Chapter Six

Upside #6: You can convince the pizza guy that sixteen-inch pizza is to share with your “boyfriend.” Except you get to eat it all.

I barely made it to work on time, and that was only thanks to the taxi I’d called to get me out of that store. One thing was for sure: if a man ever complained about my shopping again, I’d direct him to Jacob Creed.

Even I never wanted to see the inside of a mall again.

I rifled through the paperwork on my desk. There were sticky notes and message cards all over the place. Disregarding half of the messages, I pushed them to the side and picked up one of the messages from the maids.

“Nope,” I said instantly and threw it in the trash. There were certain times of the month you could request vacations. The day after I put up the rosters was not that time.

I moved quickly through the rest of them, splitting them between important and…well, a load of shit. As usual, there was more crap than anything else, including a cold caller from a plumber who claimed to have started servicing our boiler.

Nope.

Man, today was full of nope.

Stubbing my toe? Nope. Being braless? Nope. Jake showing up and forcing me into the most hellish shopping trip of my life? Nope.

Big. Fat. Nope.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Damn it. I should have taken Jake up on the offer of a new chair. After sitting in that sigh-worthy one, I felt like I needed it. And like this one felt like sitting on a rock.

Double sigh…

I picked up the message from the person who I needed to call back.

I didn’t really want to have the conversation right now, but it was better than sitting here doing nothing.

I dialed the number and listened.

Ring, ring, ring.

The call rolled over to voicemail. I returned the message and hung up. Then, I sighed. Again. There was a lot of that going around today.

I was seconds away from lamenting the terrible mess of this day when the door opened with a loud creak.

In keeping with classic Mellie, I screamed.

Jake jumped about ten feet back into the hallway. I clasped my hand to my chest and glared at him.

“What the hell?” My voice was louder than I’d intended it to be, but he’d scared the shit out of me!

“What do you mean, “what the hell?”” Jake asked, stepping inside. “You’re the one who’s in here screaming like I’m a ghost coming to kill you.”

I slapped my hand on the table. “You may as well be,” I said. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

Jake closed the door behind him “Yeah, well, I didn’t think I had to knock to get into my own office.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” I said, standing and waving my finger at him. “Because this is our office, not yours. Ours.”

He raised one eyebrow in amusement. “Are you going to knock before you come in here?”

“No, why would I?”

He chuckled. “Because, as you just insisted, this is our office, not my office.” Shrugging off his jacket, he finished, “Which means it’s not your office either.”

I blinked at him. “That might be right, but technically speaking, it is my office.”

“Well, make up your mind.” He smirked. “Because it can’t be your office and our office at the same time.”

“Fine, it’s my office.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “is that better? You know as well as I do you’re like, like, like… an office thief.”

“An office thief.”

Damn it; he was laughing at me again. I could see in his eyes. I was really starting to hate it when he did that.

I rose my chin in defiance. “Yes. An office thief.” I nodded my head once, strongly, as if to prove my point.

I didn’t know what my point was, but still, I felt I had to make it.

That was how it worked, right?

Jake walked over to the window and looked outside. “An office thief,” he muttered, seemingly to himself. “I’ve been called many things, but that’s a new one.”

“I could come up with a few more if you really wanted me to.”

“No, I think I’m good, thanks. God only knows what you come up with after that shopping trip.”

“Ah, see you admit it was like entering the seventh ring of hell for you too, huh?”

He paused, eyes twinkling. “No… Not exactly…”

Man, this would be really awkward if I cared.”

his laughter echoed through the office. “Don’t worry, Mellie. That was pretty obvious you wanted to kill me.”

I touched my hand to my chest and sighed in a mock relief. “Oh, thank God, I’m so glad. On the other hand,” I paused. “If your body is ever found, I’ll be the first suspect. Never mind. Forget I said anything. Shopping isn’t worth killing somebody over.”

Jake snorted. “Clearly, you’ve never watched forensic files.”

“No,” I said slowly, “And after that shopping trip, you should be glad I haven’t.”

He held my gaze for a moment and then burst out laughing.

What was it about that laugh?

It was like… Magic. Every time I’d heard it, it’d given me goosebumps. And I’d heard it a lot lately. It never seemed to get old.

You know what was getting old?

The way those stupid ass goosebumps danced up and down my arms every single time I heard it.

Oh, and look, there they were again, the little traitors.

I didn’t want to feel them. Actually, as a point of note, I didn’t want to hear him laugh either.

“Fair enough,” Jake said. “In that case, definitely don’t watch it. It’s terrible.”

I sat back down the narrowed my eyes at him. He had a stupid grin on his face – one that reached his eyes and made them shine.

I was really, really starting to hate that one as well. And that was all the tummy butterflies faults.

Again: why couldn’t I have an ugly boss?

