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“I guess you need to get that?” I asked. It came out snider than I meant.
“Actually, yeah,” he said. Cal frowned. “Sorry. It's my partner.”
“I guess go. It will be less awkward if you leave.”
“I think it only feels awkward to you. I had a great time,” he said. Cal clicked the green call button as he walked out the door and hefted the bag of pans on his shoulder. I shut the door, walked to my phone and glared at it. Maybe it was all in my head. We were both adults and we chose to mess around. I swiped to my messages and opened the Alana thread.
Me
omg. he just went down on me and then left. I mean, I guess our date was done. It’s just awkward.
Alana
I’m sure it was fine. Tell me all about it on Monday. I will come down the hallway early when I can. Sorry. The kiddo is sick and husband is useless.
Me
aw sucks. hope the kiddo gets better quick!
I grabbed my pajamas and went to take a shower. When I walked out of the shower, my phone dinged. I grabbed it and walked to my bed.
Cal
Don’t forget what I said. Date that night. I want you thinking about me all day.
Feeling like a smartass, I replied:
Did we set a date? I don’t remember that after you ran out like that. You need to work on your communication skills.
I rolled my eyes after sending my message. I would be feeling this much more if he hadn’t blown me off like that. Did I want a grand gesture? Maybe. Justsomething.We were both adults. Why couldn’t he talk about his feelings?
Chapter 8
Jordan
Iwalked inside the office carrying all the coffees I was supposed to deliver to everyone else. This morning I had them all in a plastic bin. I loved finding this new hack. It was much easier than the claw grip around all the coffees and praying no one ran into me. There was a lid and no danger of getting hot coffee on myself. I should have thought of this months ago. Adding Caleb’s coffee was too much. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why I was gettinghimcoffee. I wasn’t his assistant. I didn’t even think he had one yet. Not everyone did, which is why I did more than just Kate's grunt work. Anyone from the office would grab me and get me to do anything they needed done. Sometimes I wondered if Kate told them to do that to humiliate me. I tried to ignore that thought though. That seemedtooinsidious. Although I was sure Caleb would get an assistant soon. Would they hire in-house? He was supposed to be learning the ins and outs of the job. Eventually, he would be poised to take over for his father. Right now, he was near the bottom rung of the business. What did Kate say? He would get familiar with various sectors of the business before moving on. Maybe he waspicky and biding his time? I knew that Kate hated him. There was something else going on here. I hadn’t figured it out yet. Was this one of her many schemes to get the big man to notice her?
It seemed the first few days of fawning over him were gone. Many of the girls had gotten yelled at and stopped trying to throw themselves at him. Less women in the office were wearing provocative business wear nowadays. As I sat his coffee and a muffin on his desk, I pulled another post-it note out and wrote a quick message:
May this Monday be the least Monday-est of all Mondays!
And here is a muffin!
I stopped before I left the office. It had no personal touches, and knowing the wealth that Caleb’s family had, it was weird. Maybe he was going to get new office furniture in a few more weeks. For all I knew, it was coming from France or something. I shrugged and walked down the hall for the rest of my coffee drops.
On my way back to my desk, Alana caught up with me. I shoved her coffee in her hands and dropped my box by my desk. She smiled as she inhaled her coffee as we walked. “Love the smell of a good coffee. Maybe we should take a round on floor three? Looks like we’re doing a job. Here, hold this clipboard, look official,” Alana said with a laugh. Alana handed me the clipboard that had been under her arm.
I laughed as we walked to the elevator. As we were waiting, I could hear a flurry of hushed voices. The digital elevator numbers slowly ticked to this floor.Hurry up, hurry up,I urged it.
From the distance, I heard a grumpy shout, “Get out of my way!’
“Damn,” I muttered. “Is that the new big man?”
Alana nodded as the elevators beeped and they opened up. I stepped inside with Alana. I stepped to the side, hoping that Caleb wouldn’t see me. I preferred to stay out of the warpath of all the head honchos. I glanced over from my decoy clipboard and saw a tall suited man with his hair pulled back in a man bun walk toward his desk. Something about that man looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. The picture in the lobby was so old, I wouldn’t know what an adult Caleb would look like, but no one had long hair in the office. I saw him pull his phone out as he walked out of my view as the doors shut.
“He has a man bun? I thought he was a clean-cut ivy league type,” I said as I turned toward Alana.
Alana made a face. “You haven’t seen him? Damn, he’s grown up. But I hear from some of the girls he has a girlfriend. Or he is gay. More likely someone started that rumor because of a bruised ego. There are a lot of rumors running around,” she said. “I think that’s why he’s so grumpy. Plus it stops the others from throwing themselves at him. One girl cried to me that he said he would report her.”
