“My parents are way too much.” And they’d reveal way too much about me.
She shrugged. “Want a ride home?”
I looked at her driver holding the door open for us. “No,” I chuckled a little. “But that’s pretty baller.”
She blushed. “It’s weird.”
We hugged, and she left me in the throng of people on the sidewalk. They weaved around me, and I stayed there just to watch them all keep passing by.
I looked up to remind myself the sky was up there above the buildings somewhere.
Every person who sped around me on the sidewalk of this fast-paced city seemed to be dealing with something so big, they couldn’t take a moment to remember how small and how fragile we all really were.
11
Vick
I wentinto my work week at full throttle. I wanted Steven to know I deserved that spot at his meeting with Jett.
He passed me in the hall of our office. “Hey, Vicky. You ready for tomorrow?”
I nodded and hoped I wasn’t imagining the way his face brightened when he saw me. He smiled at everyone, but I liked to think it lingered with me. The way he tucked his blue button-down shirt in more than most made him look a tad uptight, but his pale-blue eyes always sparkled with friendliness. Unlike the dark-blue ones that appeared in my dreams. His blond hair didn’t stand out against those blue eyes either, not the way Jett’s hair did.
He was attractive, he just wasn’t devastating. I didn’t need devastating though. I shouldn’t have even wanted it.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Any documents you need me to look over?”
He waved away my offer. “Oh, no. I had my other lawyers take a look, but I doubt Jett will offer me anything that will make me change my mind. This is just a formality.”
“Right. We want to maintain a cordial working relationship with him.” I repeated the line I’d written to Jett because it was true.
“Yes, exactly.” He tilted his head and put his hand on my shoulder. “I like how that sounds. Jett will understand too.”
I nodded and leaned a little closer to him. “He has to understand you wanting to keep control of what’s yours. He does that with his company, right?”
“Right. And I’m doing the same.” He puffed his chest out a little, and I thought about patting myself on the back later for making him feel so great about himself.
“Well, I should get back to it. Let me know if you want to grab a bite for lunch.”
His hand dropped from my shoulder like he’d just noticed I was on fire. “Right.” He cleared his throat. “I probably need to catch up on some stuff.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. He was thinking he couldn’t date me, that it wouldn’t look good to his employees. But he’d hired me, he invited me to meetings when I wasn’t required. He even touched me in the hallways, although it may have been subconsciously. Hadn’t he read his own HR handbook? It didn’t say anywhere that we couldn’t date.
“Okay, Steven.” I shrugged, trying to shake his discomfort. “I’ll be ready for the meeting, if I don’t see you before then.”
“Sure, sure.” He backed away from me, but I caught him looking me up and down. He wanted lunch, he wanted so much more than lunch with me. “We’ll have transportation tomorrow. I’ll see you then.”
I turned before he could and sauntered down that hallway like a freaking lingerie model.
Eat your heart out, Steven.
Back at my desk, I woke up my laptop to find a message from an even more frustrating man. This one didn’t seem to care at all about work boundaries.
Jett: You ready for the meeting tomorrow?
Me: Yes.
Jett: So, can I be myself in front of Stevie?