Waiting For It

by Allyson Lindt

  Door was open. We had witnesses. I could rein in my imagination under these circumstances.

  Unless Chase wants to join us.

  What the fuck, brain? No. I was not going down that path. “What’s up?” At least I could still speak normally, even if my thoughts were trying to sabotage my composure on every level.

  “You and I are heading to Sacramento tomorrow, to meet face to face with Team Percival.”

  “Hey, me too,” Chase said. “I have a vendor out there I need to play nice with.”

  This trip wasn’t happening for me. And not only because I wasn’t ready for that much alone time with Luke. “I can’t go with you. I have too much work.” We were behind, and I was going to fly off to the other offices for what? A friendly visit? Besides, Mike already thought I was trying to overshadow him. No reason to get in his face about it.

  “I need you there.” The undercurrent in Luke’s tone sent pleasant shivers up my spine. “Give me specific concerns and let me address them.”

  I have too much work to do felt pretty specific to me. “It doesn’t matter that it’s a short flight. Once you factor in travel, boarding, security, any delays, we’ve wasted at least half a day each way. And only some of that time can be used for work. Why aren’t we doing this via video? In fact, why am I involved at all, beyond the usual coordination?” Not that I minded the sound of Luke, saying I need you.

  “Scott and I have some concerns about Mike, and I want you there as a second opinion, while we immerse ourselves in their culture.”

  Scott was the other owner, and the genius behind Rinslet’s early tech.

  I knew exactly what Luke was talking about. I had concerns about Mike’s behavior too—though that didn’t always mean anything in my case. And the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to turn down a trip with Luke, even if it was all business.

  But I really did have too much work. “Mike’s going to be on his best behavior if upper management is in the office.”

  “Some things can’t be hidden, especially if they’re a part of his everyday business,” Chase said.

  Luke raised his eyebrows. “Did you just back me up?”

  Why was he surprised? Chase was outspoken but not argumentative.

  “Don’t get used to it.” The sudden edge in Chase’s voice caught me off guard.

  Was there some sort of tension between the two of them I never noticed before? Who the hell knew? I hadn’t even wanted to admit until last night that Luke’s flirting meant anything.

  And now that I knew, I couldn’t use that information to my advantage.

  Back to business. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?” I asked.

  “You always have a choice. I’d rather have you with me for this, but you get final say.” Luke sounded sincere.

  “I guess I’ll go.” I let out an exaggerated sigh. We had too much work, for this to be any sort of vacation, but I didn’t want to let him down, and I was having a hard time remembering we should keep some distance between us.

  Luke’s smile was warm enough to make my pulse skip. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll have Jamie make reservations. Expect to fly out tomorrow. I’ll let you eat.” He gave me one final glance and was gone.

  “Is something weird between you two?” Chase stole the question I meant to ask him.

  There was no way I was giving him an honest answer. “No. Why do you say that?”

  “No reason. Just curious. Eat your food before it gets cold, Annie.”

  No one was allowed to call me that, except him. I had no idea why I let him get away with it, but the way he said Annie always made me smile. “I’m waiting until you leave, so I’m not rudely eating in front of you.”

  “And once I go, you’ll forget for the next two hours. Eat.” He knew me too well.

  I set up my food on the corner of my desk and took a bite. The spicy-sweet of General Tsao’s chicken washed over my tongue, and my stomach grumbled in appreciation. I shoved another forkful into my mouth quickly.

  “How’s development going?” Chase asked.

  I stared at him, eyebrows raised and mouth full of food.

  He laughed. “Sorry.”

  “No you’re not,” I said around my food. I chewed, swallowed, and washed it down with a swig of Coke. He’d even brought me the bottled kind with real sugar. He was too good to me. “Latest bug is that things are freezing right before... things.” I wasn’t supposed to share that detail.

  “The big plot twist, right? If I beg and look pretty, will you tell me?”

  I never had before, though it was silly to keep it from Chase. Tell no one meant tell no one. “Nope. But I’ll give you a hint. It does have to do with the big confession of love.”

  “You sure you guys didn’t write it that way? To freeze right before the good stuff, I mean,” he teased.

  I twisted my mouth in mock frustration. “You sound like Luke.”

  “You take that back.” There was no power in his retort. “In fact, I bet when he said it, he did so in some sort of bad accent.”

  “It was a perfect accent.” My reply came out more defensive than I intended, and I took another bite of food, letting the heat from the spice distract me so my mind didn’t pick the situation apart.

  “I accept that.”

  “If you want me to eat, you tell me about your day, so I can,” I said.

  Chase looked up for a moment. before focusing on me again. “Staff meeting this morning. Yoshi was in office.”

  My oh? came out muffled. Yoshi was VP of Sales and Marketing, which meant he was Chase and Jax’s boss. Everyone had a story about him, in a good way. He was quirky, like so many of us, but he was as kind and genuine as anyone.

  “Jax is supposed to be drilling down on a new merchandising contract, and none of us knows Yoshi is going to be there. He walks in five minutes into things, and everyone stops. He must have some sort of announcement or something important to share, right?”

  I shrugged in agreement. Usually when a big boss crashed a meeting that was the case.

