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That left just the two of us, with our backs to a crowded office. I glanced around and realized everyone was busy with their day and no one was focusing on us anyway. We were standing right in front of her door and her back was against the wall, so while Gayle was busy with the call, I took a step forward and sneaked my hand around her waist, leaned forward to whisper into her ear. If Gayle turned she would see us, but anyone else in the office would think I was standing a little too close to Charlie and that would be it.
I smiled when I realized she hadn’t stiffened. Quite the opposite, she leaned slightly towards me as well, and I enjoyed her breath hitch for a second, as a smile spread across my lips. I stood still for a moment. Taking in her scent, without being too creepy about it. ‘Have lunch with me?’ I whispered.
‘What are you doing?’ she shot back quietly, her nose touching my neck when she turned her head. Her chest was rising and falling a little quicker.
I pulled my hand back and took a step away from her.
‘Asking you out for lunch,’ I said, staring into her eyes and trying to look as innocent as I could. I would’ve much preferred to taste her lips and her skin once again. And then there was the spot right below her ear towards her neck…
She squinted at me as if she was trying to figure out what I was thinking.
‘I can’t,’ she replied after a while. ‘I’m going to skip lunch.’
I quirked an eyebrow. She hated missing lunch. ‘Why?’
‘Uh…’ She lowered her gaze and glanced down at her phone. ‘I have that thing you asked me to write. And something else I need to take care of for my dad.’
‘What thing?’
She met my eyes. ‘The thing we worked on at the weekend.’
‘Ahh… that thing.’ I leaned down again, but kept both my hands in my pockets. As much as I wanted my hands on her, there was no need to push our luck. ‘You wouldn’t be avoiding me, would you, Charlie?’ I whispered.
She shook her head as I pulled back to look into her eyes. After I took her in, I leaned down again and paused when my lips were right next to her ear. I made sure that our bodies were not touching, but we were still standing a little too close.
‘You look beautiful today,’ I said simply before leaning back, but I chose to stay closer this time.
‘What?’ She looked down at herself and her cheeks flushed. ‘Thank you, William.’
She was wearing a white pencil skirt with thin black stripes and V-neck thin black sweater. I lowered my voice. ‘You look beautiful every day, Charlie. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.’
‘That’s kinda putting it on a little too thick.’
Noticing who was heading our way, I took another step back from her and waited as her dad came to her rescue.
‘Good morning Douglas.’
‘William. Laurel Nielson is coming up.’
‘What? Why?’ Charlie asked, confused.
I checked my watch as Charlie went through her phone to see if she had missed any calls. ‘We have a meeting with her at 3.00 p.m. Not now.’
Douglas shook his head. ‘You’ll have to ask her. I saw her on my way up.’ He briefly glanced at Charlie. ‘The conversation you wanted to have has to wait for now. I’m leaving the office for a few hours. We’ll talk tonight at dinner.’
I watched as Charlie cleared her throat and set her lips in a firm line. ‘I’m sorry. I won’t make it to the dinner this week.’
‘Why?’ Douglas sighed. ‘Charlie, are you going on another date? We’re busy enough here, maybe you should take a break. You’re not having any luck meeting someone decent anyway.’
I watched as her whole body tightened at his words.
‘No. Not a date, Dad. Like I said, I won’t be there. I’m busy.’
Douglas sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. ‘Charlie, is this about the babysitting job? I need you in another meeting to get some notes for us. And you’ll be working with Kim this week, I don’t want you two to…’
‘If it’s okay with you, I need to get to Laurel with Charlie, Douglas. And as we discussed before, she is on my team. She is not going to work with anyone but me. I can’t have her distracted with the problems other people should be qualified enough to handle. Try asking Kim for help. She needs the experience more than Charlie does to be honest. She needs to work on her people skills.’
Douglas opened his mouth to respond, but his phone started ringing and the words died in his mouth. ‘I need to take this, but we’re going to talk about this later.’ He kept his gaze on me. ‘I’ll see you tonight, Charlie. I don’t want any arguments.’
