Chapter 12 - Zach
“Morning Zach,” Mitch says to me. “Good weekend? You didn’t come out on Saturday! Great talent at the club,” he winks. I try not to groan.
“Nah, wasn’t feeling it.” I try to slip past him without answering any more of his questions. He’s a great friend but I’m not in the mood to hear about what girls were at which club and how many he took home this weekend. I can’t deal with that today. It’s been two weeks since the Christmas party and Mitch has been pestering me to go out almost every single night. I just can’t muster up the energy.
The past few weeks have been the longest weeks of my life. For the first time in a long, long time I’ve actually been looking forward to going in to the office. I look forward to Mondays. I walk across the office and scan the room.
The cleaners did a good job with the mess from the Christmas tree incident and the place finally looks back to normal. Everyone else is either working or milling around like any other morning. I can’t help but feel like something has shifted. There’s a slight buzz in the room, it’s the last week before the holiday break, but I know that’s not what’s changed.
I glance around the room but I already know what’s different. I’m looking for her again, just like I have been every day for the past two weeks. I shake my head and walk into my office, closing the door behind me.
Usually, a couple weeks would see many women come and go in my life but I haven’t even met a single one that interests me. I glance over at the couch and my thoughts flick back to that night. I think of Harper sitting on top of me and it feels like it happened yesterday. We were right there. That’s where she was when she was riding me like her life depended on it and I had one of the best orgasms of my life. Even looking at the empty sofa makes my cock start to throb in my pants.
“Ahem,” comes a soft voice behind me. I turn to see Becca. She’s wearing some sort of semi-office appropriate low cut top and she’s leaning down to give me the full view of her cleavage. She smiles coyly. “Morning Mr. Lockwood. I have a message for you from Mr. Latif.” She hands me a piece of paper and then lingers. I glance at the paper then back at her.
“Anything else?” I ask dryly. She looks a bit taken aback. I open my mouth to say something nicer and then decide to close it again.
“No, no that’s it.” She pauses again. “Did you have a good weekend?”
“It was fine,” I say as I open the paper, turning around without looking at her. I sit at my desk and finally look up. She’s still here. “Becca, I’m still waiting for Greg Chesney’s file. It’s been over a week since I asked.
She nods. “HR wouldn’t release the file right away. Confidentiality issues. I’ll chase them up again.”
“What kind of confidentiality stops the CEO of the company from accessing an employee file?!”
“I’m not sure, Mr. Lockwood. I’ll chase them up again this morning.”
I nod. She lingers, and I wave to the door. “Would you mind closing that on the way out?”
She nods again quietly and finally leaves. I sigh when the door clicks closed. That was painful. Our once flirty relationship has gotten very strained lately. I know it’s me, I’m the one who’s been acting different but I can’t help it.
It doesn’t matter. She’ll just have to get used to it. Hopefully she’ll have some useful information for me about Greg Chesney and I can find out who this guy is and why he still works for me.
I turn my eyes back to the note in my hand and read it again. I sigh, rubbing my temples. This is not good news. One of our biggest clients has just moved a deadline to the beginning of January, and the new timeline is almost unachievable. I glance at the calendar - the staff is supposed to be on holiday from Thursday this week until the New Year. We’re going to have to work through Christmas. I pick up the phone and dial Becca’s desk.
“Yes Mr. Lockwood?”
“Becca, get the management team in here. I need everyone as soon as possible.”
“No problem,” she says and I click the phone down. Might as well deliver the news right away and see who volunteers to work through the holidays.
It only takes a couple minutes for my management team to assemble. The first person to walk in is Harper. She looks right at me from across the room and immediately my cock jumps in my pants. I quickly shift my weight and say a silent thanks that I’m sitting down behind my desk.
Get a fucking grip!!
“Good weekend?” She says in that musical voice of hers. Why is everyone so interested in my weekend?!
“Yeah it was fine, relaxing,” I respond. She nods and sits down on the sofa exactly where I was on that Friday night with her legs straddling my lap. She brushes an imaginary piece of dust off the sofa and glances at me through her eyelashes. My cock twitches again. I clear my throat.
“How was yours?”
“Same,” she shrugs. She glances at me again but before I can speak, Mitch walks in.
“What’s this about, Zach?” He says in that booming voice of his.
“Let’s wait for the rest of the team to get here.” Mitch nods and sits down on one of the chairs opposite my desk. It only takes a couple minutes for the dozen management executives to come in the door.
“Right, team, I’ve had some bad news. The Latifs have moved their deadline up to January 2nd. We will need to deliver the entire advertisement proposal to them by that day or else they’ll pull out of the contract.”
“WHAT!” Mitch exclaims. I hold up a hand.
“Before anyone protests, I’m volunteering to carry this through myself. We need a skeleton team to work through the holidays to get this done. I’ll need one of you and about half a dozen team members. You’ll get time off in lieu in January, after the project is delivered.” I glance at my team and a heavy silence hangs on the room. “Any volunteers?”
I can see them glancing at each other, hoping someone else will put their hand up. How many of them have holidays and trips planned? How many of them will want to spend time with their families? I know I’m asking a lot, but I have no choice.
“I’ll work,” says a familiar voice from the sofa. I look over to see Harper staring directly at me. Her green eyes look like they’re gleaming from within. “I don’t have a family or plans for the holidays so I have the least to give up. I’ll work.”
We look at each other for a moment. I can’t tell if she’s doing this because I’ll be here with her - as soon as the thought passes my mind I know she isn’t. She’s just dedicated to the job and she knows everyone else has kids and families to go back to. I nod.
“Thanks, Harper. I’ll send you a full brief this morning. That’s it, everyone. Thanks for coming in.” I nod my head and everyone stands. They file out of my office one by one, the last one being Harper. She glances at me quickly and then turns to walk out. Her ass moves from side to side with every step and I watch her walk away until she turns the corner.
I don’t know whether to be excited or worried about this. Somehow I feel both.