“You’re an adult, you can figure out how to get your own lunch. Don’t expect Nora to do those things.”
Ethan smiled, his cheeks getting a little color to them. “I won’t, but you’re still here.”
“It’s on your desk,” Blair said. “If you’d gone in there first you’d have seen that.”
Which meant Blair had just automatically taken care of lunch for Ethan. Nora had brought a lunch with her and Blair had left to get something.
She was positive she wasn’t going to buy her lunch daily, but maybe it’d be one less thing to carry to work also.
One of those small things she’d figure out.
Even her lunch was nothing more than some fruit, cheese, and crackers she’d thrown in her bag. She didn’t know how she’d feel when it came time to put food in her mouth.
The smoothie held her over well, so maybe that could be a good daily breakfast.
“I’m getting scolded already, Nora,” he said.
The way her name came off his lips. The softness of it, the smile that accompanied it, mixed in with the humor in his eyes.
She didn’t know if that was how he always was, or just how he was with her. It was the same as that night a month ago. Almost the same as when she interviewed, but he’d been more guarded then.
Her too.
She still was, but he didn’t appear to be.
“Ethan is used to being scolded,” Blair said. “Maybe I’m rough on him, but don’t let his good looks charm you.”
“I’m pretty tough,” she said, the heat in her neck not helping her any.
“I’ll leave you two alone and go eat my lunch. Blair, if you can stop in around four and we’ll go over a few things.”
“I’ll be there,” Blair said. “Do you want Nora with me?”
“Not today,” he said, nodding and turning on his white sneakers to go back to his office. He had some muted shade of blue cotton pants on; his shirt was white, looked to have light blue tiny checkers on it.
Almost as light as his blue eyes that she remembered gazing into hers another time.
She popped a strawberry slice in her mouth and dropped her head back to Blair’s computer.
“He’ll want to ask me how things are going and not do it in front of you,” Blair said. “They are going great. At least I think so.”
“I do too,” she said. “I’m not offended or anything. He told me he’d like me to stop in daily around four to just see if there were things that had to be done before I left. He made a comment that if my work was done, then I could leave. Is that true?”
“It’s true. Not that I leave often at four, but I have and if I’ve got an appointment, he doesn’t care. Just block it off on the calendar. He looks at it daily. Will he try to call me in my office and I’m gone? Yep, he will. But then he’ll look at the calendar and just send me an email. He will rarely text after hours.”
“He said that. And if he did, it’s important.”
“He’s good with boundaries. He might not have many himself, but he won’t push them off on those who work for him.” Blair angled her head as if she were looking into the hallway. “Mitchell is like that too. So are Mason and Darin, but your father… Working for him, he wanted me here at crazy hours and long days.”
“He told me. I don’t know that I agree with his approach, but then he said he’d never contact you outside of being in this office.”
Blair frowned as if she were in thought. “He didn’t. He was correct there, but I’d come in on Mondays or even during the week in the morning and there’d be a list of emails of things he wanted. It got to where I stressed that I’d have to spend an hour doing those things rather than starting my day, that if I just went through them at night when I knew he was gone, I’d know what my day would be like.”
And she could see both sides of it, as that was how most got sucked into working around the clock.
“Is it like that with Ethan?”
“No. Do I get emails from him after I’ve left? Sure, I could. But not ten of them and half the time it’s nothing more than a reminder rather than something he needs. Or if it’s something he needs, I’ve got time to get it ready.”
