JAMIE

“EY, WINTERS. HAVE YOU SEEN THE POST COME IN?” Callum sauntered over to my desk on Friday afternoon. He had only been here a few days, and he was already operating as if he had been here forever. When Sam said he was anxious to get started, he wasn’t lying. From the first day he started working here, he had already jotted a ton of notes about ideas he wanted to implement and processes he tried to change.

In that brief time span, he’s annoyed me to no end. I was at the point where I was so frustrated, I refused to show up to work if he’s going to harass me again. For some reason, I keep showing up to work waiting for management to say something.

On Monday, he already called a meeting with the entire office, and although Sam leads the session with an introduction, we spent the whole hour hearing about what Callum wanted to do and the way he wanted certain things he was responsible for doing.

I appreciated the fact that he was so gung-ho and took his position seriously, but it didn’t help change my opinion of him. I hoped he would have been a little more personable and less annoying.  Don’t get me wrong he was respectful, and the ladies practically drooled over him, I just didn’t like the fact that he walked around like he owned the place. I was here way before him. It wasn’t fair that he was practically given everything I worked so hard trying to build.

“Not to my knowledge but you may want to ask Marta, the receptionist. She handles all incoming and outgoing mail.” I pointed in her direction.

“Right-o.  Have Marta ring me up when it arrives. I’m expecting an important package.”

“Sure, Callum.” I flashed him a fake smile and then rolled my eyes the second he turned to go back to his office.

Ugh. So aggravating. Why was he always asking me to do his bidding? I wasn’t an assistant or an intern, and I certainly wasn’t his assistant. How hard was it to talk to Marta himself?

“You are so lucky!” Sarah whined.

“What?” I asked.

“Why doesn’t he ever notice me? How did you do it? How did you get him to talk to you?”

“Who?” I eyed her suspiciously.

“Callum, of course!”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, you have to help me get him.” she pleaded.

“Me? Why are you asking me? You know I don’t get involved in office romances.” I rolled my eyes and returned to my computer.

“Are you kidding? Or did you forget about Sam? You guys are a walking billboard for office romances. Now it’s my turn. I have to get him before anyone else does around here.”

“Assuming he’s single, interested and straight.”

“He’s not wearing a ring,” Sarah argued.

“He could still be dating or have a girlfriend.”

“That’s why I’m asking. You two talk all the time and are really close.”

“Uh, we don’t talk. He just throws directives at me, he could care less about what I said. Plus, we aren’t close at all nor would I want to be.”

“You guys are close enough. You are practically the only one he talks to besides management. I need to find out if I have a chance with him or not. Please!” Sarah begged practically on her knees.

“Okay, okay, okay! Just get up off the floor. I’ll help you with Callum.”

“Thank you so much! I’m forever grateful. Please don’t tell anyone, I don’t want the rumor mill to spread and ruin my chances.” she pulled me into a tight embrace. She was so grateful her arms practically choked the air out of me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Thank you so much, I won’t forget everything you’ve done for me. Oh shoot, he’s coming back. Bye.”

“Isn’t the whole point of this is to have him notice you?” my question went unnoticed as Sarah was already out of earshot.

As his red Duncan yo-yo bounced up and down, Callum strolled across the room towards me with an effervescent strut. Half the time he was so bossy and intense, and the other half of the time he always contradicted himself with his immaturity. If you paid more attention to him than necessary, you often heard the gum smacking that he liked to exaggerate out loud whenever he was bored.

Placing both hands on top of my desk, he leaned in as close as he could before I reached an uncomfortable status, “So tell me something Winters…”

“It’s only been a few minutes, the mail still hasn’t come in.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask, but I do appreciate the update. I like the initiative.”

“Thank you. Did you need something else?”

“Not particularly, I thought I’d take a wee break and walk around to check things out. I’ve been on-the-go all morning. So tell me something.”

“Tell you what?” I wondered.

“Anything that fancies you.”

I pointed in the direction of where Sarah sat, “Well, have you met Sarah? She’s our new intern.”

“Where?” Callum glanced around the room.

“Sarah! Sarah get over here.” I muttered under my breath.

“Oh, that’s me!” Sarah jumped up in surprise and walked quickly towards us.  The sound of her heels clicking against the linoleum floor echoed throughout the front office.