  “He doesn’t want a seat at the table,” Chase said. “Instead he sits in one of the chairs against the wall, and sets a Taco Bell bag next to him. Everyone’s staring and waiting for him to say something, and he’s digging into a Chalupa. He looks up, mouth full, and says, Don’t let me interrupt.”

  “I bet Jax appreciated that,” I said sarcastically. Jax had been negotiating this contract for months.

  Chase grinned. “He cranked the cheer and enthusiasm to eleven.”

  “Extra irritated,” I said in understanding.

  “So Jax falls back into it. He’s explaining how we’re going to do a Console Power Magazine tie-in, and Yoshi asks, What does this look like? He’s holding up a burrito.”

  There was a punchline in here, and knowing Yoshi, it would be a pun. I preferred the stories second hand, because Chase had better timing, and I loved watching him—well—do anything. “And Jax said a burrito?”

  Chase nodded. “Yoshi can’t stop smirking. He says, A baby donkey.”

  A little burro? I groaned at the bad pun, but I was also laughing. “Worst one this week.”

  “Worst one I’ve told you about. I save you from the really bad ones.”

  “You’re such a gentleman.”

  He tapped me playfully on the nose. “I absolutely am. I’m going to let you work, now that you’ve eaten. See you tomorrow?”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  After Chase left, the amusement he’d brought faded quickly. I tried to concentrate on code. Exhaustion, food coma, and lust wanted me to daydream about either Luke or Chase instead. Or both together. Sleep-deprived me lacked a few filters. I had less than a day to get the potent desire out of my system and go back to the passive attraction.

  I forced my gaze to my screen. The focus lasted about five minutes, before Luke knocked.

  “Do you have a minute?” This time he stepped into my office and closed the door behind him.

&nb
sp; No. The refusal froze in my throat. My insides twisted, and my brain grasped how intimately small my office was when the door was closed. How had I never noticed that before?

  It only took him a couple of steps to move to the side of my desk. There was no furniture barrier now. “I want to make sure things are all right between us.” His voice was low.

  This wasn’t exactly a private place to talk, even closed off from the office. “Fine.” I needed to keep my answers vague. “I just had to—”

  “Get home. Yeah. I meant everything I said.”

  That he was willing to quit his job to kiss me? That we couldn’t continue what we’d been doing? That he imagined I tasted like peaches? “That’s a lot of conflicting information.”

  “It’s all true. I know what I’m saying. If you weren’t under me—” His wince matched my mental one. Did he just get the same image I did? “Things are the way they are, and none of what happened has an impact on your job.”

  So he kept insisting, but it very much did. I’d never look at him the same way again. I wasn’t saying that out loud, especially not here. If I was more like Sadie, would I stop thinking about this, and act?

  I was me, though. “Good to know.”

  “Then we’re all right? I don’t have to worry about you hiding from me, or anything?” The lightheartedness in his question was strained.

  I forced a smile. “Yup. Things are great.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll take that for now.”

  As he left, I sank a few inches in my chair. Things would get back to normal between us. It would take time some time, though.

  Did I want my relationship with Luke to go back to the way it was?

  It didn’t matter what I wanted. Returning to pretending it wasn’t him was the only choice I had.

  Chapter Five

  After another night of working past ten, this time isolated in my office, and with an entire floor of developers between me and Luke, morning came too soon.

  Taking a seven o’clock flight should get us into the Sacramento offices by about ten, which only meant a few hours of missed work. Still time I dreaded not having, almost as much as I missed the sleep I wouldn’t be getting anytime soon.

  At least I could dress in comfortable clothes, rather than business attire. Our company dress code was basically clean, and make sure your genitals don’t hang out.

  I sleepwalked my way through a quick shower, checking in online for my flight, and doing one last inventory of what I’d packed.

  All set.

  My phone buzzed with a new text.

  I’m here. It was Lyn, my other best friend, who was dropping me off at the airport.

  She’d been Sadie’s friend first, and when the two of them met, I didn’t know what to think of Lyn. She had that Sadie-confidence I envied, but something less self-assured hid underneath, and back then, I didn’t know if I was jealous of her for covering up the insecurity, or hated her for not owning it like I did.

  Lyn and I had moved past that, partly thanks to a little experimenting, that was physically incredible but emotionally didn’t have the spark either of us wanted. Now, I was glad for her friendship.

  Speaking of—if Lyn and I worked things out, Luke and I could still be friends too, right? Except my heart didn’t want Lyn, and I was pretty sure it was interested in more from Luke.

  I grabbed my suitcase, laptop, and purse, gave the house one last look—not that I’d spent enough time here in the last few months to miss the place—and headed out to her small SUV. After setting my luggage in the back, I joined her up front.

  “I brought you a present,” Lyn said in a sing-song tone as she held up a coffee cup.

  I kissed her noisily on the cheek, and took the drink as I dropped into my seat. “My hero.” The coffee scalded just a little going down, and left the burn of extra sweet in its wake. “Perfect.”

  “How’s work?” Lyn pointed us toward the airport.

