The wanna-be stalker stepped aside to let us part, still wearing her crazy-hungry look, and the others who’d noticed him continued to stare discreetly, quickly looking away when he got close.
Maybe he wasn’t the douche I’d thought he was, and maybe I wasn’t the boring-ass paralegal he thought I was.
Chapter 6
Cato
I hated my job more than anything I’d ever hated. It was sucking the life out of me. Dreary work for law firm clients who got themselves in all sorts of ridiculous trouble. Day in and day out. Yeah, I got paid a shit-ton of money for what I did, but I’d never felt
like such a useless human being in my life.
But no one knew that. I was the perfect employee and the perfect corporate suck-up. I deserved an award for my great acting. No one knew my true feelings.
Not even my one friend at work, Maizy. Beautiful, amazing Maizy.
Lots of people in the office thought they were my friends. I got invited to weddings, bar mitzvahs, and had even attended a few funerals. I went to their Super Bowl parties, played on the softball team, and even did karaoke when the situation demanded it.
But I hated it all. And I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it up.
“Hey, you ready for lunch?” Maizy asked, her head poking into my office.
She was goddamn stunning, as usual, with her hair in long blonde waves. She wore what she called her “work uniform”—a slim black dress, insanely high pointy black pumps, and a string of pearls. Even those goofy black glasses were gorgeous on her.
Yeah, I had a crush on Maizy.
Actually, I think I was even a little in love with her. But she didn’t know it.
Like I said, I was one of the world’s best actors. No one knew what went on in the secret world of Cato. And that’s just how I liked it and planned to keep it.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, gladly leaving a boring-ass memo I was in the middle of for the senior partner I worked for. It was fine—I was ahead of schedule.
That was one of the reasons they loved me there at the firm. I was never late with any of my work, and it was always done to perfection. Little did they know how much I detested the long hours I spent there.
Anyway.
The one thing that helped me get through each week was lunch with Maizy. I looked forward to it all week long. Shit, I looked forward to it all weekend long. Sometimes, it was all I could think about. But I couldn’t date anyone from work. It just wasn’t done.
Not that she’d date me, anyway. You see, I was a former fat kid.
Now, I worked out five times a week. I was in great shape, actually had been since I realized in my freshman year of college that if I ever wanted a girl to give me the time of day, I needed to shed my baby fat and put on some muscle. So I started hanging out in the gym and learned about weights and so forth. Lost the weight pretty quickly. I wish I could say I never looked back.
Just because you’re no longer a fat kid, it didn’t mean you were a recovered fat kid.
See, you never leave that shit behind. At least, I didn’t. No matter how fit I might look, I’d always be the chubby little asshole of my childhood.
That left me in the friendzone with Maizy, whose ass I was trying not to stare at as I followed her to the elevator.
“So, how’d your date go last weekend?” she asked, pressing Lobby.
Shit. Why did I tell her about that?
“About as you would expect it to.”
She laughed. She loved my dating stories. I guess I loved the searing humiliation.
“Okay, give me some deets,” she said.
“Well, the woman was…shall we say…not as advertised.”