by C. M. Boers
At one point, he pulled me backwards into his body. I could feel the sway of his hips as he pulled me against him. I never knew how good someone’s hands could feel resting on your flesh. I reveled in that moment, his warm breath on my neck. I yearned for him to press his lips to the tender skin at the nape of my neck.
And then he grabbed my hand and spun me. It was the jolt I needed to snap me out of the spell.
“I should get home.” I turned to Grace. “I’m getting tired. Are you ready to head out?”
She flashed me a pouty lip and turned back to Alex, handing him her phone.
Jack refused to let me leave without at least walking me to the door. “Can I get your number?”
I hesitated. Maybe it would be best to leave this up to fate. As much as I’d run into him, I didn’t doubt there would be another time, and if there wasn’t, I’d be out of this predicament. “If we see each other again, yes.” I smirked up at his surprised face.
He recovered quickly. “I look forward to it.”
He waited there until Grace joined me, then said his goodbyes.
The whole way back to my house, she gushed about how amazing Alex was. All the while, I remained quiet, trying to dissect my feelings towards Jack. And thankfully, Grace never asked.
* * *
The next morning, my eyelids fluttered open just briefly and found Grace staring at me. It was all too familiar. I flashed back to the hospital and beeping monitors.
“Ugh! I forgot. You’re a morning person.” I threw my arm over my face.
“Wake up! Wake up! It’s time to get up.” Grace shook me.
“No! Go away.”
She changed tactics and started tickling. Giggles erupted involuntarily.
“Savage!” I squealed, rolling off the bed to escape her onslaught. “There. I’m up! Happy?”
“Yes, because you have to take me to the airport.”
“Already?”
She nodded. “Therapy in the morning. And I’ve got a date.”
“You planned a date for when you get back?!”
“Sure did, why not? He’s really cute.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how you do it.”
Then I thought of Jack, and butterflies filled my stomach and my excitement to see him again grew. I couldn’t say if I’d ever felt this way before, but if all guys gave Grace even half this feeling, I could sort of understand. Just a little.
Thirty minutes later, I left her at the curb in the hands of an airline assistant. Grace’s face when the guy’s crack slid into view when he bent to grab her bag was priceless.
I hated that she was already gone. It made my house feel so empty. Not even twenty-four hours with her. On the plus side, I’d have some time to work on my staircase.
I walked into work Monday morning with a bit more pep in my step. The short time this weekend with Grace had been exactly what I needed to feel revitalized. But if I was honest with myself, I knew a lot of it had to do with Jack. He’d given me a lot more to be excited about than Grace had. He put the butterflies in my stomach.
I put my things under my desk like I always did and started to tackle the enormous piles of files on my desk. They’d stacked up way more than usual and overflowed to stacks on the floor. The boss must have been working through the weekend.
Cindy came out shortly after I arrived, with another stack.
I raised my eyebrows. “Looks like you guys emptied the file cabinets over the weekend.”
Cindy rolled her eyes. “There’s no we about that.” She pointed back towards the office. “He did.”
“Wait, seriously? I was kidding. All of them? They’re as tall as me!”
She nodded. “You should see his office.” She turned and headed back, only to return again with another stack, which she added to the three already on the floor.
“Hey, is there any way you can stay late today? He’s really wanting to go through everything and get rid of what isn’t needed, but I just can’t. I have a dinner party tonight. If he’d have told me earlier . . .”
“It’s fine. I can stay. It’s not a problem.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
“Great! You’re saving me!”
She hurried off back to his office and disappeared just as the phone rang.
“Hello, thank you for calling J.R. Unlimited. This is Melanie.”
Four o’clock seemed to come quicker than normal, with my head buried in file cabinets. And my desk still looked full.
Cindy stepped out of the office, saying goodbye, her purse slung over her shoulder. “I’m out of here. Thanks for staying. I owe you one.”
“Sure. See you tomorrow.”
She gave one last nod and left, leaving me alone with my boss, who I’d still yet to meet. The nerves in my stomach simmered. I couldn’t help my wandering mind. What would he be like? Old and gray? Young? Grouchy? Couldn’t be too grouchy if Cindy liked him—she was too sweet to take any crap from a grouchy old man.
Was I expected to go to the office to help, like Cindy, or did he just need me here to put it all away?
I stood there, trying to decide while I thumbed through the next stack, when the door opened again. My eyes followed the light in the hallway, waiting for someone to emerge. With a trash bag slung over his shoulder, J.R. emerged. I couldn’t yet see his face, hidden behind the bag.
He walked closer to my desk, and when he’d almost reached me, he bent over, dropping the bag, and stood.
My mouth hung open, and a smile formed on his face.
“Hey,” he said, recognition evident.
I clamped my mouth shut. “You . . .”
“Yes, me.” Jack chuckled. “I guess fate would have it, then.”
No.
