A hand waves in front of my face. “Earth to Murphy,” someone says.
I look up, embarrassed that my boss has caught me daydreaming as I watch Caden run on a treadmill on the other side of the room. “Sorry, Jayden. Did you need something?”
“Did you get a chance to work on that spreadsheet?”
“Yup. I finished it this morning. Check the printer.”
“You finished it?” she asks, her mouth agape.
“Uh, yeah,” I say nervously. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Yes. But I didn’t expect you to finish it today. Next week maybe.”
“Oh. Well it was easy enough once I broke Stephanie’s code about the different membership types.”
She laughs. “I was going to put in a call to her to ask about it, but I’m always afraid I’ll wake the baby.”
“When is she coming back from maternity leave?” I ask. “I’m eager to meet her.”
“Two weeks. I can’t tell you what a godsend you’ve been in her absence. I’m not sure what we would have done without you.” She nods to Caden on the treadmill as she walks back to the office. “You can go back to your drooling now, Supergirl. You’ve earned a few extra minutes of mindless gawking.”
I shamelessly look back at Caden, happy he can’t see me staring at him. Was it only a few days ago that he kissed me? I think I’ve replayed that night a million times in my head. It was perfect. The best first date I’ve ever had.
My eyes fall to the counter and I sigh. ‘This isn’t a date.’ His words echo through my head. I wonder, not for the first time since that night, if he only wants a friends-with-benefits thing. I mean, he did call it a thing.
Then again, I remember what he said that night about me having him if I want him. Did he mean have him as my boyfriend?
And then there is the whole three-strikes rule Lexi told me about. What if we go out three times and he tosses me aside? What if we have three incredible, perfect dates like on Tuesday and then he freaks out and falls behind his tried-and-trusted albeit stupid rule?
I really need to talk to someone about this. I would normally go to Lexi, but she’s his sister and as such, will be far too biased to look at things rationally. Maybe I can talk to Piper. Then again, her husband is good friends with Caden. And Trick is Caden’s trainer. I look around realizing there isn’t anyone I can talk to about Caden because all my friends are his friends. Because everything I have in my life right now is because of him.
Oh, God. A sick feeling washes over me. What if we don’t work out? I could lose all my friends. Maybe even my job.
Before I melt down into a full-on freak-out, someone walks up to the desk, pulling me from the rabbit hole. “Hi, Murphy,” Corey says, smiling.
I’ve been avoiding him this week. I’m not sure how to act around him after having asked him out last Saturday night.
“Hi, Corey. What can I do for you?”
“I haven’t seen you around much lately,” he says. “I thought maybe you were avoiding me.”
I pick up a pile of papers on the counter in front of me. “I’ve been busy. They have been giving me more responsibilities around here.”
“That’s nice. So, uh, would you like to go to dinner tomorrow night?”
“I’m sorry, I’ll be working.”
“How about Saturday?”
I look over at Caden. He’s just finished his run and is wiping his face with a towel. He looks over to see me talking with Corey and he leans against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. He doesn’t look pleased. In fact, he looks … jealous.
I’m not sure why that makes me so happy, but it does.
“I’m sorry, Corey. I appreciate the invitation, but I can’t.”
He looks briefly at the ground and kicks an invisible spot. “Are you dating someone?”
I glance over at Caden again to see him watching me intently. “Not dating, but, well I have this … thing.”
“Thing?” he says, following my eyes over to Caden. “I knew it. You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sleeping with anyone, Corey.”
“Whatever. It’ll never last. He’s a baseball player, Murphy. He’s got women throwing themselves at him. Not to mention he’ll be gone half the year. You’ll never see him during baseball season. That is, if he keeps you around that long. Relationships between famous athletes and people like us never work out, don’t you know that? You’re the receptionist at his gym for Christ’s sake.”
I reach up and touch my scar, not wanting to let his words get to me. In one short conversation, he’s brought up every fear I have about whatever this is Caden and I are doing.
I see Caden making his way towards us. “I’m not in a relationship with him,” I say. “We’re friends.”
“Don’t let him use you, Murphy,” he says.