“Callum, this is Sarah.” I shoved her further in his direction before returning to my desk to continue my work.

There, now she can distract him enough so that I can get a few hours in without being interrupted all the time.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sarah is it?”

“Yes, sir.” Sarah giggled in coy excitement.

“You can call me Callum. Okay?” Callum asked.

“Okay.” Sarah giggled again. She was a schoolgirl in his presence.

“You know what?” he asked.

“What?”

“I’m famished, I could use a nice juicy burger. Would you care to join me for a little lunch break?”

“Me? You want me to go with you to lunch?” Sarah put a hand on her chest in surprise.

“Yes, it would be a pleasure if you could join me. I have no immediate plans, so I think we will have to, what is it they say, ‘wing it’”?

“Okay!” Sarah giggled again.

Callum held his arm out as an indication for Sarah to hold onto it as they headed towards the exit, “Jamie, hold my calls.”

“Martha is the receptionist…oh, I give up.” I muttered and slapped some paperwork I was reviewing earlier on my desktop after realizing Callum wasn’t paying attention so correcting him would have been a wasted effort.

The good news is that if anything happens between the two of them, then maybe the end result is he will simmer down some and realize two things: a) I’m not the receptionist nor his assistant and b) I’m not the only one in the office that he can bother.

Maybe if they get together, he’ll only have her in his line of sights, and he can leave me the fuck alone because it’s just been less than a week and I already wanted to pull my hair out, and I swear I saw a grey strand this morning.

Later that evening, my annoyance and lousy mood still remained, and neither Sam nor I went to jiu-jitsu practice because of the overtime we were putting in as of late. Whenever I didn’t have an outlet to burn off any unwanted stress, my frustration heightened. As the day went on, I was fortunate that Callum left me alone even when they came back from lunch but I still felt like I wanted to smack him in addition to everything else I encountered that seemed to irritate me.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can handle the likes of him.” I paced around Sam’s living room later that night. I needed to vent and since hiring Callum was Sam’s fault, it was only fair that he hear the brunt of my frustrations.

“Sweetheart, just relax.” Sam glanced up from his computer.

“Sam, don’t ask me to calm down or relax. You don’t understand the kind of stress he causes me every day at work.”

“Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a little?”

“Exaggerating?! The guy thinks I’m his assistant. He keeps asking me to do things that he should be giving to Marta. Things that are her responsibilities anyway.” I argued.

“Like what?”

“Well today, he asked me to hold his calls and to also let Marta know when the mail came in because he was waiting for a package.”

“Is that it?” Sam asked.

“What do you mean ‘is that it’?”

“That doesn’t sound like a big deal, Jamie. The guy is new, he doesn’t quite know what everyone does yet. Just give him a chance and be patient with him.” Sam tried to reason with me.

“I have been more than patient with him,” I argued.

“Can you try and be even more patient. Give him time, he’ll figure out how things work, okay?”

“Sam, he KNOWS that Marta is the receptionist. He practically sees her at the receptionist desk when he walks into the office every morning. Her desk sign says receptionist and I’ve told him hundreds of times that she is the receptionist. It never seems to sink in with him. You’ve got to help me, I don’t know how much of him I can take.”

Sam stood and pulled me into his arms and rubbed my back to comfort me in my time of need, “It’s going to be okay. I know all of this is a little too much for you at one time, but if you can keep hanging on, it’ll level out on its own.”

I leaned back to look up at him, “Can you at least do something about it, like talk to him or something?” I pleaded.

Sam pulled me into another hug and rested his cheek on the top of my head and sighed, “Alright, I’ll talk to him. I guess I could sit down with him and go over the organizational chart, and I don’t know, convey who can assist him.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry he’s put you in such a bad mood but don’t let him get to you. I’m sure he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Just try and be patient with him. For me, okay?”

“Okay, I will try.”

“I’m about finished reviewing the licensing agreement paperwork I took home from the office, so I’m going to head to bed and get some much-needed rest unless you want to join me,” he suggested with a wink.

“Join you for what?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Join me in my efforts of getting out all of that energy you seem to have. I don’t want to see it go to waste.”

“Oh, my. Samuel Ellis, are you actually propositioning me?” I laughed.

Sam grunted, “I might be.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where you abandoned all of your chivalry and hit on me properly like the rest of the red-blooded, meat-eating males in the world.”

