Page 198 of Tease Me


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As usual, he answered within a couple of rings. “Missing us already?”

“I’m here,” he said. “Now what?”

“Whoa, bad attitude. You were much more positive at dinner last night.”

“I had someone cleaning up after me last night,” he said, though hard work wasn’t something he shied from. “I don’t want this to be a waste of time.”

“Then you better get started. Clock doesn’t start ticking until you meet her.”

He’d figured that. “Right. How do I do that?”

Lance laughed. “You want me to tell you where to put it when you get her on her back too? Pick up a woman, how difficult is that? Oh, wait, right… you’ve never had to pick one up.”

He sneered. “I can pick up a woman.”

“Really?” Lance asked, making no secret of enjoying himself. “You can’t even find one. Can you only notice attractive women photoshopped in a magazine? Shit, man, sometimes you’ve got to take a chance and date a woman you haven’t already seen in a bikini.”

“Never knew you thought of me as such an asshole.”

Lance laughed. “You know I love you, man. Whatever happens. But she won’t just crash into you and introduce herself.”

The line moved, so he did too. A person coming the other way tripped. There wasn’t time to react before freezing liquid cascaded down the front of his pants.

3

Oooooo! Rainie Tait caught herself against the arm of the guy in the line who’d just taken her frappé to the groin.

Leaping back, she gasped at the dark stain seeping down the front of his pants.

“Oh my God! Oh my God, oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Thrusting the plastic cup at another guy in the line, she grabbed for the napkins stuffed in her purse and dropped to a crouch to try mopping up the stain. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Oh, I’m such a klutz! I’m so sorry.”

No matter how hard she rubbed at it, the stain didn’t go anywhere. The poor guy had picked his fancy tan chinos out the closet that morning oblivious their paths would cross. Maybe if he’d known, he would’ve gone with a darker fabric.

Flattening her palm on his thigh, Rainie pushed up and down, trying to scrub his pants dry to no avail.

“Bill me for your dry cleaning,” she said, still working on the stain. “Do you dry-clean chinos? I don’t know… I’ll buy your detergent… Want me to get it now?” She surged to her feet so fast that her balance wavered, and her body bounced off his. Wow, he took up a lot of space. Something about him did. His presence? It was… hmm… His height? Those shoulders had sure seen some hours in the gym too. “I’m Rainie, by the way, Tait. Rainie Tait. I work literally around the corner at Viva Marketing. Eric Donal, he’s head of my division. I don’t know him really, but you can call Stacey, she’s my supervisor…” Remembering the stain, she leaped aside. “You should go wash up, in the restroom.” But, uh… “You’ll lose your place in the line…” That was easy fixed. She hopped in front of him. “I’ll keep your place, right here.” Taking his arm, she tugged him out of the space. “Go clean before it sets. Go. Go.” The guy’s mouth opened like he might say something. There wasn’t time! She yanked his arm again. “You’ll be sorry if you don’t get it now. Hurry. Hurry!”

Pointing to the back of the room, to the restrooms, she urged him to go. When he took her suggestion and turned to head over there, she breathed out.

The people in front of her were staring. She glanced behind and found they weren’t the only ones watching the performance.

“What?” she appealed to the gawkers. “It was an accident.”

Those in front seemed surprised she’d addressed them. That was the problem with social media society. People thought it was okay to get in each other’s business. To watch and comment and share. Voyeurs. That’s what the world was full of. Watchers.

Staying in the line, waiting to get up front, she admired the cakes behind the glass. They were so pretty. Each looked yummy… Admiring them, she played the game of deciding which she would eat first, which would be second and third, and so on. She never ordered the tasty treats. They weren’t supposed to eat at their desks. Coffee was permitted, providing it was covered.

She and Stacey worked in client relations. Details were their job. Anything customers needed. Setting up meetings and rendezvous. They did necessary research and once in a while got to travel to meet with clients. They were the invisible middle-people between the customer and the brains of Viva, who put the marketing campaigns together.

If there was one thing she sucked at, it was being invisible. Her memory was great. She cared about things others might consider ridiculous. Bonuses in her professional position.

In other areas of life, she wasn’t so perfect. As her most recent accident proved. If there was ever a chance of doing something stupid, she’d find it. Tripping over air was her specialty. It only happened every once in a while. Whenever it did, she managed to make it a doozy. Maybe she wasn’t the most finessed or the most observant person, but she was thorough where it counted.

At least that was what she thought until she got to the front of the line and the guy at the register asked, “What can I get you?”

With her mouth open to take in plenty of air, her own order was on the tip of her tongue. But, huh, what did Ice Pants Guy want?

“Okay,” she said, showing the guy a hand. “See, I’m actually just keeping the place for the guy I sort of assaulted… It wasn’t like a real assault, you know, not a deliberate assault… I didn’t hurt him.” She paused. “I don’t think… I guess I might have caused some shrinkage, but that’s not painful…” Her head tilted as she blinked at the register guy. “Is it?” When he didn’t answer, she looked to the man behind her in the line. “You want to hold my place? I’ll run and find out what Ice Pants Guy wants.” She grinned and bounced up to her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you!”

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