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Why the hell is he wasting his precious time with me? The voice in my head whispers, and I try my best to ignore it.
Our locked gazes break when the printer in the adjoining copy room whirrs and I look away.
“Marr, can you take out the keys?” He cocks his head toward the right pocket of his jacket.
I blink rapidly. He…wants me to…put my hands…inside his jacket? I look nervously at him and then to his pocket and then back at his face. My cheeks flush at his simple request, and I tug on my sleeves.
“Or can you hold this?” He brings the paper bag forward, and I grab it eagerly.
Anything to get that door open.
“Come in.” Zander leads me inside his office after unlocking the door.
“I didn’t know about this room,” I murmur, looking around at the high-definition projector screen, brown leather couch, slick desk, and the sleek silver laptop resting on top of it.
“Yeah, I declared it as my own on my first visit to Cherrywood when we purchased the building.” He smirks, sinking gracefully into the leather chair.
While I sit with a thousand butterflies fluttering in my stomach, Zander leans forward and opens the paper bag.
How does he do it?
Make a mundane activity of unpacking dessert some sort of sensual act. Watching his long fingers meticulously unwrap the two slices of pie, my face warms.
“I got us each a custard pie. I didn’t know what else you liked,” he says, catching my gaze.
“Thank you,” I reply, torn between the desire to look at his face and the anxiety forcing me to look anywhere but at him.
After passing me a coffee mug and a piece of pie with a plastic fork on the side, Zander places a few paper napkins between us.
“You wanted…to discuss something?” I ask, taking a sip of the latte macchiato.
He nods before wiping his mouth. “I’m very interested in the project. I’d like to know more. What’s the current state? Do you need some support from us? How much time does your team need to make it ready for alpha release?”
I place my coffee back on the table and rub my hands on my jeans, unable to decide which question to answer first. “Um Zander, I mean Mr. Teager—”
“Marr, I thought we settled on the name issue yesterday.” His honey-sweet voice makes my heart stop.
When I don’t reply immediately, he raises an eyebrow, an amused smile on his lips.
“Yeah, yeah.” I fix my glasses and run my tongue over my dry lips. “The thing is, there is no team…working on this. I started it, um…as a side project.”
His eyes flare in surprise. “When do you work on it?”
“Mostly weekends and some evenings…when I don’t have much to do.”
Great. Why don’t I just plaster on my forehead that I’ve no life outside of work?
My cheeks warm with embarrassment.
“You should never be embarrassed about loving your work.” He gives me a kind, encouraging smile. “So, show me where are you with this project.”
“I-I don’t have my laptop with me. I can get it.” I put the fork down and am about to stand when Zander interrupts me.
“Is the project data on the company server or your personal computer?”
“Everything is on the server.” It’s Elixir’s policy to safeguard against any data loss.
“Then use my laptop.” He turns the said device toward me, taking me by surprise.
