Page 21

I roll my neck with a wince. “Not unless you consider their first secretary’s need to document every single meeting note a dirty secret.”

Lucas tips his head as he picks up the top sheet from a stack. “There are worse things than meeting notes.”

“No, you don’t understand…” I wait until he meets my eyes. “I mean every. single. one. Thanks to her, I now know exactly how many times the CMO excused herself to go to the bathroom. And she must’ve been pregnant or something because she went a lot.”

He snorts and puts the paper back where it was. “So what you’re saying is my company paid you to count bathroom breaks today?”

“Essentially, yes. Nobody told me that was an option on career day.”

Lucas takes a seat and stretches out in it. The man must be over 6’3” with how long his limbs are.

“You hungry yet?”

My eyes snap to his face. “Hmm?”

He grins as he weaves his fingers together over his stomach. “I asked if you were hungry. I noticed this is usually the time of night you order food in, and I just hit a good stopping point on my own case, so I thought I’d join you for dinner.”

My eyes narrow, my tone skeptical. “You thought you’d just invite yourself to dine with me?”

“With it being my treat, of course.” A slow grin stretches across his face. “Unless you still need to test the fragility of my male ego by seeing how I react to a woman paying for my meal. In which case, you’re more than welcome to cough up the cash.”

I shouldn’t be surprised that he saw through me. Lucas is nothing if not smart.

There’s a knock on the door, and we both turn to see Samantha with a plastic bag of takeout in her hand.

She sends me a polite smile before turning to Lucas. “Do you want me to set it down here or in your office?”

“Here’s fine, thank you, Samantha.” He takes the bag from her hand before asking, “You ordered something for yourself, right?”

She grins. “Of course.” Her gaze slides to me. “Charli has great taste in restaurants. This place has my favorite dim sum in the city.”

I blink in surprise as my focus shifts to where Lucas is pulling containers out of the bag. “You ordered from Dim Sum Garden?”

Lucas grins proudly. “I did. And I ordered your favorite dish from them.”

Frowning, I step forward to grab one of the containers. “How did you⁠—?”

“You should always assume he knows everything,” Samantha calls over her shoulder as she leaves the room, waving at us on her way out.

“Because that’s not terrifying,” I mumble as I plop into a seat. Then I pull a set of chopsticks over and rip the lid off the container, my mouth already watering at the smell of my favorite dumpling.

Lucas is chuckling as he mirrors my movements. “If it makes you feel any better, I assume the same thing about you.”

For the next few minutes, we eat in silence. He scarfs down his food the same way I do, making me think he’s also had a long day. When I see him eyeing the last dumpling, I silently push it toward him.

“Damn, this place is good,” he says around a mouthful. “I don’t know how I’ve never ordered from them.”

My mouth twitches with a smirk. “How safe is my assumption that most of your dinners around here are five-star steakhouses with clients?” I laugh when he tosses an edamame bean at my head.

“Smartass,” he mutters as he pops another edamame in his mouth.

When the quiet takes over once again, I notice his attention has shifted to the whiteboard I’ve started to take over. I’ve mapped out each fiscal year and started to jot notes and high-level thoughts under each one.

“So how is it going?” he finally asks.

I let out a long sigh as I lean back in my chair. “Fine. Standard. Nothing’s jumped out at me.”

Lucas leans forward to brace on his elbow as he studies my notes. “Do you think Randall is right to worry?”