CHAPTER 4
LANA
I didn’t sleep. Instead of crashing in my ‘hide-a-bed,’ the nickname I used for my under the desk bed, I’d gone home to my apartment. I’d had a feeling I’d have some trouble sleeping, thus the reason I’d gone home, but being in my king-sized bed hadn’t been the cure for the anticipation of today—Joe’s first day.
Instead, I showed up at the office the next morning, exhausted, confused, but determined to be the best, most professional version of myself. Typically, I was the first person to arrive in the morning, but it had taken me longer than normal to get ready, and as I walked through the office halls, I spotted a few people who had beat me in today. They each said a polite ‘good morning’ as I passed, all of which I returned, until I reached the outside of my office and Nancy’s desk.
Even Nancy was already here.
That was when I knew I was late.
“Good Morning, Lana.” Nancy smiled politely up at me from her desk. “Joe Coffee is already here. He’s waiting inside your office.” She raised her eyebrows, wiggling them a little. “Would you like me to get you your coffee now? Or anything else?”
“Coffee, yes.” She knew how I liked it, I didn’t have to explain.
“Okay. I’ll be right in with it. And here’s the research you wanted on that other coffee bean farm in Costa Rica.” She stood from her desk, raising her eyebrows at me as if she was trying to send me some hidden message, but I couldn’t read her mind. We weren’t that close that I knew what sort of message her eyebrows meant. I grabbed the pile of papers off her desk. For a small second, I tried to decipher what her hidden message might possibly mean, but quickly gave up, pushing open the doors to my office. I was ready to face Joe, ready to put yesterday miles behind me, ready to ignore anything my body felt for him, and simply work with him as if he were any other person on this planet.
But fuck me, the first sight of Joe on the other side of that door was like slamming into a brick wall going eighty-miles-per-hour. Nancy’s eyebrow message suddenly made a whole lot of sense as I gasped at the sight of him while the papers in my hands fell to the floor.
Joe Coffee cleaned up like a freaking diamond in the rough. Like a banana split sundae on a hot summer day. Like an orgasm with a brand-new vibrator.
My Good Holy Savior—if I thought the man was beautiful yesterday, then I didn’t know what beautiful was. The man in my office today, leaning casually against my desk with his arms crossed over his chest, and his vibrant blue eyes intensely on me, nearly made me come right then and there in my panties. Not kidding. A shockwave hit me from my head to my toes, one that left me feeling weak and a little nauseous.
He was beautiful. Like a GQ angel sent from above. He wore a suit, but not just any suit, something designer. Admittedly I sucked at brands, so I didn’t know what, but I could tell it was expensive. Navy blue, crisp lines, the color bringing out his intimidating as hell eyes. He’d mostly shaved. He’d looked good with the full beard he’d been sporting yesterday, but today I could see more of his beautiful face, of the lines of his jaw, and seeing him now, knowing how incredibly drop-dead gorgeous his face was underneath, I knew with certainty that the beard had purposely been in place to hide some of his handsomeness. Because he freaking radiated handsomeness.
I dropped immediately to my knees to collect the papers I’d let slip to the ground. I busied myself with collecting them.
He moved to help me.
His curly hair was different. Pulled back. I guess he had enough of it to pull it back. It was the one thing I think I liked better the other way. I knew I needed to say something to break the silence as he helped me clean up the papers, but I couldn’t really speak. I couldn’t really think. I couldn’t really breathe.
As we finished, both standing back up, I’d never been so happy in my life to see Nancy. She came into my office, carrying my coffee. And it was Nancy who broke the awkward tension.
“Doesn’t Joe clean up nicely?” she commented, all smiles, setting my coffee in its spot on my desk. “I almost didn’t even recognize you, Joe.”
I’d never seen Nancy flirt before. She was good at it, as if she’d had plenty of practice. She tossed her pretty wavy blond hair over one shoulder, smiling widely, relaxing in front of me in a way I’d never seen her relax before. Typically, she raced out of my office so fast you’d think I might bite.
The worst part was that Joe smiled back at her. A genuine, friendly smile on those full, kissable, deliciously gorgeous lips of his. “I figured if I was going to work this job, the least I could do was look the part,” he joked lightly. His eyes were only on her.
“Well, you look the part,” Nancy returned politely. “Would you like me to get you some coffee? You’re not the only barista in the room. I can make you anything you’d like.”
“No, thanks, I’m actually more of a tea person.”
“Oh. Well, we have tea in the break room. I could—”
“Thank you, Nancy. That will be all,” I said dismissing her. Because, seriously, was she going to offer to drop to her knees and blow him next? She took the hint and immediately she left us.
The smile on Joe’s face left the moment she left. He became serious, so damn serious, that it was like a slap right across my cheek. I took the papers he’d collected from the floor straight from his hands, and then I moved to sit at a small table with chairs that I had on the opposite side of my office.
Joe followed and sat in one of the chairs across from me.
“Let’s get started.” I scooted my chair closer to the table. “You do look nice,” I added, kind of under my breath. It wasn’t something I really wanted to mention. He didn’t need to know I thought that, especially after his gag-worthy flirting with Nancy. But it was so obvious, I felt I couldn’t not mention it. Like an elephant in the room that needed addressing.
His response was a nearly inaudible grunt, as if my compliment annoyed him. It hadn’t annoyed him when Nancy had complimented him. I’d been looking down, but I glanced up to look at him. My eyes connected with his across the table. His eyes narrowed for a moment. No smile. No flirting. But a shiver ran through me because I got this weird sense that somehow moody, grumpy Joe was the real Joe. And that happy, flirty Joe wasn’t.
Which was entirely strange.
Because wouldn’t most normal people try to put their best face on in front of their boss?
“Can we start with my job title?” he asked. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“Right.” I knew I hadn’t explained much to him yesterday. I’d kind of done that on purpose. I was ready to be completely frank with him now. “My goal is to expand the structure of the company. We have a COO and a CFO—I’ll introduce you to both of them soon, there’s a meeting in about an hour—and a Vice President of our Marketing Department, but really, my company has grown to the point where we need more than just those three other positions at the top. The position I want to create for you would be completely new. Vice President of Growth and Development, that’s the title I’ve been tossing around in my head. You’d be in charge of a whole new department.”
“Wow,” was all he said.
“I know that sounds like a lot. Right now, I’m shouldering most of the work. I oversee every single step each time we open a new Java Beans store and that workload needs to be delegated. I want you to shadow me for the next couple of weeks until you’re familiar with all the steps in the process, until you’re ready to take this part of the business over for me. I’m going to be honest, I don’t have a clue if you’ll be right for this job. But I wanted someone who knows the day-to-day side of Java Beans, who’s been there, who knows our customers, who knows a store that’s established runs. I didn’t want to hire someone outside the company. So, combining your experience with your unique education, I’m hoping you’re the right person for this job.”
He cleared his throat. If all of this new information was intimating, he didn’t show it. He stared at me as if everything I’d just told him sounded exactly like something he could handle.
I kept talking, kept explaining. He kept listening. He asked questions when appropriate. He didn’t joke like the charismatic Joe Coffee I thought I’d hired. But this other version of Joe, this serious version, put my mind at ease. He was smart. He was calculated. And by the end of the hour, I felt that I’d made a good choice in hiring him.
Go figure.
Beauty and brains in one package.
It almost felt too good to be true. I remembered how yesterday he’d mentioned he had ADHD, how it affected his ability to focus, and wondered if I should be worried about that. I didn’t bring it up, though. Because it seemed like he was right here, in the present moment with me, and that was good enough for now.
“Let’s go meet everyone,” I said.
“Let’s,” he answered and stood to follow me.