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1
The four menlingering in the doorway of the break room scrambled to get out of the way as I barreled toward it. I ignored their muttered greetings, heading straight to the fridge in search of my lunch.
“Uh-oh. Here comes trouble.”
Even if the incoming sound of heels clicking on the tile floor wasn’t audible, the round of snickers and the low whistle that followed made what the guys were referring to pretty damn obvious. My jaw clenched and I closed my eyes, counting to ten in my mind before spinning around and fixing the group with a glare.
The snickering stopped immediately.
“Shut the fuck up, Jerry,” I growled, barely able to resist the urge to slap him on the back of the head. “Or are you trying to land the company a sexual harassment lawsuit?”
“N-No, sir.”
“I didn’t think so. Now sit down at the table or get the fuck out. All of you,” I said pointedly, snapping my fingers in Jerry’s direction as he tried to flee the room with the others. “Not you. You stay.”
The others shuffled around the room, quickly grabbing their lunches and evacuating before I started laying into Jerry. As soon as the room was empty, I opened my mouth to chide him for his behavior—but the return of clicking heels in the hall made my mouth snap shut.
“Knock, knock.”
I blinked multiple times before smiling at the woman who leaned against the doorway and tapped lightly against the wood.
At the same time, my annoyance at Jerry’s cat-calling morphed into anger. He must have sensed the shift in my mood because he fled the room while I was distracted by the new presence.
“Whoa. Where’s the fire?”
“Don’t ask,” I muttered before allowing the smile to return. “What are you doing here?”
“Taking you to lunch, Ethan. My treat.”
“Well this is a pleasant surprise,” I drawled as my eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Did your husband put you up to this?”
Layla grinned. “Nope. This was all my idea.”
It didn’t surprise me. My brother had never been very good at remembering dates, but his new wife apparently was. While I was touched by her concern for me, I was simultaneously irritated for the reasoning behind it.
“While I appreciate the offer, it really isn’t necessary. Today is a day like any other,” I said as I turned back to the fridge.
I knew better than to expect that to be the end of it. When Layla and Mason first moved to Miami together, they lived with me for nearly four months while looking for a place.
It was a little touch and go at first, but Layla turned out to be one of a handful of women who weren’t at all afraid of me. She learned that my size made me look a lot scarier than I really was and I learned that—despite her petite little body—the woman was a fucking hell raiser.
A stubborn one, at that. So it wasn’t a surprise when she huffed and stalked over to me, placing a dainty hand on my shoulder and tugging until I looked back at her.
Layla scowled as she said, “Don’t try to pull that shit on me, Ethan. We’re going to lunch.”
“I have food—”
“We’re going to lunch!”
“Jesus—all right. Just tone it down a little, okay?”
The last thing I needed was for some of those chumps to overhear this tiny slip of a woman giving me orders. She gave me a smug smile before spinning on her heel and strolling out of the room, leaving me with nothing to do but shake my head to myself and follow.
“Women.”
* * *
We endedup at Edelman’s, one of my favorite restaurants. Even though she invited me as her treat, I decided not to let her pay after we ordered our lunches. Not only due to my sense of chivalry, but because I ordered three times the amount of food she did.