“No, actually, I think I will check it out. Just in case. Sounds educational.” Then, as he stared at me as if he was trying to decide whether or not to laugh, I let my own grin take over my face.

“Okay, fine.” He came over to the desk and sat down on the velvet chair. “But if you hate it, don’t blame me when you’ve wasted three hours of your life planning how to murder somebody in five different ways.”

“I don’t know, that sounds like some pretty valuable information…”

“On one hand, it is. But, on the other, they already know how to solve the crime because they’ve done it once before.”

Once again, I narrowed my eyes. “Now, see, I don’t know if you’re just saying that, or if you’re really looking up from my well-being here.”

He feigned a gasp. “Would I do anything but?”

“I don’t know.” I leaned back in my chair and tapped my pen against the table. “Would you?” I punctuated the question with one raise of my eyebrows and a half-grin.

“Hey, you.” He leaned forward and pointed a finger at me, his smile shining in those wild, gray eyes. “I found your bra this morning. That is definitely looking out for your well-being, especially after the greeting I got when I showed up at your house.”

“Okay, mister.” Now, it was my turn to wave my finger. Or, rather, a pen. My bright pink highlighter waved in circles in front of his face as I stood and leaned over the table to make my point. “If we’re going to share an office, which I’m still against, by the way, then we are going to have to set some ground rules to be able to work together successfully.”

“I feel like you’re about to pull out a whiteboard and write them all down so I remember them.”

“Don’t you…” I stilled the pen and, with annoyance, yanked a pad of plain paper out from my drawer. With a little too much vigor, I opened the pad then slapped it down on my desk. “Yes, let’s do that. And, if you want, I’ll even go to reception and have photocopied a few times in case you happen to lose the original.”

Grinning, he said, “Could you get any more sarcasm in that last sentence?”

“Yes, actually, I could. Don’t test me. You might be surprised.” Or offended. That was known to happen.

Really, in the twenty-first century, you’d think everyone would get sarcasm. Nope.

“Damn, that sounds like a challenge.”

“Shut up and stop trying to distract me.” I uncapped the pen with a pop. “Right. Rule one.”

“I think I know where this is going.” He ran his fingers through his hair, his lips twitching into a smile the entire time.

Usually, I wanted to lick that smile. But now? No, no. Now, I kind of wanted to slap it off his face.

Yep. We needed some ground rules. He needed to stop talking about my boobs, and I needed to stop wanting to either, a: kiss him or, b: hit him.

I scrawled “rule one” onto the pad. “Rule one. Do. Not. Talk. About. Mellie’s. Boobs.” I underlined it several times to get my point across. “Is that clear?”

Jake leaned over the desk and looked at the pad. “Your handwriting is kinda messy there, so no, not clear at all.”

I threw the pen onto the desk. It hit nib-first, leaving a bright pink dot on the pad before it fell over and rolled onto the floor. “And you tell me I’m impossible?”

His grin was playful—boyish, almost, and it reached right up to his eyes. “I just don’t get why you’re making such a big deal out of this. It’s only awkward because you’re making it awkward.”

“You keep mentioning my boobs.”

“It’s hard not to when you answer your door without a bra, only for that bra to be on the floor.”

“You didn’t even need to be at my house. It’s totally your fault.”

Jake rolled his eyes and sat back again. “Let it go, Mellie. The sooner you accept that I’m your boss and me knowing what your boobs look like doesn’t bother me, the easier this will be.”

I blinked at him. “It doesn’t bother you?”

“I’m not saying my inner teenage boy doesn’t flash back sometimes, but…”

“Ugh!” I clamped my arms firmly over my chest. Not that it would help the thoughts inside his head, mind you, but still. I felt better. “This is why it bothers me.”

“If it bothers you, maybe you shouldn’t have listened to your friends in the first place.”

“They told me I’d never see you again,” I muttered.

“Well, that plan is going fucking spectacularly, don’t you think?”

“Are you allowed to cuss at work?”

“I’m the boss. I can do what I want at work.”

“Oy.” Now, I was the one rolling my eyes. “Look, let’s just not mention my boobs, and then I’ll be able to move on. Eventually. I hope.”

He studied me, gaze dropping to my chest for a moment. “No, you won’t. You’ll still blush every time our eyes meet.”

“I do not blush every time.”

One dark eyebrow quirked in amusement. “You sure do. Just like you are now.”

“I’m not blushing,” I lied, holding his gaze steady.

“You really, really are.”

Ugh!

I stood up and pointed at him. “I don’t have to take this.”

“Take what? That I’m right and you’re wrong?” Laughter. It danced in his eyes once again.

“No. Just…This!” Dramatically waving my arms around in a flailing fashion, I stomped once, then headed toward the door. “If you need me, tough. I’m going to find something to manage.”

“That is your job!” he shouted after me, laughing.

Oooh. I was really starting to hate him.