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Deacon sounded a lot more confident of that fact than he actually felt. If this afternoon was any indication, restraining himself would be much more easily said than done.
Chapter 3
Sara walked into the entrance of Edible Innovations and gave Elle, her office manager a salute.
“Hi. Thank god today is a slow day. I totally could have slept another four hours.”
Perking up, Elle stared at her expectantly when she remembered yesterday’s meeting.
“Well. How did it go?”
Giving her a follow-me gesture with her hand, Sara replied with a smirk, “Come on into my office. I have, shall we say, a story?”
Elle jumped up out of her seat and said, “Ooh. Intrigue!” as she followed her down the hall.
After Sara sat down in her desk chair, Elle flopped onto the small couch off to the side.
Without any sort of prelude, Sara said, “Turns out I had a one-night stand with the guy I met with yesterday. Chris was in a meeting of some kind so they passed me off to someone else. That someone else? Deacon James. The handshaker.”
Familiar with the story, Elle froze for a moment and then said, “Ohmigod. What did you do? Did he remember you? What did he say? Did we lose the contract? Shit shit shit. What abou—”
“Whoa. Easy. I pretended like I didn’t recognize him. He totally knew who I was and looked really embarrassed for a minute, then followed suit. He told me he would be overseeing the first few jobs instead of Chris, and asked me to update the contract. I don’t think we’ll lose it. I just think the oversight clause got way more awkward for me.”
Elle exhaled, and said, “Wow, Sara. I really don’t know what to say to that. I can’t imagine how awkward the meeting must have been. He didn’t give any indication that he realized who you were other than the guilty face?”
Shaking her head, Sara said, “I pretended like I didn’t recognize him. I think he was just following suit. I really don’t feel like the lobby would’ve been the best place to tackle that issue.”
Laughing now, she continued, “And what would I say? ‘Oh. Hey. What have you been up to since you fucked me silly then just walked out without a word?’“
Biting her lip to keep from laughing, Elle said, “Oh to be a fly on the wall when you get to ask him that question.”
Clicking through her schedule, Sara said, “And on that note, I’m going to go make some crab puffs. Let me know if he faxes a signed contract over, will you?”
Realizing that Sara wasn’t going to say anything else, Elle nodded and left the office with a little wave.
With a sigh, Sara moved toward the kitchen, trying to clear the cobwebs from her sleep-deprived brain. Thankful again for the slow day today, she started to grab the ingredients for the crab puffs.
After about twenty minutes, she was able to go on autopilot and completely zone out. Not thinking about Deacon for the first time since the receptionist said his name was a relief. Examining her feelings, she had already decided she wasn’t really angry about it anymore. Too much time had passed. It still stung a little though.
That had been
the best sex she’d ever had, even to this day. She’d been certain he was right there with her. They had utterly wrecked each other. Feeling a tiny frisson of heat flood her body as she thought back, she immediately shook her head in disgust.
Nope. She would not go down this road. He was hot, but he was going to be a work associate. This was a totally inappropriate line of thought. Inappropriate and totally unprofessional, she amended.
Oh, she remembered, and he was also likely still a dickhead. Recovering from that level of douchebaggery was pretty unlikely. Making the resolution to not think about Deacon naked again, she went back to the crab puffs.
Two hundred and fifty crab puffs later, Sara swiftly moved on to slicing the cured salmon for the blini with dill crème fraiche sauce. Removing the curing salmon from the walk-in, she rinsed the sugar-salt-dill mixture from the fish. Patting it dry, she began to sliver the salmon into bite-sized pieces.
Back in the zone, Sara jumped when she realized Elle had come into the kitchen.
Looking at her expectantly, Sara asked, “What’s up?”
Elle frowned, and said, “No news on contract watch yet, but two things. Tom is going to be here in twenty for the college faculty mixer. Where are you on those?”
“Blinis are ready. Creme fraiche is chilling, and the salmon is being sliced. The crab mixture is ready to go, too. The shells are hollowed out and ready to stuff. There’s no way we can assemble these here ‘cause they’d be all mushy by the time he got to Thousand Oaks. It will all be ready in…fifteen minutes,” Sara said as she surveyed the remaining work and the time. “What was the second thing?”
“Oh. Yeah. It’s 2:45 p.m. You should eat something,” Elle admonished. “You’ve been at this since 9:15 a.m.”
