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So when the door to her office swung open, she screamed and grabbed her stapler as if she could use it to ward off an attacker or the zombie apocalypse. When she could draw breath again, she used it to shout.
“What the hell? Don’t you knock?”
“I did. I also called you three times after my phone died to tell you I was coming to fix the papers,” Adrian yelled back, competing with Dolores O’Riordan wailing about tanks and bombs and guns.
Sofia slapped the keyboard to turn off the music. Charged silence filled the room, neither willing to be the first to break it. Sofia gave in to her curiosity. “Your phone died?”
“Yes. I forgot to plug it in when I got home.”
“Huh. I thought you hung up on me. How much of my rant did you catch?”
“Enough to know I’d better show up with a peace offering. Would you put the stapler down?”
Sofia looked at the stapler in her hand still held raised to strike and wondered who she thought she’d be maiming with a Swingline. She carefully put it back on her desk.
He passed her a sealed Tupperware. “Trade? Paperwork for dinner?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What’s in there?”
“Pollo en mole.”
Sofia moaned deep in her throat, her mouth salivating at the words and flat-out drooling once the smell hit her nostrils. His freshly-showered clean man scent snuck in behind it and her rage weakened.
“Deal. That smells incredible.” She shuffled the papers again to find his POs and shoved the papers into his chest to remind him that she was angry. That he was here to work. That they had established boundaries. That she absolutely wasn’t going to kiss him again.
When her every impulse screamed for her to put her lips back on his, she clutched the Tupperware to her chest to keep her hands from reaching out and grabbing him. Who needed reminding of the boundaries?
He looked so good, his T-shirt wet with droplets he’d missed with his towel. She imagined that he’d thrown on those clothes intending them to be his pajamas. He’d be going to bed soon. Hmmm, Adrian in bed. Adrian inherbed.Damn it! I’m angry. Not horny. ANGRY!This took the term “hangry” in a whole different direction.
“Here are the orders. Do you see all the little boxes? Believe it or not, I need the information in all of them to fill out the order online. I’m going to reheat this.” She hid behind sarcasm and ran, pushing past him to the office kitchen. She put the chicken and rice dish into the microwave and timed her breath to the countdown of seconds. She needed to regain her equilibrium before she went back in there. Ever since that kiss, she felt like he kept knocking her off-balance.
She grabbed a fork from the drawer and washed the few dishes that were left in the sink, so that their clients wouldn’t think they were slobs, while she waited for the chicken to cool enough to eat. Returning things to order soothed her, when she wasn’t busy resenting the fact that she was the only one who did it around the office. She wiped off the countertops again for good measure.
She took one more deep breath, and this time her head filled with the rich spicy scents of the mole. Her walls trembled a little. She’d been cross and bitchy with him on the phone, and he’d brought her food. That definitely earned him a few points. True, his mother had probably made it, but he’d brought it to her when she needed it. It was getting harder to hold on to her mad. Unlike the other men in her life, she’d told him she had a problem and he’d shown up to help. She carried the plastic bowl back to her office.
Adrian had taken her seat at the desk and had a pen in a death grip. His tongue peeked out between his lips, his concentration at once cute and fierce. He used the mouse to navigate down the screen, muttering part numbers under his breath.
She stood behind him and leaned over his shoulder, pointing with her fork at the screen.
“You know, if you use the search function here, it will go faster than trying to navigate around using the menus.”
“I’m used to seeing this page on my phone. I can barely find what I need there. Here, everything is in a different place.”
Sofia leaned back on the counter and took a bite of the chicken and moaned as the gorgeous blend of chilies, cocoa, nuts, and spices melted with the soft, tender meat on her tongue. This was the best Mexican food she’d had in ages, and she was going to savor it. She licked her lips, not wanting to miss a drop of that sauce.
When she realized Adrian had stopped typing and was staring at her, embarrassment flooded her face.
“What? It’s delicious. Where did you get it?”
“Uhhmm, my, uh, my mom made it.” He had turned to watch her over his shoulder, and he couldn’t get his work done if he wasn’t even looking at the computer.
She moved, resting her rear against the edge of her desk so she could face him where he sat. “Darn it. I’m going to have to steal her away from you. This is amazing.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. It might be the only way to get her out of that house. I’ll tell her you liked it.” He scribbled a few numbers on the order form in front of him.
“Loved it,” she corrected as she took another bite.
He leaned back in his chair and set down his pencil. His intent gaze unnerved her.
