AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you alright, Susan?” My attention shifts from my laptop to Susan, who is seated beside me in Gareth’s office.
She nods and winces. Concern rises inside me as she tries to hide the pain in her eyes. I raise my head to look at Gareth, who is on the phone. His frowning gaze is on Susan.
“I’m fine, Hailey,” Susan replies with a small smile. “Just a little headache.”
“I have some aspirin in my bag,” I remark and stand up to take my bag. She raises a hand to stop me.
“I took some a few hours ago. I guess it’s the change in weather. Whenever the seasons change, I fall sick.”
“Oh,” I say, not knowing what to do. I noticed she was pale the previous day, but she had chalked it up to exhaustion from working on the election project.
“Don’t mind me, it’s a rare condition,” she teases, trying to get the worry off my face.
I shrug. “It isn’t that rare. I had a friend in high school like that. She hated it whenever a new season was coming.” I felt sorry she wasn’t feeling well. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I enjoy watching as the leaves turn yellow, orange, and red and listening to the crunching sounds they make when I walk on them. A nostalgic feeling hits me as memories of picking apples with my mom and Melissa back in Jackson flash through my mind. I treasure the memories of making apple jam and apple pies with them.
“Go home, Susan.”
Gareth’s brusque voice brings me back to the present, and my heart slams painfully in my chest. What? If Susan leaves, it will mean staying alone with him.
No, no, no, no, no! This isn’t happening! Is it too late to feign an illness? A headache will be too obvious. What about cramps? Surely no male boss wants to listen to anything regarding his female employee’s time of the month.
“But we still have a lot to do,” Susan protests, and I could kiss her at that moment.
“It’s nothing Hailey and I can’t handle. I accepted your excuses yesterday, even though it was obvious that you weren’t well. I won’t do so again. Go home. That’s an order.”
Oh my God. I can’t work alone with Gareth. I can’t! The last time we were alone in my office a week ago, we almost kissed. We didn’t speak about it, but I’d avoided him until I couldn’t anymore. And now I’m about to be alone with him in a deserted office building. We’d worked this late before, but with other members of the team present.
Susan opens her mouth, probably to argue with him, but she sneezes, and that action puts an end to any excuse she wanted to give. Giving me a sympathetic look because she knows how much I avoided Gareth the previous week—though not the reason why—she stands up.
“Very well. I’ll be back tomorrow,” Susan states as she picks up her purse.
“No. Don’t come in until you’re better,” Gareth tells her in his usual commanding tone.
“But—” Susan starts to argue, but Gareth shakes his head and points at the door.
“And you call me a workaholic,” he utters with a grin.
“Touché,” Susan replies, red-faced, and they laugh.
The obvious friendship between them makes me wonder if Gareth and I will ever be like that. He’s still the irritated boss, and I’m still the klutz employee, even though I’m not as clumsy as when I started working here.
“See you tomorrow… I mean soon, Hailey,” Susan remarks with a smile, but all I can do is nod. She has no idea the number of tremors running through me at that moment.
“You don’t have to look as if your mom just left you in a notoriously cruel boarding school,” Gareth snaps immediately after the door shuts behind Susan.
Amazed by his astuteness, I blush, keep mute, and return my attention to work. When Susan was in the office, I pretended as if Gareth’s proximity didn’t affect me. But now, all by myself with him, his musky scent assails my nostrils and gives me a heady feeling.
“I’ll order some food. Are you in the mood for sushi?”
I nod. I’ll eat anything as long as it keeps me busy enough not to gawk at his masculine body, emphasized by his light blue shirt. As he speaks on the phone, I sneak a peek at him. His mused hair makes me itch to tousle it further. He rubs his bearded chin, and I imagine his fingers on my cheek again, caressing it while his beard tickles me as he leans in to kiss me. Abruptly, I stop myself from such errant thoughts as he ends the call.
It takes everything in me, but I focus on work. The earlier I finish, the sooner I’ll go home. I ignore him as he works on his laptop. I have questions to ask, but I’d rather choke on them than break the tense silence.
About thirty minutes later, a knock sounds on the door, and his head of security comes into the office with another man carrying multiple take-out packs from Ootoya and some bottles of water. They place them on the coffee table and exit the room as quietly as they came. My stomach grumbles. I haven’t had sushi since last week, and my mouth salivates in anticipation.
“Let’s eat,” Gareth says in his usual brusque manner as he gets up from the desk and strolls to the coffee table.
With slightly wobbly legs from sitting for so long, I walk to the table. Without glancing at him, I pick up two packs of food, chopsticks, a bottle of water, and turn around.
