Managed by Chance

by Amy DeMeritt

  Katie licked her lips seductively as she took her hand back from Mel and used both hands to tear off a sticky, gooey bite of the cinnamon bun. While staring in Mel’s eyes, which were locked on her mouth, she wrapped her lips around the incredibly delicious morsel, then made a show of sucking her fingertips clean.

  “Okay, watching you eat sweets is my new favorite thing and the best fucking way to start a Monday. I need to get you a box of these every day.”

  “Oh, my god.” Katie laughed as she wiped her fingers on a napkin. “I would be huge if I ate a box of these every day.” With a glimmer of lust in her eyes, she added, “There is a much healthier alternative that I can suck off of my fingers.”

  Mel released an involuntary moan, then quickly cleared her throat and looked over her shoulder to see if someone was near the door, completely forgetting for just a moment that it was closed.

  With pride and affection, Katie said, “Eat your sticky bun, Mel.”

  “Is that an invitation to get sloppy on my knees?”

  It was Katie’s turn to release an involuntary moan, spawning a proud smile across Mel’s lips. Instead of answering her question, because she knew they couldn’t do that here at work, Katie just tore off another piece of her cinnamon bun and seductively ate it and licked her fingers, fully enjoying the obvious pleasure and arousal she was causing Mel.

  While they ate their cinnamon rolls, they continued to flirt and shared a few brief kisses. But once they were finished, they were able to easily flip the switch and get to work. After throwing away their trash and washing their hands, Mel grabbed her laptop and a notebook from her office and pulled a chair over to sit next to Katie.

  “We should probably go over my calendar before getting into the associate workflow chart because you’ll need to prepare for some of these upcoming meetings that I’ll need to share with you.”

  “Okay, that’s fine with me.” Katie brought up her calendar within the email system. “What do you have for this month?”

  Mel explained a couple of upcoming meetings that Katie will need to attend with Mel and forwarded the invitations to her so they’d populate on Katie’s calendar.

  “Uh, this last one on the twenty-sixth, I guess you’ll be going to by yourself. It’s for managers and directors. It’s reoccurring on the last Thursday of every month.”

  After sending her the invite, Mel explained what the meeting is and what she would need to do to prepare for it.

  “I’d like you attend this month’s meeting with me, then I’ll take it over next month.”

  Mel just nodded as she made a new note in her notebook. Even though she had been training Katie to take over the job she had been doing and still felt she deserved to have, this was the first time that it really felt finalized. She wasn’t the acting manager anymore and her responsibilities and power within the company significantly decreased the instant Katie arrived. She had just been so focused on trying to function at all after Katie broke it off with her that she hadn’t focused on what she was losing in regards to her career.

  “I’ll, uh, be right back. I need to get some water.” Mel locked her computer as she pushed her chair back and stood up. “You need anything?”

  “No, I’m good, thanks.”

  Katie searched her face, trying to meet her eyes to read her, but Mel was too quick to walk out of the office.

  Mel walked as if the water cooler was about to lift off into space at any second and this was her last chance to get a drink for the day. She didn’t actually need a refill just yet, but she really needed a moment to herself. She felt dizzy and lightheaded from the extreme shift in her mood. One moment she was completely aroused and wanted nothing more than to have sex with Katie on her desk. The next, she couldn’t even sit in the same room with her.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  She nearly jumped out of her skin as Dan leaned against the wall next to her with his own bottle open and ready to fill when she finished.

  “Hey. Good. How’s Jessica doing?”

  She stepped aside to twist the cap on her bottle, and he stepped forward to fill his.

  “She’s doing pretty good. She still hurts, but she has a high threshold for pain, so she hasn’t needed any pain medicine. The insurance company totaled the car, so we’re going to start car shopping for her this week.”

  He fitted the cap back on his bottle, and while they walked back to their department together, he talked about what kind of cars Jessica wanted to look at. He stopped at the corner near her office, and after a few more moments of chatting, they separated.

