Kiss A Ginger Day: A steamy workplace romantic comedy

Chapter 23

Theodore slid onto the bar stool. Samuel glanced his way quickly and then back to the guy behind the bar. “Another Nigori.”

Theodore waved off the drink suggestion. “I’m good.”

“Try it. I can’t have this conversation with either one of us fully sober.”

“Need an excuse for when you fire me?” He hoped his light tone would belie the possibility of that actually happening.

Samuel’s brow furrowed, and he stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Suzy fill you in?”

“On?”

“Alice and me.” He might as well get to it.

“Oh. That.” He went back to studying his sake cup. “Not what I want to talk about.”

The man didn’t care? Something had changed. Now Theodore was very interested in why he’d been summoned to drink sake on a Tuesday night. “Found out more about Roger?” What else could have the man looking so miserable?

“No. We’re cutting him a deal.”

“Generous.” And futile since the law was the law. Then again, Suzy and Samuel often pulled off the impossible.

Samuel huffed. “Maybe. It can’t be more stupid than what I’m about to tell you.”

His curiosity was firing on all cylinders now.

The bartender put a white ceramic cup in front of him. “Your Nigori, sir.”

What the hell. Theodore picked it up and took a sip that seared his tongue.

Samuel fiddled with his own cup. “What do you know about Patricia Dodd?”

He was so taken aback by Samuel’s question his brain had to search for the name’s meaning. “Patricia,” he stated. “You mean, Patty? At Edison?”

“Programmer. Blonde.” He took a sip of his sake. “Fond of pencil skirts.”

“Alice’s friend.” Someone who could keep her mouth shut while he and Alice broke every policy Samuel had about mixing romance with a professional life. Or, in their case, the inability to put their libidos in their rightful place. Or perhaps she did tell, and that was his round-about way of asking if it was true.

“Yeah, that Patty.” Samuel continued to play with his cup. “How’s Alice, by the way?”

“Mad.”

“She should be. Roger was?—”

“No. She’s mad at me for not filling her in.”

“You couldn’t have.”

“Why not?” He leveled his gaze on Samuel.

Samuel shrugged. “She might have tipped him off. Then again, how did she overlook such a thing? Maybe she was?—”

“She’d never.” Every word out of Samuel’s mouth grew his anger. “Don’t you dare think that for one minute. Alice is the best employee you’ve got at Edison. It was a mistake not letting her in on your suspicions.”

Samuel arched an eyebrow. “Is that you talking or your dick?”

Theodore pushed to standing, the bar stool nearly toppling over. “Fuck you, man.”

“Sit down, Theodore.” He laid his hand on the stool. “I get it. You’re in love. For once,” he grumbled.

“You don’t believe in love.”

Samuel smirked. “Know that, do you?”

He remained standing. “Samuel, what’s going on?” The man hated to go too deep, so this was a sure-fire way to end it. He didn’t have time for Samuel confusing the ever-loving shite out of him—not while a woman he might be in love with wasn’t speaking to him. That should be his priority.

Samuel slapped the stool next to him. “Sit down and tell me about Alice. And don’t bullshit me.”

Something was definitely off with his friend. Theodore took his seat and pushed away the sake cup.

Samuel sighed. “Then tell me what it feels like.”

Perhaps something in the sake was turning him crazy. “Feels like?”

“Love.” He spat out the word as if it were bitter. “Not sure I’d recognize it.”

It took something for Samuel to admit that defect. Suzy and Samuel were used to having all the answers. One thing was clear: Samuel O’Flannery was interested in a woman, and he obviously didn’t know what to do about it. Well, that made two of them.

“Not sure I’m the best person to discuss that particular emotion,” Theodore said. “Suzy might be better. She’d?—”

“Tell me to develop a spreadsheet. Or tell me I’m drinking the same Kool-Aid as you and Alice.”

He huffed. “She would do that.”

Samuel lifted his sake cup in a toast. “To us confirmed bachelors and the women who drive us crazy.”

It stunned him to hear Samuel’s assessment of him. Theodore never considered himself committed to staying single. He just took it one day at a time. But he rather enjoyed Samuel’s confusion around a woman. It was about time someone drove Samuel to rethink his casual ways.

Theodore lifted his cup and met Samuel’s toast before unwisely tipping more sake into his mouth. “You ask Patty out or something?”

“No. She’s driving me crazy. From afar. So, tell me. How do you get rid of it? The interest, I mean.”

