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“By not dealing with it?” she asked. I nodded. “Doesn’t sound healthy.” She sighed. “And do you know what is worse?”
“No.”
“I’m here sharing all of this withyou,”she huffed. “We’re supposed to be talking about work. Or whatever you invited me out to discuss.”
“I had no plans to discuss work. All I wanted was to get to know you better. And for the record, I’m glad you told me what is going on. Keeping it all bottled up only eats at you,” I stated.
“And telling you only makes me look...weak,” she said.
I had no idea what made me do it, but I reached down and took her hand in mine. “You are many things, Ovi, but weak is not one of them.”
She didn’t pull her hand away immediately, but after a few seconds, she slowly pulled it back And said, “Thank you.”
Well, that was an emotional start to our evening. It was time to bring it down a notch or two. “How about that glass of champagne?”
“One, because I have work in the morning.”
Yes!
It was a small breakthrough, but she wasn’t quitting. If all we accomplished tonight was being able to work together, then I’d have to settle for that. But I couldn’t help but hope that we could build from here.
She can tolerate my company and I consider that an improvement. What a sad situation to be in.
We just need to make it through dinner without any disagreements and who knows, maybe tomorrow we can work on being...friends.
It’d be a lot easier if I wasn’t so damn attracted to her.
My feelings weren’t important. Ovi had been through hell, and from the sounds of it, it wasn’t over. She might not have spoken to her father, but I don’t recall her telling me that I couldn’t. For this, I was going to need to ask Dean for another favor.
Hope he’s not keeping track because I don’t even want to think about what he’s going to ask of me when he decides to collect.
CHAPTER 10
Ovi
I looked at myself in the mirror again, and the dark circles under my eyes hadn’t faded even after my hot shower. Not that I regretted staying out well after ten last night. We were having a nice time. We talked about many things, but after the conversation regarding my father leaving, we didn’t speak about anything personal. Maybe that’s why we had fun.
A chuckle escaped my lips. I never would’ve thought that I’d use the words fun and Niko in the same sentence. After all the butting of heads we’d done, I was sure he was feeling the same way. But no matter how much we had enjoyed ourselves; it didn’t give me a pass for being late in the morning.
I quickly pulled back and brushed my still-wet hair into a single braid at the nape of my neck. I’d been so busy lately that I hadn’t had that much time to do any laundry. The only clean clothes left didn’t match my normal business attire. Pulling my blue and white polka dot dress from the closet, I slipped it over my head. It was way too cheery for the office.
This would’ve been a better dress for last night.
It didn’t matter now. If I didn’t want to be late, I’d have to rush. Grabbing my keys and purse, I left the house, got in the car, and drove faster than normal. When I arrived, I looked for Niko’s SUV, but I didn’t see it parked in front of the building. But he was the boss. He had the privilege of making his own hours if he so wished.
Getting out I entered the building and headed for my office. Almi was in the hallway walking my way. “I was just coming to see you.”
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“Yes, there is. Mr. Rio isn’t here, one of the employees, Ibby, cut his finger badly. He was rushed to the hospital for treatment.”
Almi looked flustered. I’d like to be able to say that was unusual for him, but my father told me that is why Almi could never be promoted to management. He was great at motivating people and great at quality control, but when even small things went wrong, his nerves rattled. “Oh my. Is it that bad?”
“Yes. I couldn’t stop the bleeding. I need to go and pick up his wife so she can be with him at the hospital. I need someone to be on the factory floor with the other employees in case anything else happens,” he said.
My heart was pounding, hoping that Ibby would be okay. “Yes. Please go and get his wife. I will handle things here until Ni...Mr. Rio arrives.”
“Thank you,” Almi said and rushed out.
