“I’ll have a coffee, then you can come to my office.” He smirked and walked off. Fuck. Had I just led him on? If I walked into his office and he was naked I would flip out.
My first stop was my office to wake my computer and put my bag under my desk. My tiny office was depressing and plain. But it could be painted all the colours of the rainbow and I would still think that. This was the actual last place on earth I wanted to spend five days a week but a girl needed shoes and wine so I had little choice.
I passed the gossiping accounting girls standing along the corridor to the kitchen. I was late but they hadn’t started work either. If I could handle falling back ten years I would’ve pointed it out, but I should probably practice a little more maturity than that. Probably.
“Morning,” I said.
They replied and turned straight back to their conversation. One on one they were great but in a group it turned a bit clique-y. I was having absolutely nothing to do with that. The only girl I liked was Chloe. Logan’s sister Cassie was cool too, but we didn’t see a whole lot of each other.
I struggled through the morning, feeling rubbish because I’d been shouted at and ordered about by my arsehole of a boss. Lunch couldn’t have come soon enough and I didn’t even care that I was eating alone in a restaurant and looked like a proper saddo. I was out of the office for an hour and that was all that mattered.
My phone rang just as I finished my sandwich. “Damon,” I said, trying to sound more cheerful than I felt.
“What colour is your underwear?”
Rolling my eyes, I took a sip of my coffee. “You have an unhealthy interest in the colour of my underwear.”
“And an even unhealthier one in what’s under it.”
“Do you want something, Damon? I don’t think I have enough time for a quickie.” My voice was much too loud for an unusually quiet coffee shop and no less than four people looked up. The young man in the smart pinstripe suit gave me more attention than necessary. If he thought I was having a quickie with him he was going to be disappointed.
“Christ, people are watching,” I muttered into the phone. Why did I continue to answer his calls in public?
Damon laughed, as I thought he would. “Let’s step this up.”
“Let’s not!” I’d like to think that if he was here he would stop but he absolutely wouldn’t. Now I didn’t care what people thought of me, but Damon didn’t care on a whole different level. “Seriously, what do you want?”
He laughed again and replied, “I just wanted to see if we’re still on for tonight.”
“We are. Chloe and Logan are meeting us at the restaurant so we can meet after work and go tomorrow if you want?”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll come by and pick you up.”
“Okay.”
“You are?”
I frowned, my heart speeding up. “Yeah, why?”
There was a pause that I didn’t like at all. He cleared his throat. “You just seem different, quieter, I don’t know.”
“The entire coffee shop doesn’t think so.”
“Nell.”
“Yes?”
Sighing, he said, “Is everything okay? We can talk about that, right?”
No. We couldn’t talk about the really personal stuff, that was for couples and we weren’t a couple. “Everything’s fine, Damon, it’s just my boss and his son. You know what an arse they can be.”
“Those jumped up little pricks will only be sorry when you’re gone. When are you thinking about changing jobs?”
I snorted. “About three months ago. I’m going to look into it soon.”
“Okay, well if you need any help…”
My eye twitched. I rarely asked anyone for help and I hated it when it was randomly offered. People thinking I needed help made me feel weak.
“Thanks,” I bit out, “but I’m fine.”
“Alright.”
Sighing, I asked, “So how was your weekend?”
He instantly brightened and it better not because of the girl. “It was good, nice to catch up with the family. What did you do?”
“Got drunk with Chloe, showed the world my underwear, and then went to dinner at my mum’s.” And had the worst day I’d had in a long time.
“Right. How drunk were you?” He asked. I could hear amusement and concern in his voice and knew he was fishing to find out if I’d gone home with anyone.
“I remember getting to the bar and waking up in the morning so I’m going with considerably drunk. It was a good night though. I think.”
“I’ve not seen you drunk for too long.”
“We’ll rectify that soon. Anyway, I better go and eat. I’ll see you after work, okay?”
“Yeah, see you later, Nell.”