Elia
I walk into the bookstore with my head up in the clouds. I was hoping that Eric would call me back today. I left a message on his phone this morning before I headed out to work. Since our night together, I haven’t heard from him. I’ve moved all my contacts to my new iPhone, and I feel as if I’ve been living in the dark ages as I look at my old phone. I even sent him a text message when he didn’t return my call.
“Hey, Becca. Sorry, did I make you wait?”
I’m sure that I’m at work early. I used the app that I downloaded yesterday using the store’s Wi-Fi to figure out how long it would take me to get from my apartment to work. It calculated that it would take me thirty minutes, but it took twenty-five. Damn! What a difference it makes with a bit of music to walk to work. It’s quite nice, I might do it every day. So, I’m a little early, not much but not enough for her to be looking at me that way.
“Nah, you’re cool. Ryan wants to see you.”
She blows her gum into a bubble and after it pops she points to the office at the back. “Right now. He said the moment you come in.”
I nod and walk past her.
“I’ll hold the fort for now.”
I laugh to myself as she says that, thinking that this week I haven’t had more than two customers at any given day. So there’s not much to hold.
I knock on the door before letting myself in.
“Come in!”
I’m surprised because for the first time ever Ryan’s desk is almost neat. Most of the books and papers are set aside, so there are only two short stacks of books. He’s leaning back in his chair with a cunning smile, and he’s rubbing his rounded belly. I stand by the door because the room’s not that big. At times, I feel claustrophobic when I’m in here, but maybe it's because Ryan’s not behind his desk, he’s on the other side with me. It has been a while since he came in and I have been uncomfortable every time I thought about his request. And I really don’t think it is just because of the fact that I slept with the possible new owner of the store that Ryan had wanted me to investigate.
“Shut the door,” Ryan says. There’s a smarmy quality to his smile.
I nod and walk inside, closing the door behind me. “What did you need me for?”
I get straight to the point because I want to spend as short-a-time in here as possible. Ryan gives me the creeps, I don’t even know why I’m going out on a limb for him as far as Eric’s concerned, there are other jobs out there.
“So, I hear you’ve talked to Mr. Vanderville?”
“Don’t you remember, right after you gave me the task? I came back and told you everything we talked about.”
Well, I didn’t tell him quite everything, but whatever I felt was important for him to know.
“That’s funny,” he murmurs. “I heard he came to see you after we were closed…”
Holy crap, how did he know that?
“Yes, but then I thought that you wanted to figure out what was going on with the company.…”
I’m struggling to think of something to say. Maybe I’m confused, I’m sure that I called and told him that Eric seems interested because of the plan that he has to buy several independent bookstores, and I tried to recite exactly what Eric said to me that day. There are two issues.
Number one, I’m not the best liar in the world and number two, I didn’t understand a word that Eric said to me that day when he started talking, like, actual business numbers. I sit down, so that I’ll make him less suspicious about what’s going on with Eric and I. What am I thinking? There’s nothing going on with us, especially seeing as he hasn’t called since that night.
“But he did take you out!”
He lifts his eyebrow suspiciously, and I know that there’s no way out of it. But...even if what I did is a little shaky, I feel weird about the way Ryan is bringing it up and there’s an icky taste in my mouth about this whole conversation.
“It was…” My voice trails off, and I’m trying to think of something to say to him. Something that will make him dismiss me and I can get out of here.
He slowly stands up and moves toward me.
“Did you or didn’t you go out with him?”
I can't stop my face from burning a bright red, as my mind immediately jumps to what happened after the date.
His jaw tenses as his eyes run over my face, then suddenly, he’s grinning at me.
“Yes! And he said that this place was a gold mine, and he wanted to buy it. That’s why he made you such a good offer.”
“Did he now?” he says as he stops heading toward me, and I feel relieved that I’ve kept him at bay. I stand up and turn for the door.
“Maybe you should just contact him.”
But I’m surprised by how fast he moves to stop me opening the door. I don’t feel comfortable being so near to him. His breathing becomes heavy as the only thing between us and the door is his belly.
He shakes his head, then his finger strokes underneath my chin. I back away.
Eric was doing the same thing the other night, and I just wanted Eric’s touch even more when he did this. Ryan’s old enough to be my dad and creepy as hell; it just makes me want throw up now that I realize that my boss Ryan has hit on me before. I guess I just didn’t realize it those other times. Now I’m just fighting the urge to hurl.
I had said that I’ll talk to Eric. Part of the reason was so that I could get close to the billionaire, and the other part was so that I’ll keep my job once he buys the place.
Now, I’m thinking that being close to Ryan, everything in me recoils. All the erotic flashbacks from Eric last night are a distant memory.
“Look,” Ryan starts, stroking the thin strands of hair on his balding head. He adjusts his glasses, “When you see him next, tell him that I’m really busy. Hint that I have other offers on the table.”
I pause for a minute. “If you do that then he may back out. He may think that it’s not worth it.”
I was going to ask why he thinks that I’m going to see Eric again. It brings a smile to my face, to think that he’s confident about us having another rendezvous and it is a nice distraction from how gross Ryan makes me feel.
“Don’t worry about that,” Ryan sneers. “Just do what I told you to do.”
“Okay, I’ll do that then.” I swallow. I want out of this room.
I see my chance for escape, and I take it like a duck to water. Even though I have a feeling that if I stayed longer, then Ryan might have tried something more with me. I feel so relieved that I got out of there, secure in the knowledge that he didn’t. I push those thoughts away and think instead that hopefully Eric will want to see me again.
I go back to the front of the store. As soon as I get there Becca leaves. I’ve got nothing to do but play on my phone and wait for Eric to call me, unless a customer comes in.
“I’m looking for an Anne Rice novel,” a customer pops in nearly an hour later, and I’m glad to stop wasting my brain on stupid phone games. I help the customer and remember just how much I love this store.
I hope that I get to keep working here.
Maybe even with a much sexier boss.