Chapter 11
January had beenthe longest month Anderson could remember. It was almost over, and according to the weatherman, the temps were going to rise any day now. So far, they had not risen above zero in over a month—one of the coldest months on record.
The bitter cold had only lasted a week, and Ruth was back to wearing her skirts and blouses. Gone were the slacks and sweaters that she looked more comfortable in. By the end of that week, Anderson had even started wearing a sweater at work instead of his suit jacket. It made the office more relaxed.
When the frigid cold was gone, they were just left in the usual cold of a North Dakota winter. Though Anderson had been a little disappointed when the skirts came back, he realized how a nice skirt emphasized her butt and legs. Where had that been all this time? Now every time he saw her walking around the office, he couldn’t take his eyes off her in hopes she would turn her back to him.
After the argument over the letter to the owner, he had invited her to eat lunch in his office. His excuse was because her office was so cold, but in reality, he wanted her closer. They had covered all kinds of topics, and now he knew her favorite color, her first car, which was the same car she still drove, and her favorite movies and TV shows. Nothing very personal, just a light conversation about nothing, but it was something that he looked forward to every day.
After lunch, she usually went back to her desk and worked diligently until closing time. On some rare occasions, she stayed in his office after lunch, and they continued their conversations for longer. Those were the best days for Anderson. He truly enjoyed talking to her about anything.
For the first time in years, he had started to notice her as a woman and not just his personal assistant. Gone was the prickly task-orientated woman he had thought she was. Now he saw her as still very task orientated but knew that she had a quick wit and a dry sense of humor. She was sometimes hard to get laughing, but once you got her going, she didn’t stop. He loved to see her slide off her glasses to ask a question or just tell him something. Who knew glasses were such a turn-on?
But through all this, he didn’t make a move on her. Not that he didn’t want to, but he didn’t want to change their work relationship. It had not been that long since he had broken up with Daphne, and if his feelings for his personal assistant were just a rebound, he could wait for the feelings to dissipate. Unfortunately, they were not getting any better. In fact, they were getting worse.
Last week he noticed that she was typing at a fast clip for a while. He had gotten so used to it that when she stopped, he had looked over at her to see if there was an issue. There had been no issue, but she was sitting on her leg, so her bare foot peeking out at him from under her thigh. She was tapping a pencil against her mouth, and she was biting her lip. But what got him shifting in his uncomfortable seat was that she was blushing scarlet again. What was she doing?
At that point, she must have noticed she was being watched and turned to look at him, sliding her glasses down so that she could see him. The room was suddenly alive with electricity, and he almost jumped up and swept off her desk so he could lay her back on it. For some reason, he got a sense that she felt the same way at that moment because the scarlet got even darker on her skin, and she spun away from him and went back to the computer. Then she jumped up and went to the restroom.
When she came out, they didn’t say a word to each other. But they never did. Not a word had been said about the night in the snowbank, nor had they talked about the near kiss in her stairway. They didn’t talk about the sexual tension that hovered over them since then either. Anderson himself was ready to move their relationship forward, but he would never push Ruth if she wasn’t ready.
It was late Wednesday afternoon, and Anderson looked up at Ruth, who was typing at a fast clip again, but this time with no blush. Just typing. Beyond her, he saw it had started to snow outside. Getting up, he wandered over to her part of the office to watch the flakes falling. It snowed almost every day, but today the flakes were the big fluffy ones.
Ruth turned to the window as well. “It’s snowing. This is going to make my commute miserable.”
Laughing at her joke, he realized she joked about where she lived more often. Well, not more often, but now he was in on the joke. It was fun being in on the joke.
“Maybe your boss should shovel you a path.” He glanced at the window again. The cars parked outside their window were already covered in a white blanket of snow.
“Probably not, then I would owe him something. I wouldn’t want to be in his debt.” She got up from her desk to fill her coffee cup behind him.
“Yeah, you never know what he might want in return.” Her smell invaded his senses as he turned to watch her, maybe get a glimpse of her butt.
Laughing as she poured, she stated, “Most likely my body.”
At her words, he got to watch a scarlet blush start at the open V of her shirt and head north to her hairline. Instantly, he knew that was exactly what he would want, what he always wanted. “Fuck,” he whispered under his breath.
Biting her lip, she whispered, “That too.”
The sexual tension that had been hovering over them for weeks had finally descended upon them. It lay heavily as they stared into each other's eyes. Her breathing was as fast as his, but neither moved. Both were rooted to the spot, neither willing to make the first move.
Behind him, the door opened with a flurry, and someone hurried in. But he was unable to move, unable to take his eyes off the woman he was looking at. She had noticed their visitor, however, and turned towards the door.
“Mia,” she gasped.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” came from the woman behind him, but he didn’t turn to her.
Ruth started to talk to the waitress, but Anderson mumbled something about doing something important and went to his office. Sitting at his desk, he tried to calm down his out-of-control body and mind. Had that conversation actually happened? Had she just nearly admitted that she wanted to sleep with him?
He could hear Mia and Ruth talking in the other room. Although he could hear them clearly, he wasn’t paying attention to what was being said. His mind was still on her usually icy-blue eyes that had just been heavy with desire for him. Fuck was right.
“Are you coming, Anderson?” Mia was asking, pulling him from his thoughts.
“Where?” he managed to ask.
“Were you not paying attention at all?” Mia walked into his office. “Joe Jordan is having his annual ‘over the donut’ party today. Are you going?”
“Never heard of it,” Anderson admitted.