I suddenly felt like I’d been deceived. Like he’d known the whole time and intentionally didn’t come out to meet me until I’d already grown to like him. More than like him. Grown to see myself dating him. To hope that someday . . .
“Did you know?”
His face changed to confusion. “Know what?”
“Know that I worked here. Did you know it was me? All those times you ran into me . . . this weekend . . .”
He laughed nervously. “What? No. Of course I didn’t.”
“You were so friendly.” I dropped into the chair at my desk. “What was all that? Like some kind of game?” I couldn’t understand what he had to gain.
“It wasn’t a game. I was just trying to be friendly.”
“You said your name was Jack . . . not J.R.”
“Yes, I did. For personal matters, I go by Jack. J.R. is a lot more . . . I don’t know, just less personal.” He seemed almost annoyed to have to explain his name choices. Almost.
“Oh.” I pressed a finger to my temple.
He stood there for a second longer, then bent, grabbing the trash bag again. He hefted it to the door, where he stopped, leaning back inside. “You know, it’s kind of funny.” He smirked, and the door banged shut.
I breathed out. What the heck just happened?
When the door opened again, I sprang up on impulse and grabbed a stack of files I’d already organized, then began stuffing them back in the cabinet.
J.R. . . . Jack . . . I didn’t even know what to call him now, stopped behind me. I could feel his piercing green eyes at my back.
I turned back to him once they were all in. “So, what is it you need me to do tonight? The usual? Or something else?”
“I don’t feel much like working anymore,” he said.
I opened my mouth to speak but shut it again when no words came.
“What do you say we go get dinner?”
“Ah . . . I should really finish this.” I motioned to the desk more than half-covered with files and papers.
“I think your boss will be okay if they stayed right there until tomorrow.”
I sighed. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, but I can’t date anyone right now.” I kept looking from him to t
he wall behind him as I thought of how excited I’d been about my time with him this weekend, and now . . . there could be nothing between us. Ever.
I should have stuck with my original plan and not let Grace talk me into this, into wanting more, before my life had more . . . stability. More certainty.
“Why?”
“For so many reasons . . . but let’s just go with, you’re my boss.”
“Cindy is your boss.”
I cocked my head to the side, rolling my eyes.
“She is. You hadn’t even seen me before today. Surely, for me to be your boss, I would have had to meet you before now.”
“Who writes my check?” I challenged further.
He smirked. “Cindy.”
“Fine. Who pays it?”
His lips tightened. “Eh, specifics. Nobody cares about that.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t date someone who’s paying me.”
“Fine. I’ll pay Cindy extra, and she can decide how much to give you.”
I shook my head. “That’s the same thing.”
“Is it?” He rubbed the stubble on his chin, and I thought of his breath at my neck as we’d danced at the club.
My mouth went dry. I gulped, nodding.
“Fine. I’ll order takeout, and we can work.” He made a face, sticking out his tongue, and pointed his thumbs down. “No date . . . today.” He turned and disappeared in his office, for once keeping his door open.
I went back to working, cursing myself for being stupid enough to get hung up on him. I knew how hard it was going to be to get my mind off him and his amazing green eyes.
Without Cindy there to pile more on, I got through the stacks quickly. For a few minutes, I stared at the empty desk, trying to work up the courage to go back to his office. I pictured him sitting at a desk like mine, towering with files, but when I stepped inside, I found his office to be much bigger than the rest of the whole place. Inside, he had an elliptical machine, mini fridge, couch, and a TV even hung on the wall. There was even a smaller version of his desk in a corner—I’d guess it was Cindy’s. His desk was clear; behind him, however, was loaded with piles of different things. As I suspected, there were two doors in his office; a bathroom, and one that looked like it went outside.
“Can I help with anything?” I asked.
He looked up as if he hadn’t heard me enter. “You finished all that out there?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, you are fast.” He looked around his office. “Not yet, but the food should be here soon. Hope salads are okay?”
I nodded.
“You can come in,” he said, motioning to the chair across from him. I rubbed my palms on the front of my dress slacks, wiping away the nervous moisture.
He closed the file he was working on and checked his phone.
“Be right back.”
He returned moments later with two takeout containers. He set them both on the desk and pushed them towards me.
“Pick which one you want.”
One appeared to be Caesar, and the other, some kind of mixture of veggies and what looked like ranch. I took the latter. I looked up to find him watching me.
“The whole fish in the dressing weirds me out.”
He laughed. “You can’t even taste it.”
“My stomach knows.”
“Good to know.” He popped open the fully stocked mini fridge and pointed. Between sodas and coffee drinks to flavored and regular water, I pretty much had my choice of anything.
“A water bottle, please.”
He tossed it to me and took one for himself.
“You’ve got quite the setup here.”
He looked around. “Took about a year, but I think I finally have everything I could ever need.” He chuckled, looking at the TV. “And more.”
“It appears that way,” I said. “So, I have a general idea, but what exactly do you do with all these companies?”
“What do you think I do?” he asked with a smirk as he pushed another bite into his mouth.
