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“Repeat that back in your head and tell me if it sounds fucked up to you, too.”
She chuckled quietly. “What’s the alternative for a woman, exactly? I spend my twenties dating, get married, get knocked up? Then when my kid is old enough to go to school, I can try to join the workforce at thirty and compete against a bunch of people who had a ten-year head start on me?”
“There are people out there who don’t need to have kids. Also, people who will let you take the time to work on your career but be there for you when you come home. There are also some extremely rare but valuable men who would happily stay home and take care of a kid for their badass woman.”
“Like you?” she asked. Her tone was sarcastic, but I spread my hands and smiled.
“Why not?”
“Maybe because you’re working some secret misson you won’t tell me anything about at my company, Barry Boulders.”
Damn you, Adrian. “It’s a nice name though, right?”
“It’s a ridiculous name.”
“I had a really good time today,” I said, reaching across the table for her hand. She let me take it for a few seconds, then pulled hers back.
“And I don’t know who you actually are or what you really want.”
“I’m a man who enjoys spending time with you. I want to get to know you better, and I’ve got a job I can’t tell you about yet. You don’t need to know how a car works to take a ride in one.”
“But you need to be able to trust someone to…” she motioned with her hands, unable to find the right words.
“Ride them?” I suggested.
Her cheeks went red. “That’s not what I was trying to say.”
“Well, let me say this much,” I said. “I will wait until you’re ready. And I’ll do everything in my power to influence you to be ready sooner, because I’m also impatient.”
“Ready for what?”
“To admit you like being with me, too, of course.”
17
ELIZABETH
Travis was haunting me. I was sure of it. Not only did I still have to listen to his insanely loud lifestyle through my ceiling every day, but I also had to endure him in my office at work. To call the man distracting would be like calling a gunshot wound a “boo-boo.”
It had been a few days since our company sponsored “date” to the little mountain town, and Travis seemed content to wait patiently for me to make some sort of move. He just showed up to work, snacked on his seemingly endless supply of finger foods, and eyed me from his desk in ways that made me feel like I needed a freaking chastity belt.
I spent all day yesterday trying to handhold Addie and Matt because they somehow managed to screw up the layout of a print I’d asked them to bring to the advertising team. They were both useless, and Addie’s brain had turned to mush ever since she met “Barry.” The girl wouldn’t stop asking me about him and whether he’d mentioned her or noticed her hair cut.
She wasn’t the only woman in the office who was distracted by Barry and his overconfident boulders, either. All you needed were functioning eyes and you’d see the longing looks women shot his way when he emerged. If you had a pair of ears you’d catch all the flirtatious comments thrown his way, even brazenly at meetings in front of Mrs. Glass. Travis was like a steaming loaf of bread being paraded in front of a hungry mob of seagulls.
Everyone was shouldering and shoving for a chance to get a piece of him. Meanwhile, it felt like he was ignoring every last one of them and trying to shove himself down my throat and only mine.
Sure, that maybe brought a little zing of irrational pride to me. I didn’t miss the new way people looked at me, either. The women looked at me with envy and the men looked at me with more interest than they had before, almost like Travis’ aura had rubbed off on me.
But I needed to stay focused. I didn’t have the time or energy to let him derail what I was working towards. One day, I was going to run this company. One day, I’d be able to look my mother in the eye and tell her I’d won the position. I’d be able to look myself in the mirror and know all the work had paid off.
And if I wanted to get there, I had to remember to keep my head in the moment.
I had the Callie Rose deal to keep an eye on, the Spring issue of Glass Design coming up, Rand breathing down my neck for a chance to take tasks off my plate, and a thousand other things I should’ve been focused on. Instead, I was watching “Barry Boulders” leaning back at his desk with his feet up while he read a magazine with a tiger on the cover. He popped sunflower seeds in his obnoxiously attractive mouth. When he noticed me looking, he grinned and then wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
