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Okay, fine. I know how it started. It was because when I started here, I liked to dress up for a certain boss of mine, which I realize is stupid, because I’ve already established that I tend to fall for my bosses, which ended in disaster at my last job, and so even if my outfits caught Grayson’s eye, nothing was ever going to happen.
As it turns out, my outfits are how I first bonded with Nadia. She’d compliment mine, I’d compliment hers, and a beautiful friendship was born. So, it was all meant to be.
“How was your weekend?” Nadia asks before taking a sip of her coffee.
“Uneventful,” I tell her. “How was your family reunion?”
“So great,” she says. “Shane came for a bit and everyone loved him. My auntie Shay was obsessed. Especially with his biceps. She kept trying to grab on to them, and at one point I had to practically pry her fingers off.”
Oh, right. Shane. I’d temporarily forgotten the bad, but also sort of good—well, good for me—news I need to share with Nadia. I won’t be able to attend her wedding. Cue sad face.
I clear my throat and fold my arms. Time to get down to business. “Speaking of Shane,” I start, but then someone knocks on my open door.
Both of us look up to see Grayson, the BILK, standing there filling the doorframe quite nicely with his built physique, wearing a pair of jeans and a button-down white shirt, a version of the outfit he wears most days. Sometimes he switches it up with a blue shirt that makes his green eyes pop. Why does he have to be so gorgeous? It would make my life so much easier if he looked like a troll.
“Pink,” he says by way of greeting, almost as if he’s blurted it out without thinking. “Your dress is pink.” He closes his eyes and then swipes a hand down his face.
“Yes, it is,” Nadia says, scrunching up her perfectly shaped nose at him. She turns the same face at me, her facial expression saying,What’s up with this guy?
“Sorry, it’s … been a long day,” he says.
“It’s just after nine,” I say.
“Exactly.” He gives us a weary smile. “Uh, can I talk to you in my office, Mila? Just for a minute.”
“Of course.” I stand up from my chair and follow him out the door, but not before looking back at Nadia, who’s doing a ridiculous arm pumping thing, squinting her eyes and biting her bottom lip. I should have never told her about my boss attraction. But that was also something we bonded over when we first met, and also how BILK came to be. Once upon a time, before Nadia only had eyes for Shane, she, too, found Grayson attractive. She also breathes and has a pulse, which is the prerequisite for recognizing his gorgeousness.
I give her a dirty look and a quick thumbs-up before following Grayson down the hall. I make sure my eyes are on the door to his office ahead of us and not on his lovely backside. I made that mistake before and tripped on my own feet. All around, not my best moment.
He stops at the threshold of his open office door, stands to the side, and gestures for me to go in first. I sit in the white chair in front of his desk, contemplating for much too long what I should do with my hands as he walks around to the other side of his desk and takes a seat. I settle for placing them in my lap.
“Sorry to pull you away,” Grayson says, placing his defined forearms on the armrests of his large black office chair.
“No worries. I was just about to tell Nadia that I won’t be able to go to the wedding.” I smile but then drop it quickly because, as has already been established, smiling at this juncture is not appropriate. Must. Be. Sad.
“I’m glad I caught you, then,” he says, and then weaves his fingers together and places his hands on the desk.
“Oh?” I ask, my stomach doing a little dropping thing. “Did you change your mind … about not going?”
“Well, I had a meeting with Vik just before I came to see you. We both decided that it would be useful for some of us to do some real-world testing on the app before it goes to user testing.”
I dip my chin once, confused. “Of course—that’s already on the docket.” You can’t send an app blindly to users to test. That’s unheard of.
He nods. “I know we were going to do it locally, but we, well Vik, thought testing in a more touristy area would help us get a true grasp of how things are working.”
“Colorado is touristy.”
“During ski season, yes.”
“That’s … true,” I say. “California? New York? Orlando?” I’d even suffer through the humidity of a central Florida summer for this. Anywhere other than where I’m pretty sure he’s going to say.
The corner of his mouth lifts slightly. “That would work, but seeing as we both have a wedding to attend in Hawaii, what if we tested it there?”
And there it is.
“We?” I ask, pointing to myself and then to him, in case he meant the royalwe, which I’m praying he does.
“I know it’s not conventional,” he says. “Vik suggested that you and I could do some testing there before the wedding. Sort of a win-win.”