  Talking to Dan was a nice distraction, but the instant she walked back into Katie’s office and saw the cautious smile on her face, she wanted to run right back out of the office again.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, sorry, I ran into Dan at the cooler, so I was asking how Jessica is doing with her recovery.”

  As Mel sat down next to her, Katie clarified, “I meant, with you.”

  Without looking at her, and while unlocking her laptop, Mel answered, “Yeah, I’m fine.” She moved to the next month on her calendar. “Okay, in June, we only have two meetings scheduled so far. One, of course, is the monthly reoccurring management meeting. The other is…”

  “Mel.” Katie gently placed a hand on her knee. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t seem fine.”

  “Well, I am.” She exhaled hard as she shook her head. She could see it on Katie’s face – she wasn’t convincing at all. “I will be fine. Can we just drop it?”

  “No.” Katie glanced at the open door, then as she looked at Mel, she quietly said, “We cannot start either relationship like this. We have to be open and honest with each other.”

  “Am I being open and honest with you as my boss or my girl…” she cleared her throat, unsure if she should call Katie her girlfriend, then amended herself with, “the woman I’m dating?”

  “Both.”

  “This is crazy.” Mel rubbed her hands over her face, then grabbed her water bottle to take a few throat chilling gulps. After taking another deep breath, she admitted, “It was just sobering, I guess.”

  “Please give me more details than that, Mel.”

  “This,” she motioned between the computer and her notebook, “giving you my work, my meetings. It just brought me back to earth or something. But it’s fine. It is what it is and there’s no point in dwelling on it.”

  “While I may be taking some of your work off of your plate and I’ll be taking over some of these meetings, I want you to understand that I expect the same level from you as if you were in my position.” Mel’s brow slightly pinched, so Katie explained, “I do not stifle my associates and I expect my associates to strive for greater than their job description, as you have always done. Obviously, that doesn’t mean acting of your own accord as if I’m not here. We need to work together as a partnership. I don’t like to rule with an iron fist.”

  “You don’t like to, but… you would, if you had to?”

  Katie sighed, and answered, “Yes.”

  “Don’t look so worried. I wouldn’t do anything to make you have to lead that way. Look, I’m sorry, it was just a moment of…”

  “Mel, please don’t apologize.” Katie lightly squeezed her knee and rubbed her thumb over the curve of her kneecap in a comforting, affectionate way. “I understand. If things were reversed, I would have my moments too. But I don’t want you to resent me or…”

  “I don’t and I wasn’t upset with you. We’re good, I promise.”

  “Okay.” Katie glanced at the open door, then boldly risked everything and leaned over to kiss Mel right on the lips, making her visibly relax. “How’s Dan’s wife?”

  Mel smiled at the way she easily transitioned from one subject to the other, and because she remembered to ask. Maybe Katie will be the kind of boss Mel could approve of, then maybe not getting the promotion wouldn’t hurt as much.
r />   Chapter Seventeen

  As soon as Mel walked in the door, she froze on the spot at the sight of Layla curled up on her knees on the couch with her face in a pillow, screaming into it.

  “Uh, what the hell is going on?”

  Mel closed and locked the door and Layla picked her face up with a scowl deeply creasing her forehead and around her eyes, making her normally light brown eyes look dark.

  “Bad day?”

  She sat down in the chair next to the couch, and Layla plopped down on her ass with the pillow clutched to her chest. “Horrible. I had one asshat customer after another all day. My last call was this ignorant ass, old as fuck, jack-weed and he cursed me out because we couldn’t send a technician out to his house till tomorrow to check the issue with his cable. Why don’t people understand they’re not the only people who exist and evenings are the busiest hours for our technicians? We’re not a freaking pizza shop. You can’t just call and expect someone to be available in under an hour or even that same day.” She growled, then shook herself, and asked, “How was your day?”

  “It started off really good, then it got a little weird when we had to go over task delegations. Giving my manager tasks to Katie was kind of rough.”

