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“I want to, Bobby, and I will. As soon as you know what you want, you’ll have in your hands in an instant. You know how I operate.”
“I know, I know, it’s just that you’re supposed to read my mind.” He came over to me and rested his forehead on my chest. He wrapped his arms around me as best as he could. His belly kept him at certain distance, for the time being.
I chuckled. “You’re so cute.”
“So cute you can read my mind and figure out what I’m craving?” I shook my head sadly, disappointed that I didn’t know. “It’s okay. You’re still a caring alpha. And super hot. And great in the sack. And super rich.”
That really made me laugh. “So you forgive me, then?”
He lifted a teasing eyebrow at me. “I suppose.” I leaned down for a kiss and he gave me one. “It’s back to work for me, until I solve the mystery.”
“We’ll get it figured out.” I hoped so. I wracked my brain trying to think of what he might want. There had to be something.
Thirty minutes later, I needed Bobby’s opinion on something, so I called into his office like I always did.
“Bobby. Bobby?” No answer. I dialed his desk phone, since sometimes he worked with music on. Nothing. “Strange.” I got up to poke my head into his office.
He wasn’t there.
“What the…?” Where was my pregnant mate? I pulled out my phone and called him and sent him a message, which he didn’t answer. “No need to panic, Vic, he’s only been out of your sight for a few minutes.”And anything could have happened in those few minutes, my brain said helpfully.I need to start the manhunt immediately.
I marched out of his office, looking for help from my office manager and head of HR as I usually did.
“Sue, have you seen Bobby? Latrice?” Both of them shook their heads, their expressions saying that they wondered why I was asking.
“Is everything okay, Boss? Do we need to look for him?” Latrice asked.
“Yes.” I was being irrational, but I didn’t care. The two of them fell in line with me, and we gathered up a posse of top execs who all dropped what they were doing to look for my fiancé and unborn children. We searched high and low, until someone got the bright idea to check the printing room.
Bobby was there, hunched in between a couple of Xerox machines, his back to all of us. When he turned around, his mouth dropped open like he’d been caught red-handed…eating printer paper. There was a wad of white in his mouth, half-chewed, and in his hands were crumpled up sheets of paper ready to be stuffed into his mouth. A ream of paper was torn open. There were shreds of white all over the place, paper carnage everywhere, like he’d turned into a carnivore like me and hunted down his prey on the Serengeti.
He looked at all of us with wide eyes. “I just, uh, it was really good!” I rushed over to him, relieved to see him in one piece. I took his hands, even though they were still clutching the paper.
“Honey, I don’t care that you’re eating paper, although it is pretty strange and we should make sure you’re okay to eat it, I care that you disappeared! I was worried sick.”
“So were we,” Sue added.
Bobby blushed, and it was so sweet. “Sorry, everybody. Next time I’ll just scarf everything down where you can see me instead of turning into Smeagol with ‘my precious’.” He shook the paper in his hand and laughed. I laughed, too, I couldn’t help it. Soon, all of us were in an uproar. When the laughter finally died down again, I waved everybody away.
“Thanks folks, for coming on this missing person search with me. I hope that brought some excitement to your day. Lunch and dinner is on me, whatever you want.” The crowd of employees dispersed, and I hugged Bobby close to me, kissing his nose. “You’re so much trouble. You’re lucky you’re cute.”
He pretended to throw his hair over his shoulder. “I know.”
“That satisfy your craving?”
He shook his head, disappointed. “It was hella tasty, but unfortunately, no.”
“We gotta get this figured out before you destroy the whole building and I end up in the nuthouse.”
I was right about almost ending up in the nuthouse. Bobby’s quest to fulfill his craving didn’t stop with the secret paper smorgasbord.
About an hour later, I had an epiphany.
“Ah ha!” I yelled, pointing straight up with my finger. “I got it. I’ve solved the cravings mystery. Bobby’s gonna love it.” I stood up from my desk, slamming my fist on it in triumph. I couldn’t call Bobby to order what I needed, so I called one of the interns, whose name I barely remembered. They took off at full speed to get me what I wanted, and they were back in under ten minutes. I prepared my gift to my mate and again went looking for him. Not in his office.
I rubbed my temples. “Not another search and rescue, Bobby, please. I’m gonna have a heart attack.”
He wasn’t far. I walked out of my office to see him standing at one of the intern’s cubicles, about to stick something very thin and very long in his mouth. Once I realized what it was, I freaked out. An extension cord.