Ugh. I hope I don’t guess wrong. “Do you manage businesses? Like, their books?”
“Close.”
He went on eating. I waited, but it became clear he wasn’t going to elaborate.
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Eh, I think I’ll save that for our next date.”
“What? This isn’t a date.”
He smirked. “Okay.”
“It’s not.”
“Whatever you say.”
I shook my head. Deep down, my stomach flopped.
Stop it.
I was in trouble. Those green eyes; they were trouble.
Big trouble.
He took a sip of his water, still smirking. I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering back to this weekend. To Jack. To the fact that all this time I’d been trying to avoid him, there I sat, just feet away from him every day for weeks, working for him, and yet neither of us knew.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.” He pushed the last bite of his salad into his mouth and shoved away the empty container.
“Why didn’t you come out to meet me?”
He laid his hands across his stomach and looked at me. “I don’t like many people knowing who I am.”
My brow furrowed.
“Sometimes, people get ideas about me . . . and about my money. Sometimes, that’s all they see, and they try to take advantage. It happened with my dad all the time, and me too, as I grew up. My friends saw the money I came from and thought that entitled them to some of it. When I started my company in a new town, I saw that as a chance to start over, to change that cycle, if you will. I chose to separate myself from it the only way I knew how.”
“So, that’s why the Jack . . . J.R. thing?”
He nodded. “Everyone around town knows me as Jack. And nobody has seen J.R., except Cindy . . . and, I guess, now you.”
I finished the last of my salad. I completely understood his point. We had a lot more in common than I realized. We both were pretending to be something else for fear that people would act differently around us because of our money.
My heart fluttered. In that moment, I questioned whether I could stop this. It seemed like an unstoppable force was pulling us together.
Fate.
Never in a million years would I have expected that little word to come back in such a big way.
I gazed up at him, his eyes fixed on a sheet of paper, and something happened within me, making me question whether I even wanted to stop it anymore.
I gathered up our containers and left the room, needing a minute to myself. Tossing them in the trash under my desk, I grabbed my purse. I searched for my gum and popped a piece in my mouth, took a deep breath, and headed back.
“Are you finished with any of these?” I pointed to the piles behind his desk.
He stood without speaking, bent at the knees, and lifted the biggest stack.
“I can get those . . .” I said.
He brushed past me and set them on my desk.
“Thanks.”
He nodded and headed back to his office without a word. He seemed to be in the middle of a deep thought, so I let him be.
The stack was far larger than any Cindy ever brought me. I doubted she’d have been able to carry it. But I tackled it like I would any other.
I don’t know if it was the late hour or preoccupation of my thoughts, but it seemed to take longer than normal to get through them. The last few files were in my hands when the light down the small hallway went out. With a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, Jack . . . err, J.R. emerged.
“I can’t look at another file tonight. My eyes are starting to cross,” he said. “You almost finished?”
“Yep. These are the last of them.”
I took a moment and sorted them throughout the file cabinet. He watched, waiting. I slid the last drawer shut and turned to grab my things, hoping not to
make him wait for me longer than he needed to.
He stopped at the door, holding it open for me, then flipped off the lights just as I slipped through.
“Have a good night,” he said. “I don’t expect you in tomorrow until at least eleven o’clock.”
“Okay.”
I headed straight to my car, leaving him behind to lock up. My doors unlocked with a touch of the button, yet for some reason my dome light didn’t come on. I didn’t think much of it until I pushed my key into the ignition and turned. Nothing happened. I tried again with the same result.
Crap.
I tried to turn it over one more time and was again met with silence—not even a single click.
I glanced in my rearview in time to see lights flicker on across the parking lot. I got out and popped open my hood. More than likely, it was a dead battery. I checked my trunk, but I already knew I didn’t have jumper cables.
Shoot!
Jack pulled up beside me. “Something wrong?”
“Ah, yeah, my car won’t start. I think it’s a dead battery. You wouldn’t happen to have jumper cables, would you?”
He shook his head. “I do not.” He got out of his car, leaving it running, and climbed behind the wheel of mine. His cologne followed him as he brushed past. I closed my eyes, breathing it in.
What are you doing? “He’s your boss!” I mouthed to myself.
“Nice car.”
I absently looked over the luxury car my parents bought me. My eyes settled back on Jack, and his eyebrows raised. I blushed.
“Oh . . . uh . . . thanks.”
He nodded and turned back to the steering wheel. I probably looked like a crazy person. I didn’t expect his eyes on me.
He tried turning it over, with the same result as before. I stood there watching as he walked around to the front and shut the hood. He pressed the lock button on the door and handed me the keys.
“I’ll give you a ride home. We can take care of this in the morning.”
“We?”
“Unless you have another ride back here in the morning?”
I wanted to say I did. “No, I can walk.”
“Nonsense. Get in.” He walked around to the driver’s side and waited for me to get settled before he pulled away.