“Excuse me,” Caden says, pushing his way past Corey even though there is plenty of space to walk around him. Caden comes behind the desk and drapes his arm around me. “Everything okay here?”
Corey eyes the hand touching my shoulder. “I was just talking to your friend here,” he says. “Or should I say girlfriend?”
I stiffen at his words. Oddly, Caden does not.
“And now I’m talking to her. Nice to see you again, Corey. Enjoy your workout.” Caden’s passive-aggressive words dismiss him.
“I guess I’ll see you around,” Corey says to me before walking away.
“Yeah, we’ll see you around,” Caden says, squeezing my shoulder and molding himself to my side.
I watch Caden as he watches Corey walk across the weight room. “You didn’t have to do that, you know,” I say, peeling myself away from him.
“Do what?” he asks innocently.
“Rescue me, or whatever that was. I can handle Corey and every other guy who asks me out.”
“Just how many guys are asking you out, Murph?”
I shrug.
He gives me a look of concern. “Seriously, how many?”
“He’s the third one this week,” I say.
“Three? In one week?” His hand comes up to run through his hair. “What did you tell them?”
“That I wasn’t interested.”
“Good. Keep telling them that,” he says with a possessive stare. He checks the clock on the wall. “I have to go. I have a thing.”
I stiffen. He has a thing? My heart lodges in my throat.
He sees my reaction and his hand comes up to scrub across the stubble on his jaw. “Shit, Murph. That’s not what I meant. I’m meeting someone. My father actually.”
My deep sigh is audible and I detect the hint of a smile on his face when he sees how relieved I am.
He leans close. “Believe me, you are the only one I want to have a thing with.”
While I’m inhaling his musky scent, it dawns on me what he said. “I’m so glad you decided to meet with your dad. I hope it goes well.”
“Do you have any words of advice for a guy who’s about to meet the father he never knew?”
I stare at his gorgeous face, wondering if he got his looks from his father. “We don’t get to choose our family, Caden. And we will only ever have one mother and one father. If this guy can’t be your dad, nobody else can. I think you should be open-minded. Give him a chance. We’ve all made mistakes in our lives. We shouldn’t be defined by them.”
He nods. “Thanks, Slugger.”
I laugh at the Murphy Brown reference.
He leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheek. A sexy, lingering cheek-kiss that warns all the other guys to stay away.
And then, just like how Caden watched Corey walk away, I follow Caden’s every step to the locker room, appreciating how his prominent calf muscles flex with each long stride. How the strong lines of his back ripple under his tight shirt when he tosses his towel into the bin. How he looks over his shoulder at me to catch me staring.
When he rounds the corner, I slump over and knock my forehead on the counter a few times, berating myself for becoming a love-sick puppy.
“Oh, my God, are you Caden Kessler’s girlfriend?”
I look up to see two patrons standing near the counter. The women are wearing workout clothes that look like they were purchased from a children’s clothing store. Their breasts almost spill over the too-tight sports bras, and the boy shorts they’re wearing barely cover their entire pubic region. These girls are obviously not here to work out.
“Uh, no,” I say.
“But you want to be,” the taller one declares.
“Is there anything I can help you ladies with?”
“Besides getting us his phone number?” the short one says, giggling.
I don’t bother to answer.
“No, really,” she says. “Like, can you get it for us? I’m sure you have it on your computer somewhere. Oh, do you have his address, too?”
“Member records are private,” I tell them.
“Maybe we could come to an agreement,” she says. “I’ll pay you. How much is it worth?”
My jaw drops. “I don’t care how much you offer me, I’m not giving you his number.”
“Everyone has a price,” the tall one says, eyeing me up and down. “Surely a lowly desk clerk such as yourself could use an extra few hundred bucks.”
“You would pay a few hundred dollars for his phone number?” I ask, both surprised and appalled.
The shorter one looks excited. “Sure. How about we make it three?”
“Oh, my God. No!” I grab some papers off the counter and turn around.
“Bitch,” one of them says. “Like she has a chance with him.”
They walk away laughing.