  “I bet. Was she nice about it, at least?”

  “Oh, yeah, she was great, but it was still frustrating.”

  “I need to burn off this negative energy.” Layla snatched up her cellphone off of the coffee table, and Mel teased, “Texting Blake for a booty-call?”

  “No.” Layla grinned as she shook her head. “She’s at work, but that would be nice.” She was quiet for a couple of minutes, then jumped up and smacked Mel’s thigh. “Come on, get changed for the gym. There’s a kickboxing class in forty minutes.”

  “Whoa, you can’t spring that on me like that! What about dinner?”

  “We’ll eat when we’re done. You can grab a snack if you need something now.” As she jogged out of the room, she hollered, “Get up!”

  Mel groaned as she peeled herself out of the chair and dragged herself to her bedroom to change. She just wanted to come home and waste away in front of the TV with some food and beer to try to turn her brain off. But Layla’s plan was probably healthier, in more ways than one.

  She wanted a cheeseburger or steak and potatoes, or even some Texas barbeque, but a granola bar and water would have to hold her over till they got home. And even though it had tiny little chocolate chips in the mix, it was not at all satisfying. She finished it before they even reached the car.

  “I’m still hungry.”

  “I’ll make a big salad when we get home.”

  Mel groaned as she climbed in on the passenger side of Layla’s car. “Are we back on a diet again?”

  “Yes. We got sidetracked when we met Blake and Katie, but we have to get back to it.”

  “Why? Blake agrees with me – you don’t need to lose weight. You’re hot.”

  “And like I said before – this isn’t about what you or Blake or anyone else thinks. I want to do this for me. But thank you.”

  “Okay, fine, we’ll have a damn salad.”

  Layla smiled as she reached over to tousle Mel’s hair. “Thank you.”

  When they arrived at the gym, they had to fill out some forms and waivers that basically excused the gym and the instructor for any and all injuries resulting from taking the kickboxing class, then Mel and Layla walked into the already pretty full training room. The instructor was a woman wearing painted on calf-length black spandex pants and a matching sports bra and was so fit she looked like she probably trained the mythic Amazonian warriors. Her skin was glowing bronze. Her smile was one of a movie star’s. And she was gorgeous. Heart-throb gorgeous.

  As the woman’s vermillion green eyes locked with Mel’s, her feet forgot how to work and Mel tripped over absolutely nothing and nearly crashed to the floor. As she regained control of her pace, she looked up to see the woman was looking away from her, but even from the angle she was standing, she could tell the woman was amused at her clumsiness.

  Layla nudged her in the ribs with a laugh, and teased, “Smooth. Very smooth. Come on, there’s a couple of free bags at the other end.”

  Keeping her eyes trained on their destination, Mel followed her lead to the other end of the gym. The room was long and semi-narrow with wall-to-wall mirrors, springy wooden floors, and there were more than two-dozen red and black punching bags hanging from the open ceiling. The room was chilly and there was upbeat music quietly playing behind the sounds of people talking while they waited for the class to begin.

  After they set their small gym bags down along the mirrors, they sat on the floor and began stretching, at Layla’s command, of course.

  “Are you still considering looking for a new job?”

  “I don’t know.” Mel winced as Layla planted her feet on the inside of her ankles and took her hands to help her stretch. “I haven’t looked at job postings since last week, but when I had to hand over some of my tasks to Katie today, I started thinking about it again.”

  “Do you think she would be mad at you if you left?”

  “If I took a less challenging job at a lesser company, yeah, I think she’d be upset. If I leave, it has to be because it’s going to further my career and not because I’m feeling bitter about not getting the manager position.”

  “Well, yeah, I would be pissed at you for that too. You worked your ass off to get to where you are. And even though you deserve that position, not getting it doesn’t mean they don’t plan to promote you in the future. You never know. They may move you to a different team or create a new team if the company keeps growing like it is. I mean, damn, Zops.com seems to be taking over the world.”

