned back and crossed my legs, watching as she sat on the edge of the couch. Poised. Proper. Very unlike the Olivia I used to know. She had her hands in her lap, and her beautiful curly hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the crown of her head.
And today, she had her glasses on.
A superb look on her.
“Do you have your Halloween costume picked out yet?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I haven’t given it much thought. But I can tell you one thing.”
“What is that?”
“I’m not going as a clumsy, slutty bunny,” she said, grinning.
I chuckled. “Don’t worry. I didn’t expect you to go as such. Those costumes are better left for college anyway. Adults do masquerade balls.”
“Even still, I don’t know what kind of mask I’m going to wear. Or what dress, for that matter. I’ll have to go out and buy one.”
“Care to go look at some tonight?” I asked.
Her eyes panned over to me. “You want to take me costume shopping tonight.”
“Well, I was going to get a new tuxedo for the event. There’s a mask and a dress shop on the same block as my tailor. Might as well take you so you can do some looking around as well.”
“That actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”
“You say that as if I have bad ideas all the time,” I said.
Olivia grinned. “Back in college, you had plenty of bad ideas.”
I drew in a deep breath to keep my cock under control. Because I knew what that grin meant. Which meant I knew what was running through her head. Holy shit, parts of her hadn’t changed one damn bit.
“But, yes. That would be a good idea. I’d love to go,” Olivia said.
“Perfect. Do you want me to pick you up at your place, or do you want to meet at my tailor?” I asked.
“I’ll meet you at your tailor. Just shoot me the address in my email or something, and I’ll be there.”
“You sure about that this time?”
I watched guilt flicker behind Olivia’s stare.
“It was a joke. I’m kidding,” I said.
“I’m really sorry for—”
I held up my hand. “No more apologies. I told you, it’s understandable. I was making a joke. I didn’t mean to make you feel badly.”
Olivia furrowed her brow. “Did you just apologize?”
“Why does that shock you?”
“I’ve never known you to apologize,” she said.
“Well, like I keep saying. People change.”
“Uh-huh.”
Her eyes fell down my body just before a knock came at the door. Katherine came in with two trays of wonderful food and two sodas she’d grabbed from the machines in the lounge. She set everything on the glass table in front of Olivia and myself before making her way out of my office, closing the door behind her.
“Ready to eat?” I asked.
“I was already ready to eat,” Olivia said.
“Well, nice to know some things don’t change.”
“I’ll bypass that comment. For now.”
Though it shouldn’t have shocked me, we didn’t talk about business one bit. And by the time we were done eating, it felt like we had dipped back into old times. Talking, flowing from one conversation to the next. It was effortless with Olivia, like it had always been. I was glad that hadn’t changed between us. The two of us wrapped up lunch, and I escorted her to the door, silently cursing the fact that I hadn’t discussed an ounce of business with her.
“I’ll send you an email with the address to my tailor as well as my thoughts on this automatic categorization idea you seem to have had,” I said.
“Oh, so Katherine told you about that?” Olivia asked.
“She did. Originally, this lunch was supposed to be a meeting on that very subject. But my brain needed a break.”
“Glad I could be of service,” she said, smiling.
“You always were a wonderful distraction, Olivia.”
“We can talk about it over email. It’s just a small thing I figured might help you make your consultants pull salary wages eventually. It would attract the better consultants to your firm. Especially if you’re wanting to go international.”
“I knew there was a reason you were hired for this job. I’ll send you an email shortly. Be on the lookout for it,” I said.
“I’ll keep an eye on my inbox!”
I didn’t follow her out into the hallway, knowing damn good and well that if I did, I’d never be able to take my eyes off her. I forced myself back to my desk and typed up the email, telling her to send me an outline of what the software would entail and how she planned to implement it. Then, I sent her the address of my tailor. I worked like a dog throughout the rest of my day, trying to wrap things up so I could leave in a timely manner.