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“No problem. Love you.”
Jamie grumbled, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love you too, Patty. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Apparently he hadn’t been that subtle, he realized. He would really need to adjust to the idea of being just friends with Cora. As much as that pained him.
Chapter Five
Wednesday afternoon, with lucky bamboo plant in hand, Cora knocked cautiously on the partially open office door. She was nervous. Unbelievably so. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that this was just lunch with a friend.
When she heard him shout, “C’mon in,” she took another deep breath and walked through the door. She was immediately assailed by the smell of fresh paint.
She poked her head into the office, then into the conference room. Part of the conference room had a coat of paint on it already. He had been right about the color. It was perfect.
As she walked back further down the hallway, she saw a paint gun lying in a puddle of paint. She stepped over it and called out, “Where are you?”
“Kitchen,” he called out. “Trying to get some of this paint off me. The paint gun got clogged and now I’m covered. I’m taking that piece of shit back.”
She rounded the corner and found him shirtless at the sink, scrubbing the paint off of his hands and forearms. As she stood there, she couldn’t help but take in the sculpted muscles of his arms and chest. He had always been in great shape, but this was ridiculous.
She eyed the wet shirt lying on the counter and asked, “Wardrobe malfunction?”
He smirked as he shut off the sink and moved past her to the small table, rooting through a gym bag. She watched as he grabbed a clean shirt and slipped it over his head.
With his raised arms she saw he had gotten a tattoo. It was an intricate design of gears. It was made
to look as though his flesh had been torn and those were the inner workings. It was beautifully done.
“That’s new,” she blurted before she could stop herself.
He blinked at her, confused for a minute until he caught her line of sight. “Oh. Yeah. Something about it appealed to me. I went with a friend so he could get a cover-up done, and it kinda jumped out at me. It hurt like hell, though.”
She gestured at his side and said, “Freud would have a field day with your choice. Got any other tattoos?”
He quickly refocused his eyes on a spot vaguely above her head and said, “Uh-uh.”
“Jamie! You’re embarrassingly bad at lying,” Cora said, laughter in her voice. “Tell me.”
Jamie shifted uncomfortably, a pinched look on his face, then asked, “Do I have to?”
“I have to know, now. Especially since you don’t wanna tell me.”
“A pink hummingbird,” he said, letting out a pained sigh. “Sitting on a flower. On my ass. I lost a bet. It’s not my finest moment. Let’s drop it.”
Cora stared at him incredulously for a moment, let out a small giggle and then said, “Oh my god.”
Jamie held up a hand cautiously and then said, “If my brothers found out, I would literally never hear the end of it. Could you...”
Cora waved him off and said, “That would be mean, Jamie. I won’t tell anyone...”
“Thank god,” he said.
“...for a price.”
“A price?” Jamie asked incredulously. Wincing, he put a hand up against his heart as he teased, “What happened to the nice, sweet Cora that I used to know? In her place, nothing but a vicious blackmailer.”
“It’s a tough world out there,” she replied, a grin tugging at her lips.