“Sweetheart, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Sam grunted again before he kissed my lips, my neck and my ears.

A hum of excitement vibrated throughout my body in anticipation. Sam liked a slow seduction, always creating nervous anticipation inside of me. He moved in close, his lips parted slowly, and he wrapped one arm around my waist drawing me in. His other hand cupped my face, and his thumb caressed my cheek back and forth before leaning in only to barely brush his lips against mine. His lips were soft and teasing, causing me to moan while my heart pounded.

This wasn’t going to be enough for me because I wanted more. A lot more. I wanted hard, rough, deep, fast and everything in between. I wanted everything he was willing to give me at that moment. He nibbled my bottom lip before prying my lips open with his tongue. I moaned again and leaned against him, threading my hands into his hair pulling him close as if a small part of me was afraid that all of this would end far too quickly.

His hand drifted from my back to my hips, pressing himself against me, “Let’s move to the bedroom.” He suggested in a husky voice.

I heard Sam shove his jacket off before it hit the floor and I opened my eyes long enough to notice before I focused back on the kiss - on the desire that burned in me. Sam carried me into the bedroom and lowered me onto the bed. He flung the covers back and my arms around him, pulling him with me. He complied willingly, waiting for me to settle into the mattress before lowering himself in between my legs.

The anticipation was overwhelming, and I practically ripped his shirt open, buttons flying everywhere before I shoved it off him. Sam was just as anxious as his hands lifted my sweater over my head before he fiddled with the clasp of my bra. With a quick motion, he pulled my slacks and panties off before settling back in between my legs and holding himself up with his forearms.

His hand navigated up and in between my thighs, stroking and entering in and out until I was writhing in anticipation, “Oh God, Sam. Oh my God.” I arched and tugged on his hair.

He manipulated me with his fingers until I convulsed. My body contracted around his fingers with my orgasm. He continued to thrust his fingers into me, letting the shudders and moans subside.

Sam moved up towards my breasts, taking turns sucking on each nipple while my legs wrapped around his lower back, “Fucking hell.” I murmured, lost in the moment.

“What?” he chuckled against my breasts.

“Shit, I can’t take this anymore.” I moaned. “Hurry!”

Sam complied and hooked his arms underneath my shoulders to tighten the feeling as he drove into me. Sam paused for a moment as if he was savoring the feeling, but I doubt he could stop even if he tried. He pounded into me, and all I thought of was that this felt right. I clutched his back, moaning, muttering things even I didn’t even comprehend later on.

He groaned and grunted expletives about not wanting to be anywhere else right then, except in that moment inside of me, “Fuck!” I shuddered in release, and a moment later, he joined me erratic in his thrusts as his climax consumed him. At that moment, everything went hazy and time stood still and our breathing ragged.

“Holy fuck,” I shouted.

“Something wrong?” Sam laughed again as he rolled onto his back.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Then what was with the swearing.” he grinned at me.

“I don’t know. That was the first thing I thought of.” I tried to catch my breath.

He laughed again as he ran his fingers along my stomach. I wished we didn’t have work the next day so we could spend the entire day in bed watching old movies, telling each other stories and laughing to our heart's content. Sam kissed my cheek before slowly drifting off to sleep. He was more exhausted than he let on, poor guy.

I was so lucky to have found someone who not only was an overall good person, but he was caring, charismatic and funny. He was responsible, ambitious, very kind and by some miracle, he loved only me. He could have had anyone else in the world, but he picked me.

I still wasn’t tired, the thought of having to deal with Callum again kept me awake at night. This was the 3rd night in a row where I couldn’t fall asleep right away. I leaned over and opened the top drawer of one of his end tables for the remotes whereabouts and in the top drawer was a navy blue, velvet box. It definitely wasn’t a Tiffany's box, but I knew it had to be some type of jewelry. Quietly, I pulled out the mysterious box and slowly opened it.

Holy shit it’s a ring. Was the ring for me?

I quickly put the box back in the drawer and pulled out the remote before shutting it. I didn’t know what to think, but the ring had to be for me.

Was he planning on proposing? Was it going to happen soon?

The idea scared me shitless. I have wanted to settle down with Sam for a long time but now that the possibility of the idea being here, was a whole ‘another thing.