Chapter 8

 

Anna

 

By my fourth week on the job, I was one hundred percent certain that Jason was avoiding me. He would come into the office and stay occupied throughout the day; that was if he came into the office at all. Some days he worked from home or even at my father’s company. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Jason hated me, but I did know better. I saw the desire in his eyes when he was around me, and I thought he was avoiding me because it was getting more and more difficult for him to squash his desires.

“Hey, I’m going to be out of the office today; I’m just stopping by to check on a few things,” Jason said as he rushed past me and into his office.

He didn’t even give me the time to respond to him before the door closed. I couldn’t take it any longer. It had been weeks since our encounter at the club and since he’d even looked me in the eye. It was the last straw, and I had to talk to him about it. I wasn’t one of those girls who got emotional about guys. In fact, I broke up with most of my boyfriends. This wasn’t about emotions. I simply wanted to know what was going on. Was this avoidance just his way of keeping things professional? Did he want me to quit? What did he want?

I knocked on the door softly and waited for him to reply. It was a little weird to have to knock when I knew he had just walked in there, but I really didn’t know Jason all that well despite our make out sessions.

“Come in,” he said.

I took one step into his office and watched as he busily moved papers around on his desk. He didn’t look up at me and didn’t even acknowledge that I was in the room. I was moments away from yelling at him when I felt Kevin push past me.

“Hey, I really need you to look over this and get it back to me by noon,” Kevin said to Jason as I stood in the entryway.

“Did you need something, Anna?” Jason asked.

As both Jason and Kevin looked at me, I lost my nerve and just shook my head before returning to my desk. He did look busy. Maybe I was being too sensitive. Maybe this was what his normal work life was like. It made sense that he needed an assistant if he was normally this busy. I was second guessing myself and nearly all my interactions with Jason. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t know what Jason was thinking.

Kevin and Jason spent nearly a half hour together working before Kevin left and went back to his office. Jason peeked his head around the corner and scared me half to death as I turned around at the exact same time.

“Oh, shit,” I said as I jumped back in my seat and raised my hand up to my chest from the startle of the moment.

“Sorry.” He laughed. His eyes looked into mine for the first time in weeks. Instantly, a sense of calm washed over me. His smile reassured me, and I lost my train of thought while I sat there staring back at him.

“You scared me,” I mumbled.

“Sorry, I just wanted to tell you that the spreadsheet you sent was amazing. I couldn’t have done it nearly that well. You are a natural. Thanks again.”

My words stumbled on the tip of my tongue as I tried to respond to him. “Um…” I stuttered. “Yeah… No problem,” I finally managed to say. This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for—the time for us to talk a little and just spend a moment in time for the two of us to connect. But my words just wouldn’t come out.

“Okay, I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks again. I’m going to email you a list of things for this week. Just do what you can, don’t worry too much about it.”

Just like that, he returned to his office and shut the door behind him. My hand still sat on my chest as I tried to think of what I should have said to Jason. My mind still so vividly remembered the night at the club that I wanted there to be more. When he looked at me, when he talked to me like he just did, there was a connection.

I had to talk to my friend, Lilli. She knew what older guys were like. She had a boyfriend that was around Jason’s age. I just needed to hear her opinion on things to see if I was over exaggerating or what was going on. Certainly, I’d never dated a guy who had the kind of responsibilities in his life that Jason had, so I wasn’t confident in any of my assessments of what was going on. I dialed my friend, Lilli.

“Hey, I need to see you, when will you be back in town?” I whispered.

“What? I can’t hear you. Why are you whispering?”

“When are you coming back to town?” I said a little louder, but I covered the receiver as if Jason was listening. It was a little ridiculous, and I knew it.

“Actually, we just arrived this morning. I was going to call you after I visited with my family a little bit. What’s up?”

“I can’t talk about it here,” I said as I kept a hand over the receiver and continued to talk quietly. “I’m at work, and it’s about Jason.”

Lilli and I had kept in touch while she was traveling with her boyfriend. It was easy to text her updates, but we hadn’t actually had a chance to sit together and gossip about each other’s lives. I needed a good conversation with her desperately. Lilli was my rock and always so helpful in calming me down when I got too wild.

“I’ll come over to your parents’ house tonight, and we can visit.”

