AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tess? You okay? You look weird.”
“Yeah.”
Dave shook his head and hunkered down, his fingers moving deftly over the face of the calculator, his eyes screwed up in concentration. “Okay, I found the file. Just… wanna… see… if… this… matches.”
She probably needed to get a box to put her stuff in. She had funny pictures tacked up on the corkboard beside the huge filing cabinets that held all the past year’s designs and sketches. Those designs would be systematically replaced over the course of the next few months with new designs for the coming season, paying special attention to the repurposing of all the props. At Ullo they reused every part of the float, even joking about trading out toilet seats yearly. They begged, bartered, and stole from last year’s floats to create the awesomeness of Mardi Gras the next year. A flurry of meetings nearly a month ago before this year’s parades had finished rolling had cemented projects for the upcoming season and those of the following year.
Tess picked up the bumblebee with the crazy boppy antennae Jules Roland, the head sculptor, had given her on her birthday. Tess the busy bee.
The clip of hard soles on the concrete floor interrupted her thoughts. Then she saw the wing tips.
“Tess?”
She looked up, meeting Graham’s blue eyes. Damn, they were pretty eyes. Too bad he was a creep.
“What?”
He swallowed, and she watched the powerful muscles in his throat convulse. She’d kissed that sweet spot at the base of his neck. He’d smelled so good—sort of citrusy and clean—and he’d tasted salty and warm. Very solid. Very sexy.
“We need to talk.”
Dave looked up, tucking his pencil behind his ear. He raised bushy eyebrows. “What’s going on? Who’s this guy?”
Tess glanced over at her friend and mentor. “You’ll understand soon enough, Dave. But don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
She stood. “I don’t have much to say to you, Mr. Naquin, but what I do have will be better said in private.” Ice hung in her words… Exactly what she intended. Part of her boiled over with anger, hurt, and disappointment. The other part felt frigid and empty.
Graham had caused that particular arctic front when he’d never called… and then hadn’t been man enough to return the call she’d made two weeks ago.
Total asshole.
She stalked toward the exit, wishing she hadn’t worn jeans and sneakers. High heels tapping on the floor would have been much more dramatic. Pushing the bar that would lead to the smokers’ lounge high above the rough waters of the Mississippi, Tess inhaled not smoke, but the brackish, fetid air of the river. No one sat on the porch, but she didn’t want to be interrupted, so she quickly took the worn steps down to the deck several feet below, now glad she’d worn her tennis shoes.
Reaching the smaller landing holding an ancient picnic table and two chained deck chairs, she spun around. “You bastard.”
Graham stopped at the last step, shifting his gaze toward a tugboat pushing a colossal rusted barge. “I deserve that.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“I didn’t call you.”
His words were a day late and a dollar short. Didn’t matter anymore. She’d decided twenty minutes ago when she’d seen him sitting in her father’s office as the heir apparent she was way over the infatuation that had dominated her thoughts and body for weeks after he left her loft. That ship had sailed. Bye-bye.
“You think this is about you not calling?”
“It was rude.”
“It was pretty rude. But what did you think I wanted? Commitment? You were a fun screw, that’s it. So, no, this isn’t about you not calling.”
Something in his eyes wavered, and she could tell he hadn’t expected such a casual dismissal. “A fun screw, huh?”
“For you, too, I imagine. If it were anything more you would have called me, right?” She lifted an eyebrow, feeling the righteousness in her anger.
“About that. See, there were some things going on…” He looked away, hiding from her, but she didn’t care. She meant what she said—what she felt—Graham meant nothing to her on that level. He was a used-to-be.
But on a professional level…
“What I have to say to you has nothing to do with that night a month ago. That’s over. This is the here and now, and you are the bastard who slinked into my company and stole my job.”
