“It’s really empty.”
How was that possible?
At first, all I could take in was the big desk and a low bookshelf that ran along the wall behind the desk, but once I pulled my gaze away from that, I could see the marks on the walls where things used to be hung and the indentations in the carpet where there used to be other pieces of furniture.
I wasn’t sure if knowing it used to have stuff in it made it better or worse.
“What happened in here?” My very serious question had him chuckling. “It’s like the office apocalypse.”
Did he have office gremlins?
Were they a thing?
Before I could ask—and decide how worried I should get—Rohan pulled me into his arms to protect me from the gremlins. “I used to own my own business. When I sold it, I decided to retire and I wanted to turn this room into something more fun. I just haven’t figured out what to do with it yet.”
“It’s an office.” He was insane. “It was already fun but you broke it.”
Offices were not meant to be this...this ugly.
It had to be feeling lonely and plain and very sad.
Rohan’s chest jerked but he managed not to actually laugh out loud. I was trying to decide if I was offended or if he’d been polite when he distracted me by explaining some of the issue. “It was filled with files and charts and stress, so when I sold the business, I wanted to start over in this room. I was actually trying to decide if it should be a gym space or something weird like rich people do...a puzzle room or something stupid like those wrapping paper rooms.”
Well, that would be better than an empty office...maybe?
Puzzles?
Wrapping paper?
“No.” It wasn’t better. “That’s tragic.”
On so many levels.
Shaking my head, I sighed and pointed toward an empty corner. “There should be a big chair over there so you can watch me work when I want subtle attention and not big attention.”
Duh.
“And on the wall behind the desk, you need an antique map of the world or one of those dogs playing poker paintings...something classy like that.” Anything but a blank wall. “I’ll even help you pick out something modern that looks like an elephant painted it if you want.”
I could be helpful.
“Don’t pigs and monkeys paint too?” If something could paint, shouldn’t that mean it got paid? If they got paid, didn’t that mean they should pay taxes? “I have questions about that but I’m not going to get distracted yet.”
I’d look them up online later once I needed to procrastinate.
“I can’t wait to hear your questions.” Rohan sounded so sincere I wasn’t sure whether to smile or frown, but before I could figure it out, he distracted me again. “What should go over there? Another shelf?"
"Whatever that thing is behind your desk, it’s not really a shelf.” It was too short for that title. “But I’ll use that for storing notebooks and pens and, oh, I’ve got these cute little notebooks that I’m going to take to the next book convention I do.”
We were going to need to buy some lamps for it too.
Oh, did he like lamps?
Some people had very weird opinions on lighting, but if he still had a boob fixture up on the ceiling in the empty room that was pretending to be an office, he probably wouldn’t notice random lamps appearing.
Oh, would that makemea light gremlin?
What had we been talking about?
