Chapter Twenty-One
Josh
Reagan was out for most of the day, meeting with people and gathering up more information for the upcoming campaign. For someone that hadn’t worked in this business before, she sure knew exactly what she was doing. I was sitting with Ralph, pouring over some of the work she had done when he asked me what I thought of her. The question took me by surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m the one that hired her. I had no idea if she’d be any good at this, but I assumed she would be. As I said, she knows everything about the business, she always has. She’s always had a strong viewpoint on what goes on around the world, and she’s always wanted to see changes being made in both her area and outside. It’s what I’ve always liked about her; she has this ability to see things beyond herself. I wish more people in the world could be like that. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself here. I’ve just always thought she’d be good at this, and I think she’s proven me right. I was just interested to see what you thought of her.”
And just like that, something dawned on me. Was Ralph in love with Reagan? Why had I never thought of it before? He’d been nothing but nice about her, he’d gotten her a job, and he’d stayed friends with her since college days. Reagan was beautiful, so it was certainly possible. Was he asking me for his approval or did he think that something might be going on between the two of us?
“She’s great, Ralph. You did a fine job when hiring her. She’s by far the hardest working person I know. No offense, you are a hard worker too. But she goes above and beyond.”
Ralph laughed. “No offense taken. I don’t ever want to work as hard as she does. No offense to her, but I don’t think I’ll ever put in that many extra hours. I’d like a life too.”
I smiled. “I like your honesty, Ralph. So tell me then, are you asking me all of this because you’re in love with Reagan?”
Ralph looked completely taken aback by the question. He had just taken a sip of his coffee and he almost spat it out. “Excuse me? Why do you say that?”
“Well, you’ve just spent the last ten minutes going on about how amazing she is. And yes, she is a great worker, but it sounds to me like there might be something else going on. Are you trying to tell me that there’s an office romance?” I asked. I tried to keep it light, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if he said yes.
He shook his head and started laughing.
“What’s so funny? She’s a beautiful girl.”
“She is. But . . . well, I’m gay.”
“You are?”
“Didn’t you know? I thought it was obvious.”
I laughed. “No, I had no idea. So no office romance then.”
“Definitely not. I’m just glad you’re happy I hired her.”
Later that evening, I popped my head out the office and saw that once again only Reagan was left. She’d arrived that afternoon and had immediately started working at her desk. I wasn’t sure if I’d seen her move once from that spot. As I looked now, I saw her frowning at something on the computer screen and then furiously taking down notes. I cleared my throat and saw her jump.
She looked around the room and laughed. “Just you and I again,” she said.
“Looks like it. Want to join me for a drink?”
“I’m not sure, Josh. I was out so much today, and now I’m trying to get the paperwork sorted out and all the plans put into action.”
“Oh, I don’t mean out the office. I mean in my office.”
“You have alcohol in your office?” she asked.
I chuckled. “I sure do. Do you like brandy?”
“Not really. But right now I’d probably drink anything. Yeah, a drink sounds great,” she said and walked over to my office.
“Oh, oops,” she said and quickly ran out. I wondered what she was doing but then laughed when I saw her walk back to the door, knock, and then walk in.
“I wonder when we’ll start getting sick of that joke?” I asked.
“Hopefully never.”
I handed her a glass of brandy and laughed when she took a sip and winced.
“Really don’t like it, huh?”
“It’s both awful and wonderful at the same time,” she said.
“Yeah, that about sums it up. I used to drink it simply because it made me feel good after a few glasses. But I soon started to develop a taste for it too.”
“I’d prefer it mixed into a milkshake.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said and laughed. “So, is it bad that we’re both working hard on a Friday night? I mean, are we really the only people here without lives?”
Reagan sighed. “Looks like it. To be honest, if I wasn’t working in the office right now, I’d probably just be working at home. Oh no, that sounds even worse. I didn’t realize my social life was so lacking.”
“I must say, I’m surprised.”
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“Well, you’re beautiful, for one,” I said and smiled as I saw a blush creep up her face. “And you’re very easy to be around. I can’t imagine why someone like you doesn’t have a big circle of friends.”
“My best friend is Dana, but she spends most of her time at the café. They’re open every day until late, and she’s pretty much always there. That’s her life, and she loves it. The staff is like family to her. And, well, I guess I have other friends, but they’re more like acquaintances. And my clubbing days are definitely long gone.”
I laughed as I thought about Kason. “You won’t believe this but Kason asked me to go clubbing with him this weekend.”
She groaned. “Don’t tell me you said yes.”
“Are you kidding me? Of course I said yes.”
She looked horrified, and I tried not to laugh. “What? But you can’t, Josh. I know you want to go out and have fun, and I totally get that. But can’t you at least wait until all this is over? I really don’t want you to be in the limelight again. You know the media can . . . wait, you’re joking, right?”
I chuckled. “I’m joking.”
“Bastard.”