  “Yeah, I know.” They switched positions so Mel could help Layla stretch her thighs. “It just sucks. But I’m trying not to do anything impulsive or emotional or whatever. What about you? Are you still happy at the cable company, despite the asshats you deal with?”

  “Oh, please.” Layla released a laugh and shook her head. “I am not going to let some grumpy assholes send me running. I like most of the people I work with, my boss barely gets onto me about being late all the time, and the pay is really good. Nope, I’m not going anywhere any time soon.”

  “Hello, ladies.” They looked up into the bronze glow of the instructor and Mel’s face washed with heat, turning her face and neck lobster red. The instructor’s friendly smile quirked into a knowing smirk while she looked into Mel’s eyes. “I don’t believe I’ve seen either of you in class before.”

  Layla pulled Mel up off of the floor, which was an effort because Mel’s muscles and joints seemed to have melted from the Amazonian warrior trainer’s glorious presence.

  “I’m Layla and this is Mel. This is our first time taking your class. We’ve taken some kickboxing classes before though, so we’re not total amateurs.”

  “We’re not professionals, either.” Mel was surprised to hear her own voice but not surprised by how hoarse and shaky it was.

  “No problem, Mel.” Her heart palpitated from the goddess warrior remembering and using her name. “This is an intermediate class, but feel free to go at your own pace and take as many breaks as you need to. Are you familiar with how to wrap your wrists?”

  Mel’s brain froze between the yellow-green fissures of the instructor’s eyes, so Layla answered. “Yes, we know how to do it. We brought our own wraps and gloves.”

  “Great. It was nice meeting you both. I hope you enjoy the class and hope we see you again.” She started to walk away but turned back, and added, “I’m Elise, by the way.”

  Layla cheerfully answered, “Nice to meet you,” and nudged Mel in the ribs.

  “Yeah, uh, nice to meet you.”

  The left corner of Elise’s mouth quirked up in amusement. She nodded once, then walked away with her perfectly shaped muscular ass and thighs turning on the saliva faucets in Mel’s mouth.

  “I won’t judge if you try to talk to her a
fter class.”

  Mel bent over, sputtering, “Yeah, right,” between bouts of laughter. “I am not a juggler. I can’t date more than one woman at a time. And I definitely do not have the guts to just walk up to a woman and start talking to her.”

  “What about Katie?”

  “I was sitting comfortably on my ass and she asked to sit next to me. It was a total fluke that she actually found me interesting enough to continue sitting there and talked to me.”

  Layla released a small laugh as she wrapped an arm across her body and grabbed it behind the elbow. “Yeah, it was probably good that you were sitting down when you met Katie. You might have tripped over nothing and ruined your chance if you hadn’t been.”

  The playful reminder of Mel’s clumsiness when they walked into class made Mel roll her eyes. “I’m sorry I’m not as cool and smooth as you are.”

  “It was funny. And believe it or not, it works for you that you’re not.” Layla grinned as she turned around, putting her back to the front of the class, and added, “Since she walked away, I’ve noticed Elise look at you three times.”

  “Shut up, no she didn’t.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “She’s probably trying to figure out how to use my awkwardness to her advantage – like tricking me into signing a contract for a year of classes or something.” She pointed a finger at Layla, and firmly said, “Don’t you dare allow me to do that. If I get wrangled into a contract I can’t get out of, I am going to start waking you up two hours before you have to be up for work.”

  “Bitch.” Layla laughed and shoved Mel’s shoulder. “That’s just evil. I need my beauty sleep.” She drew a cross over her heart, and promised, “I will snatch your wallet and the pen before you can sign your money and life away. However, if she asks you out, I’m not helping you out of that one. You’ll have to figure out how to turn down that insanely gorgeous hunk of delicious woman flesh all on your own.”

  Mel slapped her forehead with a groan, and quietly repeated, “Hunk of delicious woman flesh. I can’t believe you just said that. And I can’t believe you’re basically telling me to cheat on Katie.”