“I’m in the lobby,” he wrote. “Meet me down here.”
I sighed and brainstormed a reason for why I couldn’t follow through with our lunch plans, which I had completely forgotten we made earlier that week. Five minutes later, I hadn’t come up with anything good, and he was outside of my office, smiling and waving to me through the window. I stepped out and smiled back. “Oh, hey, I just saw your text a second ago and was about to respond.”
He nodded. “I figured you were busy working away and missed it, so I just decided to come up and grab you myself. Now c’mon, let’s go. I’m starving.”
“The thing is, I’m not sure I can really step away from the office right now,” I said. “I’ve got a ton of emails to answer and—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” said Dean. “You work too hard as it is, you deserve a break. Plus, I want to celebrate your win from yesterday! I heard a rumor that you got two out of the three companies to signon site. That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, and Lolli reached out this morning and we’re making a deal with them too.”
Dean clapped his hands together. “That’s what I’m talking about! Yes! Great job.”
“Really you should be congratulating your daughter,” I said. “She’s the one who made it all happen. I’m not sure what we would’ve done in those meetings without her. You know what, why don’t you takeherout to lunch to celebrate?”
“Why don’t I take you both out?” He grinned.
Oh no.
Gotta get out of this.
I snapped my fingers and frowned. “Oh, you know what? I just remembered, she’s in a meeting with Lolli as we speak. Best not to disturb her, it’s an important one.”
“Of course, of course. Just us boys then.”
I knew there would be no easy, natural way for me to give Dean the slip, so I nodded and said, “Okay. As long as we make it quick.” I ducked back inside my office to grab my coat then followed Dean to the elevators. The doors opened and he stepped inside, and just before I went in myself, I saw Kat open the door to her office and Calvin walk out. She didn’t notice me, but I watched her hug her brother and saw a look of pure joy on her face. This made me smile and I hesitated.
“What are you looking at?” Dean said, going to look for himself.
“Nothing,” I said. “Nothing at all.” I stepped in and made sure to block his way while doing so. The doors closed and we were on our way. I breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator descended.
That was close.
I’ll have to be more careful next time.
“So,” Dean said, turning to me. “What did you do last night? Anything fun?”
Oh God. This is going to be a long lunch.
* * *
I was able to keep the small talk going for most of the meal, although it wasn’t easy. Dean kept trying to steer the conversation to more personal topics, but I feared those would quickly lead to questions of my love life or my recent dates, and that was a topic I wanted to steer clear of entirely. When the waiter brought the check, Dean nabbed it before I could, and I let him have his win without putting up much of a fight. I just wanted to get back to the office as soon as possible.
The waiter took the check along with Dean’s card and left. Dean leaned his elbows on the table and studied me. “Is everything okay?” he asked. “Usually you’re faster than me, reaching for the check.”
I smiled. “Just tired. It was a long day yesterday.”
“Are you sure?” he said. “Because you’ve seemed a little off this whole lunch. It’s like your body's here but your mind is somewhere else. “Oh, I know.” He smiled. “This is about a woman, isn’t it?”
“What?” I scoffed. “No.”
He laughed. “It is! Your face just got so red when I mentioned it. Oh, this is wonderful news. Tell me, who is she? Do I know her?”
“Of course, you don’t know her,” I said, almost too quickly, but thankfully Dean didn’t seem to pick up on my nervousness.
“Okay, well, tell me about her then!”
I shook my head. “It’s new,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about it too much.”