“I’m actually living with Patrick,” I said, totally unaware that I hadn’t filled her in on that part of my life. I must have spaced it out. Lilli and I only lived a few blocks away from each other, and we were best friends for the last few years. She was a little older than I was, but I was by far wilder than Lilli. Even after she broke up with her crappy boyfriend and was staying out late partying with me and our friends, she still went to work every day. She couldn’t stop being responsible even when she was in her partying phase of life.

“Do you want me to come over there?”

“No, actually let’s have dinner with my parents. They have been begging me to come over for dinner, and I know they’d love to see you.”

“Perfect. I’ll come over around seven, does that work?” Lilli said as I heard some voices in the background.

“Yep, works for me. See you there.”

The rest of the day pretty much flew by as I stayed busy with the projects that Jason had sent me, and he stayed in his office for most of the day. When it was finally time to leave, I wondered if I should even bother him or if I should just leave like I’d done so many other days when he was gone. But I decided to at least say goodbye and get one last feel for what might be going on between the two of us.

I pressed the buzzer to his desk, but he didn’t answer. I waited for a minute and then knocked on his door again. He didn’t answer me, so I knocked a little harder. If he was on a phone call or something like that he might not have heard me. After waiting for a good minute, I finally decided to open the door and see what was going on.

To my surprise, Jason had headphones in his ears and was dancing around his office like a maniac, and much like I’d done for years in my own bedroom. I burst out laughing at the sight of him. His head moved dramatically with the music as his arms flung around in the air, and he looked more like a teenage girl dancing in her bedroom than an executive dancing in his office.

When he spun around again, Jason noticed me standing in the doorway. I was still giggling from the sight of it all and just couldn’t stop myself.

“Oh Jesus, how long have you been there?” he said as he pulled his headphones out of his ears.

“Long enough to see some pretty stylish dance moves.” I laughed. “I was just coming in to tell you I was heading home. But I can see you’re busy…”

“Shh, that was my dancing concentration work.”

“Oh, that’s how you concentrate?”

“I’m just getting a little fried from everything we are trying to get done right now. I thought it might help clear my mind a bit,” he said as he walked closer toward me.

I felt my heart thumping in my chest with his each step toward me. His blond hair was getting longer than he normally kept it, and Jason used his fingers to push it back and out of his eyes. The chiseled jaw line of his face was more relaxed than I’d seen in a while, though, and as he smiled at me, I couldn’t help taking a step closer to him.

“I’m glad you got a chance to relax.”

“Yeah, it’s been a long month. I swear I don’t normally work this hard.”

“It’s good I’m around to help a little then. I mean, if I’m a help at all. I don’t feel like I do all that much.”

“Anna, oh my God, you’re a huge help,” Jason said as he reached out and touched my arm gently. He quickly pulled away and even took a step backward before he continued. “I couldn’t have made it through this month without you. I truly appreciate all your hard work.”

Jason turned back toward his desk and literally sat on the other side to put as much space between the two of us as possible. He couldn’t stop looking at me, though, and I walked over to sit in the chair across from his desk.

“I’m not used to working this much.” I laughed. “This has been an exhausting month for me.”

“You’ll never want to work again after this,” he teased.

His laugh was husky, and his eyes lit up as he looked at me from across the table. There it was again, the connection I’d felt so surely the night at the club. It hadn’t disappeared—it was right there, but Jason had been purposely keeping it hidden.

“My father already thinks I’m going to quit this job at any moment. Let’s not give him any more ideas.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s never seen me work this much.” I laughed. “I’m actually going to go home and have dinner with him and my mother tonight. Maybe you’d like to come over?” I asked.

The words left my mouth before I’d even thought them through at all. I’d basically just asked the man who was in charge of taking over my father’s company to come to dinner. Not exactly the sort of dinner guest my father would have wanted, and considering how he’d been talking about Jason lately, I suspected my father wouldn’t be okay with him coming over for dinner.

“No, thank you. Rosie has a family function tonight and can’t help out, and Clyde is just a little grumpy when I get home late.”

“He’s five; I think they are grumpy any time it’s close to eating or sleeping.”

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

Jason’s whole body lit up as we talked about Clyde. It was clear that his son was very important to him. After a short conversation, I already felt much better about how I’d been treated over the last month.

“I’m going to get out of here. Have a good night, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Hey, let me know how your father is doing, would you? He’s still pretty agitated about the people we had to let go and the questions about his bidding practices. I have a really hard time reading him through, and he says he’s not angry.”

“He’s a hard man to read, but I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yep,” I said as I turned to leave.

