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I loved the work I did. I loved my job. I respected and admired the people I worked with. Marisa, unfortunately, would have to wait. Typing with more irritation than the situation called for, I sent a quick text.
Me: About to go into another meeting. Don’t know how long it’s gonna take. Get back to you ASAP.
Marisa: Sounds good ?
I wanted to take some time, take a breather from what I was doing, and chat with her. The guys were waiting. And I knew the longer I took here, the longer it would take to get things finished. Hopefully, we’d get everything dialed in and ready to execute. We’d be able to start our scouting as soon as we got the all-clear from Mr. Blake. Time was of the essence. That meant my personal life, as I was used to from my time in the Navy, was not a priority.
I reviewed everything we had on West Coast one more time before heading back to Rogers and Cruz.
Our planning and recon for West Coast Banking and Trust ended up being a lot more involved than originally planned. I anticipated getting out of the office by seven. But after reviewing everything, we would need to pull an all-nighter.
We worked our fingers to the bone, strategizing everything, including which branches each of us would take for recon and then reporting back on. We thought it would be best to alternate shifts between locations, so we didn’t draw unwanted attention.
“All right, guys, this looks good,” I said, typing the last keystroke into the document. I finished the preliminary proposal for West Coast and emailed it to Jackson. All we needed now was for him to review it, approve it, and present it to Mr. Blake. Then Cruz, Rogers, and I would be able to start on the real work.
A door shut down the hall. I knew Jackson was here before I heard him speak.
“Got your report, Sandman. I’ll review it later tonight. You guys wanna grab a beer?” Jackson asked, popping into the room.
When I didn’t answer after Rogers and Cruz accepted, Jackson gave me a sidelong look.
“Got a hot date?” Rogers asked with a wiggle of his brows.
“Let’s go,” I said, evading having to answer. We agreed to meet at the elevator after we locked everything down in our respective offices.
I wasn’t about to let Rogers and Cruz into my romantic life. It was bad enough getting ribbed by Jackson. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the guys found out. Then, I wouldn’t be able to live it down. Rogers and Cruz were decent guys. I just wanted to avoid having to explain things if Marisa and I didn’t work out.
A few minutes later, Jackson popped his head into my office. “You did have a hot date, didn’t you?”
“It’s all right,” I said. The fact of the matter was, when your boss, who was also your friend, wanted to go out, you didn’t decline.
“I won’t judge you for skipping out.”
“Muff . . . don’t,” I warned as I typed out,Need a raincheck,to Marisa via text.
His silence told me he understood the position I was in and how I was feeling. He knew when to push and when not to. He double-tapped his fist to the door frame and led the way out.
Marisa’s response,No worries,made me scowl.
I didn’t mind going out with Jackson. I didn’t mind hanging out with Rogers and Cruz.
I hoped Marisa would be disappointed I couldn’t make it tonight. Only in that I hoped she wanted to see me as badly as I wanted to see her.
Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.
