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I also took comfort in the thought that none of my direct co-workers would have seen that clumsy display.
“Are yougrinning?” My best friend asked me from across my desk, sporting a grin of his own.
Was I? “Don’t be absurd, John,” I said, the hint of amusement in my voice betraying me.
What was happening to me? I didn’t get amused. And why were my eyes still locked on the third computer screen to the left?
“You totally are. I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen you smile like this in decades. Not since that frat party when the chunky cheerleader gave you a lap dance.”
I scowled at him. “She wasn’t chunky.”
John ignored the warning in my scowl, as he always did. “Oh, yes she was, she was f—”
“Don’t you dare! She was curvy and beautiful, you judgmental prick.” My voice now back to my normal grouchy tone. “Get back to work.”
“Ahhh, there he is. Now I recognize you.” John leaned back in his seat with a satisfied look on his face. “Don’t order me around, you moron. You keep forgetting I’m your boss.”
Maybe because he’d been my best friend for longer than he’d been my boss. Or maybe because… “I answer to no one.”
John pointed to my monitor. “What were you looking at?”
More importantly,whywas I looking at it? And why couldn’t I stop? “Nothing. Get out.”
“Nope.” He leaned forward, grabbed the screen, and turned it.
But before he could see what had me so enthralled, I tapped a button on my keyboard, and the full-screen view of elevator A6—showing a beautiful young woman shaking her bountiful booty—disappeared and was replaced by a gallery view from fifty other cameras.
John’s eyes narrowed. “Jackass.”
He stood up and walked over to the mirror. Smiling at his own reflection, he adjusted the jacket of his pin-striped suit and meticulously fixed a lock of his ginger hair.
“Quit preening like a peacock. We’re at work, not on a catwalk.”
Still admiring his reflection, he said, “You’re just jealous that I’m better looking.”
Never. Jealous, he had better people skills, maybe. But I’d never let him know it. “I’m bigger and stronger.”
“You’re bigger than everyone, you oaf. Bigger is not better. I’d rather be devilishly handsome. Besides, I still have the same sexy bod I had back in college when I competed on the swim team.” He flopped into the chair and hooked an ankle over a knee. “You should come to the club with me tonight, Stevieboy. I’ll get a couple of chicks to fawn over your big muscles.”
I didn’t need his help to pick up chicks. If it wasn’t my muscles they wanted, it was my cash…at least until they got to know me. There was a reason I didn’t date anymore. “Not my thing.”
He sighed, his disappointment hanging in the air between us. “Give it a try, buddy. Look at me. I go to the club at least twice a week and take a different woman home each time. And most of those times, it’s a supermodel. I’m so gorgeous, they can’t keep their hands off me. But all you do is work and work out. It’s not a life, Steven. You need to have some fun.”
Fun doesn’t last. At least not the kind he’s talking about. “Making money is fun. Beating people in the MMA cage at Titan’s Club is fun. If I have any more fun, I’ll turn into a clown.”
He rolled his eyes as he stood. “Whatever. Don’t forget the meeting in an hour. And try to be nice this time.”
Why did he always say that? You’d think he’d give up by now. “There’s no place for niceties in business. Especially not in our industry. Numbers. That’s the only language I talk.”
“I don’t want to pull rank on you, buddy, but please be polite.” He leaned on my desk, looking down at me. “We need the board of directors to approve this merger.”
I flung a thick report across the desk that landed between his hands. “I make them a shit-load of money. They’ll approve it because the numbers speak for themselves. I don’t need to win them over with my charm.”
“Charm?” John’s howls filled the room as he bent over with laughter. “You?”
He didn’t have to rub it in. “Get out.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” He clutched his side, his laughter grating on my nerves. “You haven’t had any charm in over twenty years. Not since Barb dumped—”