“Hey, Anna,” Jason said soft enough that I wasn’t exactly sure he had even said it, but I turned around anyway. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

He looked at me for a moment and then turned his head back to his work without another word. I stood there for a minute before leaving and pulling the door behind me. If there ever was a case for someone sending mixed signals, it was the last month I’d spent with Jason. After weeks of avoiding eye contact and practically saying nothing to me except via email, now he was telling me he was happy I was there.

I couldn’t wait to see Lilli and have her help me figure out what was going on. Normally, I saw these types of things for what they were, but in this instance, I was just too close to things to really see.

 

***

 

“I’m excited to see Lilli,” my mom said as we talked and cooked dinner together. “How’s she liking that boyfriend of hers?”

“From what I hear, they are in love.”

“That’s really sweet.”

I wasn’t about to tell my mother about all the drama that had gone on around Lilli and her boyfriend. It was a story made for the soap operas, that was for sure. He was a rich investor who had convinced Lilli to be his fake wife while he got custody of his daughter back. It was by far the most unique story I’d heard of two people meeting and falling in love. But I suspected my mother would have a lot of judgmental things to say about it, not to mention what my father would say. He was already grumpy enough, and I didn’t need to rile him up with a story about the lies Lilli had told for her boyfriend.

“How’s Dad doing today? He seemed pretty grumpy when I told him I’d invited Lilli over for dinner.”

“Oh, you know your father. He’s just stressed out about everything that’s going on with work. He will calm down when work calms down.”

“Funny thing is I actually invited Jason Hartley to come to dinner too.” I laughed.

My mom didn’t think it was funny at all. She stopped cutting the carrots and stared at me with a death stare that I was pretty sure could have caused actual harm. Her eyes zeroed in on me, and I thought she was even going to start yelling at me before she noticed I was smiling at her.

“You didn’t?”

“I actually did ask him, but he said he was busy. It just sort of came up in conversation. Luckily, he said no, though. Can you imagine how awkward that dinner would have been?”

“Your father even looks outside to see if Jason’s car is in the driveway before he heads outside. Jason is a nice enough young man, but I think this whole deal is stressing your father out. You know how much he hates changes.”

“Mom, why doesn’t Dad just retire? I mean you have plenty of money. I don’t get why he’s sticking around still. Jason’s company will make sure everything works out for Dad’s company. He really should stop stressing.”

“Don’t tell your father that. He’s got it set in his mind how he wants the company to look before he leaves, and no one is going to talk him into retiring before that.”

My mom was right about that. When my father put his mind to something, there was a very slim chance he was going to change it. He was pretty set in his ways. There was a knock on the door, and then I heard it open and knew it was Lilli.

“Is anyone home? Homeless girl here who needs a good home-cooked meal,” she teased as she came into the house.

My house was her house, and hers was mine. We always walked right in. It was surprising that Lilli had even knocked, but she’d been out of town for a while, so perhaps she wanted to be polite.

“You look friggin amazing, Anna. Is this what you wore to work?” Lilli said as she hugged me and then pushed me away from her and demanded that I twirl around.

“I’m trying to be grown up, yet stylish still. How am I doing?”

“Girl, this is perfect. I bet you’re the hottest girl in that office. Those guys have to be drooling all over you,” she said and then covered her mouth as my mother looked shockingly at her. “Sorry, Mrs. Cook.” Lilli giggled.

“It’s okay. Maybe you girls want to head upstairs so Anna can get changed out of her work clothes.”

“You’re the coolest mom ever,” Lilli said as she hugged my mom. “It’s nice to see you again, Mary. I’ve missed you and Edward. You have been like my second parents for the last few years.”

“I think your parents probably had their hands full with you,” my mom teased her.

We all laughed at the idea. If anyone had their hands full, it had to be my parents with me. Lilli was one of the most responsible people I knew, and my mom probably wished she had raised her instead of me.

“Okay, call us when Dad gets home,” I yelled as Lilli and I ran up to my room.

It had been weeks since I’d been home, and I couldn’t deny that flopping down in my old bed was exactly what I needed. Spending time with Lilli was also what I needed. This growing up stuff was overrated even if it was a little bit fun.

“So, tell me what’s going on?” Lilli asked as she plopped down on the bed next to me.

“Okay, so you know how I love Jason and always tease him?”

“Of course.”

