Reece laughed so hard he didn’t hear the door to the conference room open. Bailey stood in the threshold smiling, hugging Technology Now against her chest, beaming at her love interest.
“Well, look who it is,” Christopher said. “The girl who had us respell ‘fablous.’ And subsequently land us in the biggest tech magazine on the planet! What’s up, Beboppin’ Bailey?”
“I highlighted the word,” she said, and held up her magazine. “See?”
“You highlighted my man’s name, too, I see,” Christopher noted, and Reece went hot all over.
Bailey blushed. “Congratulations to the both of you.”
“Thanks,” Reece replied. He was still flushed himself, and avoided her eyes. That wasn’t like Reece to avoid anyone’s eyes, but Christopher’s compliments along with Bailey’s well wishes were a bit too much. He wasn’t used to the praise. He’d never developed a marketing campaign that created so much buzz, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.
Others started pouring into the conference room for the 8:30 meeting. Bailey was pushed aside as coworkers swarmed Reece, congratulating him and discussing the magazine article. She took a seat in the corner, still holding her copy of Technology Now, wondering if Reece planned to eat lunch with her today. He may forget about her altogether now that his life was so clearly going somewhere.
Dan was last to enter the conference room. Silence descended as colleagues held their breath, waiting for their boss’s reaction. He looked Reece square in the face and inclined his head.
“It’s a pretty damn good day, isn’t it?”
***
She had no clue he stood directly behind her in the snack line. And it was a long line. He thought they’d miss the first fifteen previews.
“Here by yourself?” he asked, tapping her shoulder.
Bailey whirled around, eyes wide when she recognized him.
“Wow. Now there’s a face,” Reece said, chuckling. “You look like you’ve been caught.”
She smiled uneasily. Hadn’t she?
“Here alone?” Reece asked.
Bailey bit her lower lip and nodded. “Go ahead and think it. I’m lame, right? Going to the movies by myself? That’s what lame people do, right?”
Reece considered this. “Well, then I must be pretty lame, too.”
“Oh gosh. I’m sorry. I meant for women.”
He burst out laughing. “Are you always so hard on your own gender?”
“Not me,” Bailey explained. “The world. It’s totally fine that you’re here alone. Cool, actually. Completely different for me. It’s much more, ‘Oh, look at that poor, sad woman over there. Does she not have a boyfriend? A friend? Does she not even have a home? Maybe we should take her home and feed her something.’”
Reece chuckled. “Now that’s just not fair.”
“Tell me about it,” Bailey mumbled.
She hung her head. She knew her eyelashes obscured her eyes which gave her the perfect opportunity to check out his clothes. He wore a gray, striped long-sleeve T-shirt that hugged his chest and arms. Very flattering. She rather enjoyed studying the curves and dips of his muscles. It had been three long months since she’d touched man muscles, and it was excruciating standing there refraining from touching his. She let her eyes travel down his dark jeans to his Lacostes. God, he was a cutie.
“Well, why don’t you let me feed you, at least?” Reece offered. “I mean, since your life is so pathetic. It’s the least I can do.”
She lifted her face to him and cocked her head. “That’s funny.”
“Seriously,” Reece said. “I’m not here with anyone. You aren’t either. We could watch the movie together.”
“How do you know what movie I’m going to see?”
“Easy. It’s the one I’m seeing.”
Bailey shook her head and giggled. Was she flirting? She was pretty sure she was flirting.
“Nuh uh,” she sang.
“Fine, we’ll see yours,” Reece said. “But if it’s a chick flick, you so owe me.”
“It’s one of those smart, ironic comedies about the families who are way cool and progressive,” Bailey explained.
“Ohhhh, yeah. Those ones that try to make you feel like an idiot if you don’t get the hip, ironic jokes?” Reece asked.
“Exactly,” Bailey replied. “They make me feel like I oughta retake the GRE.”
“I totally did that,” Reece confessed. “For the fun of it!”
She laughed as they approached the counter.
“For the lady?” Reece asked.
Bailey shrugged. “Just water.”
“Just water?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Hold up. You stood in this long line for ‘just water?’”
She nodded again.
Reece shook his head and addressed the worker: “We’ll have some peanut M&Ms, a jumbo popcorn with extra butter and salt, jumbo drink, box of Skittles, nachos, and Reese’s Pieces.”
“No, you didn’t,” Bailey said.
“Oh, I so did,” Reece replied, winking.
Bailey snatched the cup and filled it with ice and water.
“Where’s yours?” she asked, but she knew exactly what he was up to.
“My what?”
“Your drink? I assume you got this humongous cup for me,” she replied.
Reece looked at her, then at the line, then at her again. “Umm . . .”
“You assumed we’d share!” she cried, laughing. “You’ve got some nerve, buddy. We’re not at that level in our friendship yet. And anyway, how do I know you don’t have some weird mouth disease?”
Reece hung his head. “All right. You caught me. I thought we’d share a drink to accelerate the intimacy of our friendship.”
“‘Intimacy of our friendship,’ huh?” Bailey joked.
She hadn’t considered that they may, in fact, be friends. He ate lunch with her nearly every day since they cleared the air about The Reel Café booty-shaking incident. He talked to her all the time. She knew all this, but she never thought about it all in terms of true friendship. She thought he was just being a nice coworker.
“No weird mouth disease. I swear. But if you’re uncomfortable, I’ll just get back in that long line and order myself a drink. You can tell me what happens in the first hour of the movie.” He grinned at her and waited.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she mumbled. “Come on.” She glanced at the large tray of food in his hands.