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“I need to get a dress and a suit. Formal ones. By Saturday. Sooner if possible.”
Lex is quiet for a minute as she sizes me up, then asks, “For you and your fiancée?”
I try not to give anything away hearing those words. If Kaisin’s loose-lipped around me, it makes sense he’s loose-lipped around everybody.
I didn’t want that lie to reach Lex, but now that it has, I do want to see how she reacts to it—ifshe’ll react at all—so I nod.
Nothing moves. Not one fucking tic to give away her thoughts. Not a leg bounce, not a jaw clench, not a—
Lex stretches her hand out next to the gifts before using her entire arm to swipe them both off the desk and into the garbage can below.
My chest expands on a ragged inhale as I sit up straight. Not once does she break the connection and not once do I stop considering jumping across the desk to seal my mouth to hers just to see if I can get something out of her.Anything.Goddamn it!
“So that’s a…”
Her voice is quiet yet hard as she says, “That’s a get out of my office.”
“Do you always have to be such a fucking bitch?” I breathe out, both pissed and impressed.
“Yes, I do,” she answers unapologetically, then gestures to the door. “Out.”
How the fuck does she do it? Sit here without any emotions? I gave her gifts I actually put thought into. Did I want to spend my evening in a fucking bookstore, searching for a book I thought a total stranger might enjoy? Fuck no, I didn’t. I felt like an idiot, even more so than I do right now having her clown my ass.
I should’ve bought her the one with the demon couple on the cover.
As I’m shoving out of her office, she says, “You’re fired.”
I almost turn back around to tell her to go fuck herself—without me watching this time—but seeing Kaisin keeps my mouth shut.
“Hey, man, what’s going on?” he asks.
I run my hand through my hair before dropping it by my side, flexing and unflexing my achy fingers.
“Nothing. Just you know…work.”
I join him on his walk to wherever he’s headed until he stops, spinning around in front of me to lean in and ask, “How’d you manage a one-on-one with Lenox?”
“Oh, it’s, uh… It’s kind of embarrassing. After I couldn’t get that stain out yesterday, I guess she’s questioning my overall capability, so she wants me to report to her every morning with my tasks, that way she can confirm if I’m actually completing them.” She does call me rookie every fucking chance she gets.
Kaisin nods, looking past my shoulder, probably at Lex, and I have to stop myself from moving to block her from view. Even wanting to choke the shit out of her, I still have the urge to protect her.
“You want me to give you the name of my dry cleaners? If the professionals can work their magic, it might get Lenox off your back.”
I eyeball the dark dots all over the front of Kaisin’s slacks, the words “fuck” and “no” on the tip of my tongue. Not only are the dry cleaners Kaisin’s using not what I would consider professional, I don’t actually want Lex off my back. I do—sort of—but I don’t want anyone else thinking she’s off my back. I need to have a reason to meet with her regularly without raising suspicion.
But I also need to get close to Kaisin.
“It’s worth a shot,” I say, already plotting a story about the dry cleaners fucking up my order. It’ll prolong my excuse to come and go from Lex’s office, plus Kaisin will owe me for a terrible recommendation.
“I think I have their card in my office.”
I jut a hand out, telling him, “Lead the way.”
We bullshit in his office for a few, mainly about the virtual-reality headset Kaisin bought recently, and when I’m headed back to my cubicle, I take a corner too fast, running right into someone. Not just someone. Lex.
She clutches one of my biceps like she’s trying to right me even though I’ve got at least seventy pounds on her.
Automatically, I try to apologize, but she beats me to it, saying, “Forgive me, Mr. Souza.”
