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The hot liquid scalds my skin and I turn to see who knocked into me so carelessly.
“Office 101, no cussing in the workplace.”
I grit my teeth in an effort to control my temper. My vision is all red, with his face as a target.
The fucking asshole.
Do not encourage childish behavior. I’m not giving him anything to work with, grabbing my tissues in an attempt to wipe down my blouse. The brown stain seeps through the loose white fabric. Just fucking great. Months of saving for the ridiculously expensive blouse only for it to be covered in tea. I want to cry. Would I be judged if I cried over spilled tea?
His hands land firmly on my seat and he swivels me around till we are facing each other. I am ready to blow and give it to him, but am distracted as he grabs some tissues, attempting to wipe down my blouse.
“Um, excuse me? Get your filthy hands off me!”
I push his hands away, his widening smirk indicating how much he is enjoying this.
“Sorry about that, you’re just a little wet and stained.”
“Well, no shit. The next time you want to play dodgem cars with your office chair, have some respect for your colleagues around you,” I huff.
“Aww, what’s wrong, Miss Malone? Sounds to me like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
I stop wiping my blouse, abruptly moving my head till my eyes meet his. Never having paid this much attention to him before, I stare directly into the hazel eyes that sit behind his thick, black-rimmed glasses. Tiny freckles are scattered around his nose and his annoying smirk is accentuated as his lips purse together. For some reason, my focus turns to his eyebrows, perfectly sculpted on his freshly tanned faced. Such a metrosexual. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hit the tanning salon along with a hot wax afterward.
The nerve of this fucking asshole to do this today, a Monday morning for Christ’s sake, when I have a presentation to do in one hour. And my poor, poor blouse. I had really high hopes that it would keeping me smiling throughout this whole ordeal. I no longer care what comes out of my mouth; Haden Cooper needs a fucking lesson in manners and I am just about to give it to him when he pulls my chair closer to him, catching me off guard with a devilish grin.
“You know, if you woke up with me, you’d always be on the right side of the bed.”
Is he serious? What a complete ass!
“Haden, thanks for nothing. Now get out of my way.”
I spend close to an hour in the bathroom, cleaning my blouse and standing in my bra, trying to dry off under the hand dryer. My heels tap impatiently against the floor tiles. Argh! The nerve of him! And to make it worse, what kind of a line was that? I replay the words in my head; like seriously, cheesiest line ever.
So stop thinking about it.
Thankfully, I borrow a blazer from a fellow employee and button it up to cover the stains. Providing the room stays at the same temperature, I can manage.
The boardroom is filling with colleagues and I prepare my materials, ready to stand at the front of the table. Having done this a dozen times, it has become second nature. Halfway through my presentation, the air becomes stifling hot and my armpits start to stick to the blazer. Did someone turn up the heat in here? It’ll be alright, as long as I don’t sweat where anyone else can see.
As I look at others seated around the table, some are peeling their jackets off while others use a piece of paper to fan their face. My eyes scan the table for the remote to the air con unit but cannot spot it for the life of me. There were a million questions asked, and normally I enjoy answering, but today I am a bitch in heat and ready to tear that smug look off Haden’s face. It’s clear that this presentation won’t end as quickly as I want it to, so I take the jacket off and watch as everyone stares at my stained blouse with curiosity.
“Enough with the staring, a moron spilled tea all over me this morning.”
“Sounds to me like you need to pay more attention to those around you,” Haden snickers.
I shoot him a death stare, ready to tear him a new one. I don’t think anyone dares to question me further, so I carry on and wrap up as quickly as possible.
Making my way back to my desk, I slam my notebook and pen down, nearly missing the showdown that is happening beside me.
“I know you didn’t want me to come up here, but you’ve been avoiding me.”
As the familiar voice continues, I lean my head slightly to see Trina at Haden’s desk.
Get out of town! Of course, he would do something like this.
The voices become muffled until Trina storms off, visibly in tears. I give it a few moments before standing up to confront him. He is leaning casually over Dee’s partition, and from where I can see, she is flashing some major leg. You’ve got to be kidding me. I know it’s none of my business, but I head over to where he is standing.
“Wow, it’s like you have no moral conscience whatsoever.”
