I left her house hard and in need, but I held myself together. It wasn’t only that I didn’t want to get slapped by her; I didn’t want to upset her so much that she didn’t come back to work. It was the closest I had come to begging in a long time, but I wasn’t as bothered as I should have been. I would have done anything to have had her, and there was no shame in that. There would have been before, but everything with Desiree was different.
So I went home and thought about her. It was something that I did basically every day now, and it was becoming part of my routine. It had gone so far that I didn’t even respond to late-night texts from old flings and current ones that I had taken out from time to time. Nothing sounded good. It was only Desiree that I wanted. Only Desiree who could take away the ache that I felt constantly in her presence.
The next day I went to work earlier. Tommy was there already and had a cup of coffee waiting for me. “So how did they take it?”
His look told me not well. I should have done it myself, but I had been too worried about talking to Desiree to take care of what I was supposed to.
“They were not too happy. I think there was talk about complaining to HR.”
“And?”
“And one of them brought Desiree up. She wasn’t very loud about it, but she was one of the ones who’d been talking about it pretty openly.”
I nodded and sat down. It was not ideal that there might be some complaints going in, but I didn’t really mind much. I just wanted them out of the building, and all of their venom with them. The last couple of weeks the atmosphere had changed, and I sure didn’t like it.
“Well, they needed to go. None of them were really going to fit in.”
“Are we starting another program, or did we find the candidate for hire?”
He was asking me if I had gotten her to agree to stay. The fact that she had hit the other partner across the face was surely out in the rumor mill, and I just nodded my head that we had. “She should be here in a little while. Make sure she gets a nice office on the fourth with Paul.”
Tommy didn’t need to know who she was. I had never made so much of a priority of another employee, but there really was just something about Desiree. Now, I just had to wait to make sure she came in and my plans would be right back on track.
It wasn’t but half an hour later that I saw her come through the doors downstairs. I wasn’t likely to admit how much I kept checking to see if she was there. I knew her car, and when she drove into the parking garage, I felt a little more at ease. I didn’t go to her then like I wanted to. I knew that it would make more people talk and make it harder on her. Instead, I waited until she was leaving for lunch and hurried out to catch her. It was underhanded, and more than likely it didn’t fool anybody, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t care too much about how I looked or how wanting her looked.
When I caught up to her, she was about to get into her car. “Going anywhere good for lunch?”
I watched her start and grab her chest a little, showing me that I had frightened her. Her surprise made me smile, and she smiled back before she even seemed to realize who it was she was talking to. When she did, Desiree went back to her business smile, and I was a little saddened by the change.
“I don’t know, sir. I think I was going to just grab a sandwich at the deli down the road. Did you want one?”
I was the one surprised by the offer. She told me to get in, and I looked longingly over to the car waiting for me. Her car was a tiny two-door subcompact, and when I got into it I felt like a giant. She laughed at me a little and I knew it was because my head was only a couple of inches from the roof.
During the ride, I felt myself looking for somewhere to grab a few times. I’d never pictured her driving like she was in NASCAR, but it was clear that Desiree liked a little speed. It was just another part of her that I liked. Everything I learned just seemed to reinforce the initial feeling that had come over me when we met.
She giggled at me as she pulled into her parking spot and I braced myself for impact. “I take it you don’t like my driving.”
I wasn’t sure if she always drove like that, but it was clear that it wasn’t the first time she had. I was feeling a little woozy and seasick, but I would never admit such a thing. Instead, I just laughed along with her and tried to keep my cool. Desiree was full of surprises.
The sandwiches at the deli tasted better than my lunch did most days and I wondered why I’d never tried the food there. It wasn’t fancy and certainly didn’t cost much, but I found the lunch very enjoyable. I didn’t know if it was the food or the company, but when she was ready to leave, I was not.
“Come on, we’ve got to get back or we are going to be late.”
When I protested, she laughed at the absurdity or it, but then shook her head and told me that she needed to go. “I know that you’re the boss and no one cares, but I don’t need anyone else thinking that I’m getting special treatment.”
I agreed, but wondered if she realized that just being out with me was new. I had gone out with a few of my assistants, and even Paul a couple of times, but nothing like this. She was going to get special treatment whether she wanted to or realized that I was doing it.
Getting up, she insisted on paying for her meal, another new one for me, and I just went with it. After the kiss the night before, she had changed a little towards me. Before, she found it hard to meet my gaze, but now she was meeting it more often and there was something hidden in the looks she returned my way. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that Desiree was coming around. I couldn’t be sure, but once I was sure that she was ready for me, I knew that I was going to pounce on her the first chance that I got.
The drive back was as fast as the drive there. She seemed relaxed behind the wheel, her blonde hair down and flowing back with the wind. Desiree made me realize how much I missed driving. At first the driver had been a luxury, a way of showing that I had arrived, but I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed it.
When we got back to the building, I told her that I had a meeting to get to, but really I went for a drive. I needed the peace and quiet that came from it. Before long my mind was clearing and I was feeling better than I had in a long time. I don’t know if it was Desiree or the kiss or just the thought of all of the possibilities, but something was going on with me, and I liked the changes that were happening.