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Didn’t I just say I was attracted to him?
Fishing amazing, Rose!
I rub the back of my neck to ease the heaviness kicking in.
“He’s our boss, Kristy. Not just boss, but really like the boss of all bosses in the company.” My hands tremble. I take a few deep breaths, trying to compose myself before I turn into a bundle of nerves and pass out.
Kristy puts her hand over my shoulders and presses on the bunched muscles, knowing it calms my anxiety. She guides me back inside the elevator and peers at me in the mirrored door.
“It’ll be all right. You know, he was eyeing you throughout the meeting. And the way you were avoiding him, he was obviously making you uncomfortable.”
“That’s not news,” I mumble.
I’m uncomfortable around most people, especially when I meet them for the first time. It’s something I might always struggle with. Even my therapist confirmed that on my last visit to her.
Most days, I don’t really mind. I’m already proud that it’s been a few years since I’ve last taken an antidepressant, or a happy pill, as my therapist used to call it.
It could be because of this new life I’ve carved out in this town or the supportive new people who came into my life here. But I think a major part of my progress is owed to one thing that’s been consistently good in my life—my friend Kristy.
Since the day Kristy decided we were supposed to be best friends, she has held my hand and kept to her promise of never leaving me, unlike everyone else.
“What has you thinking so hard?” She peeks over the sunglasses she just put on as we step out of the elevator and into the underground parking lot.
I shake my head and get in the passenger seat. I glance toward my friend as she steers the car. I’m reminded of the moment we walked into the conference room and I caught Zander staring our way.
I thought he was checking Kristy out. Guys do that all the time, and I’m all too happy for the lack of attention. My sneakers and flannel shirts hold no competition to her fitted suits and pencil skirts. But to my surprise he was observing me.
Giddiness that he was looking at me, me and not Kristy, is foreign.
We make quick work of getting home, and the second we do, I unlock the door of our two-bedroom rented home and park myself on the breakfast bar in our open kitchen.
Kristy opens the refrigerator and grabs a bottle of iced tea. After pouring the drink into two glasses, she passes one to me.
“Do you want to know more about him?” She gazes at me above the glass of cold liquid.
“What do you mean?” I look away, feeling uncomfortable under her probing gaze.
My heart beats rapidly as I wipe the condensation on the cold glass. I quickly swipe my smart watch screen to check my rapid heartbeat, but Kristy’s words halt my fingers.
“We could Google him, you know.”
I look up to find her hands clasped on the table as she watches my every move.
“Google? Don’t we already know about him?”
Though this is our first face-to-face meeting with Zander Teager, we’ve seen him and his brothers on numerous business magazine covers, some of which hang in the office corridor. In the annual mandatory online safety training, Zander always talks for the first five minutes about the company’s policies and his vision in a pre-recorded video.
“Not in that way.” Kristy gives me a conspiratorial smile before dashing into her room and returning with her iPad.
“What are you doing?” I try to peek over her shoulder, but she shifts the screen away from me.
“Impatient, are we?” She raises one eyebrow at me.
“No…not at all.” I sit back, but not before reminding her, “You don’t have the day off.”
“I know, spoilsport.”
She finally turns the iPad toward me, and on the small screen are the three Teagers sitting on a couch. The video is around three years old, and Zander looks younger than he did today. There’s a striking resemblance between him and his brothers. Tall. Sculpted shoulders covered in expensive suits. Long fingers. Sun-kissed skin as if they’d recently spent time on a beach.
