“Yeah. No. I GOT this BRO.”
“Goodbye.”
The clink of his glass is the last thing we hear. The screen goes black.
Blaze exhales a long, slow whistle. Then, with confidence, he says, “Did we crush that or what?”
Cole and I both stare. Wordless.
Blaze looks puzzled(more than usual). “What? Donations were up. Cam said we killed it!”
He pushes himself out of the chair, grabbing another handful of mints(well, laundry tablets).
“Aight,” he says, fumbling for his phone. “Gonna hunt down Dr. O. That blonde from the lawn hit me up for his number, and then I was like, ‘Wait… does the doc even HAVE a number?’” He sighs. “Total fail as his wingman.”
The door clicks shut. The silence that follows is nuclear.
I whip my chair around, diving into the logistics folder on my iPad. The right side of my body disagrees with my decision entirely. It remembers how solid he felt and was not ready to let that go.Too bad.I focus on the timeline.
Trash bag distribution.
Volunteer sign-in station.
Drone clearance window.
Click. Click. Click.
Cole’s chair rolls softly across the floor.
“Everyone makes a bad call now and then, Stopwatch. Doesn’t mean you’re weak. Just makes you human.”
My fingers stop typing. “I didn’t make a bad call.”
“It’s not a big deal. You’re not going to lose the promotion because a guy lost a fight with his shorts.”
My jaw tightens. “But I didn’t make a bad call.”
“Orson was a risk.” Cole exhales slowly. “That’s all I’m saying.”
I swivel my chair toward him. “A risk? Wow. Groundbreaking analysis, Hartwell. You should write a training manual.”
“Glad you’re impressed.”
“Oh, I’m thrilled. Enlighten me, did your legendary gut also predict our client would have a giant protruding penis monster!”
“No. But I predicted it would be a shitshow.”
“What’s your damn point?!”
“That I knew it was a bad call, and you ignored me.”
The wheels of my chair scrape against the floor as I roll forward, close enough that my knee brushes his—and son of a—the contact warms my entire inner thigh. My brain lights up with:Dangerous! Stupid! Don’t fucking do it!
My body, though? Team all-in.Closer, it purrs,touch him. See what happens.
I sense his heat, the solid weight of his chest inches from mine. Filthy, unwanted thoughts take over:
What if I were pinned beneath all that muscle? Him, on top of me, pressing me into the sofa. How good he would feel between my legs.
