Chapter 4
Joshua
I checked to see if I had a text from Allison, but there wasn’t anything since I’d messaged her a few minutes ago. After our date last weekend, I couldn’t think of anything except her. I had to see her again, talk with her again face to face. At first, because of her shyness and the way she sort of swooned when I’d touched her, I’d thought she was more into me than I was into her, but as I’d gotten to know her and we’d moved past those awkward, shy moments, now I was starting to feel like there was no one on this earth I could want to be with more than her.
She consumed me.
There was a knock on my door. Before I could say “come in,” the door opened. There was only one person around here who would do that.
“Jamie,” I said, “I’ve been telling you since you were five that you’re supposed to wait until someone answers before coming in.” I glanced down at my phone again. Still no message from Allison. Where was she? She’d told me she often had a lot of work at her office. Maybe this was one of those days.
“Whatever, man.” Jamie shook his head. “Have you had a chance to look at my idea?”
“I was just about to open it up.” I tapped the file he’d left on my desk last week.
“Geez, no rush,” he said.
I glanced down at my phone again. “I’ve been busy.”
“Oh yeah, with what? Why do you keep checking your phone?”
Nosy little punk. I just raised my eyebrows at him.
“You know, you haven’t been taking me seriously,” he said. “I’m part owner of this business.”
Only because I’d felt sorry for him. But I didn’t say that. Despite everything, he was still my brother. “So, tell me about this idea.”
He reached for the folder, but I kept it in place with my finger. People shouldn’t touch things on my desk without permission.
He huffed. “May I?”
“Of course.” I slid it toward him. My phone chirped. A message from Allison! Jamie tapped the folder on the edge of my desk, and I discreetly tried to read the message. It was harder to access on my phone, which was annoying.
“No need to be sly, James Bond,” Jamie said. “I can tell you’re reading a text. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
Her message was short. I’ve been thinking about you all day, too. Even that short message could make me feel lighter inside. Bubbly, just with that hint of her. I was like an addict. Christopher would laugh his ass off if he knew what was going on.
Jamie was staring at me, so I wiped the smile off my face. “Go ahead with your pitch.”
“So what I’m thinking is a total redesign of our site, we strengthen the lines, we punch up the colors. The design is so muted and downplayed that it’s only going to attract the thirty-something crowd and older. But what if we made it brighter so it would appeal to the twenty-something crowd, too?”
Brighter. I could imagine hand-prints in primary colors. Something for a preschool logo.
“I have some different schemes here.” He opened the file and fanned out a few papers.
Primary colors. Right there on top.
“Right,” I said. “Thanks for the idea. I’ll try to bring it up in the marketing meeting next week, if we can fit it in.”
“If we can fit it in?”
I nodded, daring him to complain. If he wanted to fight about something so stupid, I could handle it.
But he deflated instead, and that was almost worse. “Fine,” he said.
I scrambled to change the subject. He was an ass sometimes, but I didn’t want to end our conversation being pissed off at him. Everything was going so great with Allison, that I was happy, and I wanted him to be happy, too. “You, uh, going to Dad’s birthday party?”
He set the file folder back on my desk, aligning it so it rested front and center. “It’s not for a couple of weeks, right?”
“Yeah.” I made a mental note to slide the folder off my desk as soon as Jamie left the room.
“Yeah, I’m going,” he said. “You bringing a date? I haven’t seen you with anyone in a while. What happened to that blonde? Terry? Trina?”
“Tricia. She’s long gone.”
“You’re seeing someone else, of course. You never waste any time.” He rolled his eyes.
I smirked. “Maybe.”
“You know it’s against company policy to date an employee.” He stared down at the folder when he said it.
I stared at him. “Uh, that came out of nowhere.”
“It’s in the handbook.”
“And?” I gestured for him to get to the point. He could be so fucking irritating sometimes. I tried to cut him some slack, because neither of us had had it easy since Mom died, but still.
“You wrote it yourself, four years ago when we started. You made me proofread it for typos.”
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He ran a hand over his head, making his hair even messier. “Forget it.”
He stalked out of my office, not bothering to close the door behind him. He’d always been a little shit.