“So, he’s been basically ignoring me most of the month since our little incident at the club. He’s nice and all but he won’t look at me or really even acknowledge I am there.”

“He’s probably just trying to do the right thing since you guys work together. How much longer are you working there?”

“I’d planned on working three months, but I only wanted to work with him so he could be my first. I’m ready, Lilli. I can feel it, and my first time has to be with Jason. It can’t be anyone else.”

“I understand.”

Lilli was the only person who would understand. She’d heard me talking about Jason since I was barely old enough to drive. He was always this handsome stranger who I’d admired and tried my damnedest to flirt with.

For years, Jason barely gave me the time of day. He would nod his head to say hello or sometimes let out a very unenthusiastic ‘hello’. But things had changed between us in the last few months and especially since the trampoline incident.

“With him in that club… Lilli, it was amazing. He wants me; I can feel it. But something is holding him back. Could it really be all about me working with him?”

“It might be your age, but guys don’t seem to care very much about that. Why don’t you just quit?”

“My father wants me to keep an eye on Jason and relay what’s going on with the merger and stuff. I really don’t know anything, though. Jason mostly makes me busy with a spreadsheet from faxed invoices and stuff like that.”

“Are you sure Jason really knows you want him? Like one hundred percent, no questions asked?”

“Um, yeah. He knows.”

“Okay, well then just wait until you leave the job. Didn’t you say three months? So, you only have two months left.”

“Yeah,” I said. I’d actually thought about that a lot, and I’d even thought about the possibility that Jason wasn’t interested in me. But neither was the right thing for me. If Jason and I hooked up, it didn’t have to be some drawn out relationship thing. I’d fantasized about Jason for so long, and I just wanted him to be my first.

“So, it’s settled, you’ll just wait for a few months?”

“Maybe I should go full force on him? You know, like the trampoline day. I could just go over there and take him.”

“Is that really how you want to have your first time?”

“No...” I laughed. “Well, maybe.”

“It might work. Or maybe if you went over there, he’d decide he wanted to give in to you. I don’t think that is how I’d do it, though.”

“Lilli, you know I’m not you.”

“That’s very true.”

The two of us spent nearly thirty minutes talking about the guys in our lives and laughing about all the things that had changed in the last year. I felt our lives were pulling us apart as we both tried desperately to keep them together, even for just a little bit. Lilli was by far my best friend, yet she was the one that was always gone. As we lay there laughing and talking, I closed my eyes and took in the moment.

The single teenager heartthrob poster sat above my bed. My walls were covered in pictures from the last five years of my life. This room was where I felt safest, yet I could already feel a separation forming. It wasn’t where I’d slept for the last few weeks, and it wasn’t my home any longer.

“Girls, come and eat,” I heard my father yell from the bottom of the stairs.

“Wow, that brings back memories,” Lilli said.

“It’s good to have you over here again,” I said as we made our way down the stairs to the kitchen.

My parents were sitting next to each other on one side of the table and had made up some seats for us on the other side. It was nice to be back home having dinner with my parents, and having Lilli there made it a little less boring.

“So, Anna, how’s work going? Any news?”

“Nothing much going on, Dad. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for.”

“You know, anything that might make things difficult for our employees? Definitely, let me know if they are planning on letting anyone else go again. That was horrible.”

“The only thing I’ve been working on is the spreadsheet and the invoices. Did Jason talk to you about those?”

“Yeah, but just briefly. They are all worried that we weren’t making a profit on a few projects. But we have made tons of money. Nothing to worry about there. It pisses me off that they think I really didn’t know what was going on with the finances. I’m the damn financial officer at the company. I know every little detail about every sale. If they had a question, they should have just asked me instead of having you put together that damned spreadsheet.”

By the time my father was done with his rant, his face was bright red, and he looked like he was going to have a stroke. I just nodded my head in agreement and didn’t argue with him, though. He was clearly not in the mood to talk about what was going on at work.

“So, Lilli, why don’t you tell us about this boyfriend of yours,” my mother said in her effort to change the subject.

“Devin is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and man is he a good dad. It’s been really exciting being with him. I feel like some sort of a movie star since we are always on his private jet.”

“Oh, wow, he’s got serious money. I don’t think I knew that,” my mom said as she ate her salad. “Good for you darling—you deserve a nice rich guy.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what my mom meant by that. Who deserves a rich guy? It seemed odd to say since Lilli’s family had plenty of money, and she’d grown up without a worry at all. But maybe my mom was just thinking about how Lilli’s ex-boyfriend had dumped her, and she had to move back home with her parents. My mom was notorious for remembering small pieces of information from a long time ago and then trying to make them relevant for the current moment.