  I made out with my boss two nights ago. You know—Luke, the hot one—and now I can’t stop thinking about fucking him. I wanted to spill everything, but I needed to wrap my brain around it first. “It’s work. How ’bout you?”

  She drummed her fingers rapidly against the steering wheel and let out a subdued but happy squeal. “So, you know how I was talking to Roxie?”

  I rolled the name in my brain until I made a match—names weren’t my specialty. “The podcaster Sadie knows?”

  “That’s her. She came by the café yesterday, and she loves it. She’s going to have me on her show, because—and I quote—everyone needs to know about this place.”

  That was a happier wake-up call than the coffee. “Yay.” I clapped as best I could with a cup in my hand. “Tell me when, and I’ll make the whole office listen.”

  Lyn twisted her mouth. “That won’t be necessary, but you can listen and tell me how awesome I am.”

  “Duh.” I was excited for the news.

  Lyn owned a gaming and anime café called Loading Java. For a long time, she’d only spent what the business could afford, to keep it open. But almost a year ago, she took out a loan to expand. Business slumped off right after, and she struggled to stay in the black since. Christmas rush helped. A shout-out from a gaming podcaster with a huge platform could help even more.

  We chatted about other random things while she drove. The airport was less than fifteen miles from my place, and this early in the morning, there was no traffic. Before I knew it, she was pulling up to the drop-off curb.

  “Thank you for the ride,” I said as I hopped out.

  “Anytime. Try to have a little fun if you can, and text us when you land.”

  Us being her and Sadie. Thanks to a shitty home life when I was younger and my having severed all ties to my blood relations, Lyn, Sadie, Chase, Jax, and Grayson were my family.

  I grabbed my bags from the back of her car and headed inside. It was the middle of the week, so the only people here were other business travelers. Going through security was fast and painless, aside from the fact they made me guzzle my coffee or I’d have to throw it away. Within a few minutes, I was heading through the terminal toward my gate.

  My feet slowed when Luke came into view. He was leaning against a pillar, flipping through his phone, looking as gorgeous in profile as any other time. The flutters in my stomach spread, dancing across my skin, tingling in my lips, and lingering every place he’d touched or kissed.

  When he looked up and flashed me a lazy smile, it was tempting to swoon and faint away.

  This had to stop. As much as part of me didn’t want to ignore what happened, I had to, or I’d never get any work done again.

  I waved back and joined him at the edge of the gate waiting area.

  The corners of his eyes crinkled when his smile grew. Did they always do that? God, I was screwed if he was even cuter than I’d realized. “Smart thinking, grabbing coffee here,” I nodded at his cup.

  “You could do the same,” he said.

  “Probably not a good idea. Lyn hooked me up, but I couldn’t bring it past security so I chugged it.”

  Luke winced. “I don’t know if I should be sympathetic or impressed.”

  He knew my friends. Both Sadie and Lyn had been my dates for various company functions and parties. I didn’t care for the big gatherings, so they made sure I put in my time.

  Silence lulled between us. That was normal. We’d known each other for years. So why was I staring at my shoes and thinking of excuses to walk away?

  “What kind of a seat did you get? On the plane?” Luke asked.

  I hadn’t checked. Where did I put my phone?

  Luke laughed lightly. “Stop, Anne. Front pocket?”

  “Oh, right.” I angled said pocket toward him. When his fingers brushed my hip through denim, I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth.

  His lip twitched, but he didn’t pause, extracting my phone and unlocking it.

  This wasn’t normal, was it? Most people didn’t let the
ir friends and significant others have their phone lock screen codes, let alone their bosses. Why had that never occurred to me before now?

  He raised his brows as he stared at the screen. “5A.”

  “Are we next to each other?” Could I spend an hour and a half next to him on a plane? Of course I could. Best time to practice acting normal. And sitting in cramped seats, arms pressed together, fingers itching to intertwine—

  “No. Someone”—he gave me a curious look—“got an upgrade to business class.”

  Oh. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Your assistant made the reservations?” Speaking of which—Luke could have told me he’d gotten me the upgrade, rather than going through all this... whatever it was.

  “Then she likes you more than me. I didn’t tell her to do that.” He slipped my phone back in my pocket. “I kind of wish I’d thought of it, but enjoy the seat. Think of it as a spot of good luck, which you deserve.”

  “Thanks.” And now there was going to be awkward silence again. “So I’ve been thinking about the configuration of the inventory call stack.” Technical work-talk—guaranteed to make any lull in conversation that much more boring.

  He placed a finger under my chin and tilted my head up.

  My breath caught. My mind froze. A tingle raced across my lips, and I resisted the urge to lick it away.

  “We’re not going to fix the game today. When was the last time you had a chance to read or watch something new? Take advantage of the next few hours of freedom,” Luke said.

  My tongue flicked across my bottom lip before I realized what I was doing. Could he hear my heart hammering against my ribs?

  “Okay.” I couldn’t pull my gaze from his. Would he kiss me again? Bad idea anyway, but in the middle of the airport, when Chase could show up any minute? “I’ll pretend to relax.” I tried to act natural about moving out of arm’s reach.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re ready to begin boarding.” A voice came over the loudspeaker and announced that they were now boarding Business Class rows.