AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not my fault you can’t keep up, Mr. King of the Jungle.”
“I love you.”
“It’s me and you against the world. Or should I say, against the merger?”
“The two of us together can’t lose. We can take on anything. With you by my side, we’ll take over the world.”
“Let’s do it, Big Lion Man.” He laughed and fell down on top of me. I let his huge body press me down onto the bed, comforting me like a weighted blanket. “I love you too, Victor. I love you, too.”
7
VICTOR
Monday,we left our love nest and were back to work. It was crunch time, so tensions were high. The first week after we bonded, it didn’t affect us. We were still on Cloud Nine, canoodling and making love several times a night. The next week, however, things got tougher at work and I got caught up in it, reverting back to my old ways.
Soon, the pressure put me in a short-tempered mood toward everybody. Unfortunately, that included my mate-slash-assistant. We were officially mated, and maybe that was why I felt like I could get away with making him collateral damage with my work problems. I canceled our dates, and pulled all-nighters at the office, repeatedly coming home with the sunrise and leaving him in bed by himself. He tried a couple of times, in his sassy, teasing way, to let me know that he needed more of my attention. I didn’t listen. I should have known better.
After a week passed in that way, we were in the office working our respective tails off. Bobby appeared in the doorway between our offices, leaning against the frame. He spoke in his usual teasing tone, but it was softer today, more careful.
“Vic, Baby, you’re so stressed. Your mane’s gonna fall out, and then how are you gonna be the vain, mirror-obsessed jungle king I know and love? Why don’t you take a break?”
I shook my head, snorting like he was crazy. “A break, he says.” I went back to my iPad, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, through endless lists of numbers. The merger was not coming together the way I needed it to. We’d successfully merged all the employees, and everyone we planned to keep was now onboard. I suspected that Bobby had found a way to be much less ruthless with the cuts than I would have been, but I saw the benefits in not taking the company down to a skeleton crew, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
Still, the issues remained. Production was stuttering overseas because of technology issues. It set my teeth on edge. It wasn’t a supply chain problem, or employee errors or anything like that, no, it was glitches in a stupid computer system that made it so my product wasn’t on the shelves. Customers looking for athletic wear were walking away empty-handed, or worse, with products from a different competitor.
I didn’t look up. “Coffee,” I barked.
“Is that your way of requesting it?” Bobby asked.
“Please.” It wasn’t a very pretty please. It had some attitude to it. Bobby turned out of the doorway, going to fetch it for me.
“You’re really pushing the envelope here, aren’t you,Boss?” I didn’t answer.
Twenty minutes later, he was back, Starbucks in hand.
I looked at him with one bloodshot eyeball. “That took longer than usual. What happened?”
Bobby somehow kept up his playful nature, waggling his head at me as he set the teal and white cup down on my desk with a solidclack.
“There was a line, if you must know. I wanted to get you your favorite, instead of using the coffee press here. I figure it might cheer you up. Not sure if that’s possible right now, since you’re being such a bear.” He lifted an eyebrow at me, smirking at his little joke. I was grateful he’d had the idea to get me my favorite indulgent coffee. In that moment, I really needed the boost. I should have thanked him right then, but I dipped my head to look over the latest email from our CTO, Chief Technology Officer, and got distracted.As soon as I get everybody pulling in the right direction, things can go back to normal. I’ll make it up to Bobby then. We’re almost there.
The reality was, I should have been paying attention to what was going on in the moment. I should have kept in mind that pushing my time with Bobby into the future was not the right thing to do. Planning for the future was of the essence, but treasuring the present with the one you loved was most important.
Bobby cocked a hip and sat halfway on my desk. His usual flirtatiousness was in his voice.
“That ‘please’ was lukewarm, so now I’m expecting the sweetest, most tender ‘thank you’.” It should have soothed me, should have turned me on, but instead, in the moment, it just frustrated me.
“Stop playing around, Bobby, and get back to work. We’ve got too many things going wrong with this merger for you to be goofing off like a child.”
That did it.
Bobby pulled his head back, the smile dropping off his face. Shit. I readied myself for the storm.
“So, let me get this straight. You treat me like an afterthought all week. Then you start ordering me around, and now you’re being outright rude and condescending. I’ve been patient with you, Victor, more patient than is in my stubborn goat nature, but now I’ve had enough.”
I got defensive. “Bobby, it’s a tough time around here. Everybody’s on edge and I just need to get all this done, then everything will calm down again.”
“And in the meantime, is this how you’re going to act?”