For the rest of dinner, I basically made small talk with my family while trying not to talk at all about work. Lilli was the best sidekick I could have asked for that night. She was great at reading the stress on my father’s face and always came up with some interesting question to distract him. By the time she was leaving, I was ready to go as well.

“I’m going to head home too,” I said as I walked Lilli to the door and said a quick goodbye. “I’ll see you later. Call me and warn me when you are coming into town the next time.”

“I will,” Lilli said. “It was nice seeing you, Mr. and Mrs. Cook. Thanks for a great meal. Goodnight.”

My parents waved goodbye to Lilli, and my mom gave her a big hug before finally letting her leave. It really was like she was part of our family, and I could have used a sister around my house full of men. I think that was why my mom bonded so much with Lilli and even a few of my other friends—she was just as desperate as I was for more female energy in our house.

“Honey, you can just stay here,” she told me. “It’s so late; you don’t want to be driving all the way back to your apartment.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I can drive in the dark.” I laughed. “Plus, I’ve got to get up early for work, and I don’t have any work clothes here. They are all at my apartment.”

I grabbed a small bag of things I’d packed up from my room that I wanted to bring back to my apartment, and I gave my parents a quick hug. As much as I loved visiting them, I did need to get home. I was a professional with a job, and I had to get to work on time the next morning.

“You’re leaving with only that on?” my father grumbled as I stood in the doorway.

“Dad, it’s a sun dress. Pretty normal attire for the summer,” I teased. “If it were up to you, I’d be wearing a turtleneck sweater and long pants every day of my life.”

“Damn right you would,” he said as he gave me another hug. “You keep an eye on the business deals and don’t do any of the stupid busy work. Just call me if he needs something. Okay?”

“Okay, Dad. Love you,” I said and started to make my way out before he went on another rant about the whole business stuff. “Love you too, Mom.”

I was close to my car when I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see Jason standing in the window of his living room. He was on the phone and waved at me to come there, but then he disappeared from the window.

I threw my bag into my car and then went over to see what he needed. Nothing about the way he had motioned to me seemed like he wanted me there for something sexy or erotic. And as I approached his house, he appeared in the front doorway while he was still on the phone.

“No, I understand, Rosie, sorry for calling you. See you tomorrow,” Jason said and hung up his cell phone. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Well, I was visiting my parents.” I smiled and pointed to my house.

Jason seemed really distracted as Clyde was screaming in the background and ran up to him banging on a play drum he had been carrying around. Clyde was covered in some sort of mess that was probably his dinner and looked like he was in a desperate need of a bath. It was the first time I’d seen Jason looking so frantic.

“What’s going on here?” I teased as I knelt down to Clyde’s level. “Are you giving Daddy a hard time tonight?”

“We were playing rock band,” Clyde said as he proceeded to bang on his drum. “Come back and play with me.”

“Okay, just a second,” Jason said as he looked at his phone like he was waiting for some sort of message. “Are you busy right now?”

“I was just heading home. Why?”

“I’ve got to fax over these papers, and I forgot them at the office. Zelda tried looking for them and couldn’t find them. I just need to go in and grab them really quick and get them sent off. I totally spaced it today. Could you stay with Clyde for just an hour or so?”

“I’m not really good with kids,” I said but then saw the desperation on Jason’s face. “But I suppose I could manage to give him a bath and read him a book for bed.”

“Oh, you are a lifesaver! I’ll come back in an hour. Maybe two at the most, depending on the traffic,” Jason said as he grabbed his keys and kissed Clyde quickly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, buddy. Anna is going to stay with you, okay. Take a bath and get ready for bed.”

“Okay, Dad,” Clyde said as he didn’t look up at all from the drums.

“Thank you so much,” Jason said and kissed me on the cheek as he ran to his car.

I shut the door behind me as I stepped into Jason’s house and quickly sent an excited text off to Lilli and Patrick.

ANNA: I’m in Jason’s house! Basically, I’m just his babysitter, but this has to be a first step, right?

PATRICK: LMAO the naughty babysitter.

LILLI: Get Clyde to bed before Jason comes home!

“Clyde, let’s go get you cleaned up,” I said with excitement as I grabbed his little hand and led him to the bathroom.