“You really think I’d do something like that?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t actually been working here all that long, you know. I don’t really know you at all. I mean, it wouldn’t be all that unusual for you to want to go out a bit.”
“True. Although the last time I went to a club, it didn’t end up too well.”
“Oh no, what happened?” she asked.
I poured us both some more of the brandy, surprised to see that she had already finished the first glass I had given her. For someone that didn’t like the stuff she sure was drinking it fast.
“I took her home, that’s what happened.”
“So? What’s wrong with that? You must’ve liked her if you asked her home.”
“I did. In the club. When it was dark and when I couldn’t hear a thing. When we got back to my place, I realized that the two of us had nothing in common. There was literally no conversation between the two of us.”
“Did you at least sleep with her?” Reagan asked.
I raised my eyebrows. This was getting personal. I shook my head. “No. What do you take me for?”
“What? You took her home, but you didn’t sleep with her? What did you do?”
I laughed. “We just sat around making small talk. Then we tried kissing, and we clashed teeth just like teenagers. It was awful. Then she took off her top, and I tried to take off her bra, and I couldn’t do it, and the whole thing was just so incredibly unromantic that we gave up and she went home. Reagan, are you laughing at me?”
“No!” Reagan insisted, but I could see tears falling down her face as she tried desperately not to let out a laugh. But she couldn’t help it, and the laugh escaped her.
“Oh, is that how it’s going to be. Okay then, you tell me about one of your bad dating experiences so that we’re at least even.”
“Oh dear, where to begin,” she started.
“Ha! I bet you don’t even have any.”
“Are you kidding me? I have more bad experiences than good ones. Well, I’ll just tell you about the most recent guy. Jack. Wait, I need just a little bit more brandy for this story.”
I laughed and poured us both a bit more. “I thought you hated this stuff,” I said to her.
“So did I,” she said and took another sip. She took her jacket off and fanned her face. “It’s warming me up, that’s for sure,” she said, and I tried not to stare at her blouse, which showed a clear outline of her bra. I took another sip of my brandy to get my mind off her body.
“Go on then, tell me all about this Jack. And let me know if you need me to beat him up for you.”
She giggled. “Jack Earl Winter Frank Junior was the biggest idiot I’ve ever met.”
“Wait! Did you just make that up or were those really all his names?”
“Those were really all his names. No jokes. I mean, fair play, that part was not his fault. His parents gave him those names. But he loved telling people about them. He thought it made him seem important. Anyway, he asked me out, and I said no. So he asked me out again, and I said no. This went on for such a long time that I decided to say yes just to shut him up. A mutual friend told me that he wasn’t such a bad guy, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. We went on the date, and it really did go a lot better than I had envisioned. A lot of that might have been because I’d had a lot of wine that night, but he really didn’t annoy me like I thought he would. Until he followed me back home.”
“He followed you?” I said, horrified by the idea of some weirdo following her back to her house.
She chuckled. “Well, no, I mean, I told him he could come. As I said, we were getting along fine. When we got back to my place, we started kissing, and soon enough we found ourselves in bed together. And then, just before we were about to do the deed, he told me that he would like me to say his full name during sex.”
I started laughing. This story couldn’t be real. “I don’t believe this.”
“Better believe it. And I’m sorry, but no matter how good the sex might’ve been, there was no way I was going to shout out Jack Earl Winter Frank Junior in the middle of it.”
“So what happened?”
“I kicked Jack Earl Winter Frank Junior right out the door. And that was the end of that. And the end of my dating experience for a while. I far prefer working late to going out with guys like that.”
I smiled. “It’s nice having you here, Reagan. You’ve definitely made my late night working experience a lot better. That was quite possibly the best story that I’ve ever heard in my whole life. I will never forget that story.”
“And sadly, neither will I,” she said and giggled. “But I’m glad it happened now just so that you could get a bit of comic relief today.”
Comic relief was not the only sort of relief I wanted out of her. The brandy was making me feel a lot more loose and lot more interested in talking about what had happened.
“Uh, Reagan, you haven’t told anyone about what happened between us, have you?” I asked.
“Are you crazy? Of course not. Why? Have you?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, I haven’t said anything. This campaign is too important to me, and I know that the job is important to you too. I don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”
“Neither do I,” she said.
“So, what happens between us stays between us,” I said and looked at her.
She smiled. “I’m not going to say a word.”
“I have just one problem, though,” I said and walked over to her.
“What’s that?” she asked, looking up at me. She crossed and uncrossed her legs, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack on the spot. I had been wrong about Reagan only looking sexy in that dress she wore to the gala. Reagan was sexy no matter what she wore.
“I’m not sure that I can stand to only do that once. Let’s just say, hypothetically, of course, that we do it all again. Would you tell anyone about it? Or would it stay between us?”
She licked her lips. “Hypothetically speaking, if we were to do that again, it would most definitely stay between us.” She uncrossed her legs again, and I groaned out loud.