Theodore chuffed. He hadn’t a clue about ridding himself of a woman’s allure—certainly not Alice’s. Only how to unwisely throw himself into her, thinking it’d all sort itself out. “I’ll let you know if I ever figure it out.”

“You’re not trying to stop your interest in Alice, are you?” Samuel studied him under his thick brows.

“No.” The answer thunked into his gut. “Can’t stay away. So, maybe that’s your answer. It feels …”

“Like she’s in control?”

Samuel would go there. The man hated being out of control. “No. More like it feels right.”

Samuel nodded once, then slapped him on the shoulder. “Then, I say go for it, Theo. I’m sure whatever this … thing is with me will pass. It always does.”

Did it? Was that what would happen with Alice eventually? He’d have mulled that over more, except Samuel’s tacit approval for Theodore to “go for it” shocked him. Samuel must be truly captivated by Patty to let his long-standing ideas about mixing business with pleasure fall away so easily. It was strange to see Samuel unsure of himself when it came to the opposite sex. Then again, Theodore wasn’t in any better boat.

He rose. Time to go see exactly which boat he was in.

* * *

He got to Alice’s apartment building and gazed up at her bedroom window. It was dark. Her car was parked in its usual spot, however. Was she asleep? Was she ill? He’d make sure she saw a doctor soon.

Leaning against his car, Theodore stared at the email from Suzy on his phone again. The woman was like a river. She flowed one way—forward. He should be thankful. All talk of Alice was gone. Instead, she rambled about their new acquisition, an AI company in Glasgow. The message ended familiarly: “Catch the noon to London tomorrow? We need you on this one.”

Need. Such a strange word when one thought about it. What did it mean exactly?

He stared up at Alice’s bedroom window again. Would he do the cliched thing of throwing pebbles at it? He looked around at the asphalt parking lot. Not a rock in sight.

He lifted his phone to his ear and prayed she’d answer. She didn’t, so he went up anyway.

She answered when he knocked but didn’t say a word. Rather, she stood there in a T-shirt and jeans, her big toe making circles on the carpet as she leaned against the door’s edge. She wasn’t letting him inside yet.

He cleared his throat. “Samuel has a thing for Patty.” Her eyes widened and her toe stopped circling. Ah, she didn’t know. She certainly hadn’t expected to hear those words from him. Hell, he hadn’t expected to utter them.

She straightened. “What do you mean? She hasn’t said anything to me.”

“She probably doesn’t know about his interest.” Though he was pretty sure as soon as he left, Alice would call Patty and tell her. “Samuel is good at hiding things.”

She scowled. “He’s not the only one.”

“Ever going to forgive me for adhering to my NDA?”

“You could have suggested to bring me in.” She held the door open with one hand. “Did you?”

Now would have been the perfect time to lie about it. Say he did. Try to earn some redemption points, though he wasn’t sorry for adhering to the business rules set down by Edison’s owners. “Sorry. I’ve known Suzy and Samuel a long time, and the agreement was set in stone, so …”

“Yeah. I know.” She sighed and swung the door open, inviting him in.

“Do you?” He stepped inside. “Do you have any idea how often I wanted to tell you everything?”

Shutting the door, she turned to face him. “So, tell me now.”

“How didn’t you know about Roger?”

Her eyes narrowed.

Shit. He should have led with something else.

She angrily swiped at hair that had fallen across her forehead. “I just didn’t, okay? I was focused on keeping things going. Trying to get that promotion.”

“But the books?—”

“Are as antiquated as you can get. It was easy for him to skim through altering accounts receivables, unusual company checks, dummy vendors whose agreements I never signed! You want to be believed, then you need to believe me. It’s how it works.”

He did trust her. “Fair enough.”

“Good. Now, don’t ever lie to me again. Or leave out anything important.”

The relief that she was granting him some grace for keeping the full truth of his presence at Edison washed over him like a waterfall. “Then let’s talk.”

He then proceeded to tell her everything. He confessed it all, like how he was brought in to ferret out anything at all that was remiss at Edison. Personnel was his mission, but Suzy and Samuel had admitted they suspected financial fraud. They’d suspected Alice was in on it. He hurt her deeply with that bit of information. But she’d said to not hold anything back.

He grasped her hand. “I didn’t believe it from the second I met you.”

“Oh?” Pain still swam in her eyes.

“You’re loyal.”

She scoffed. “Stupidly so.”

“No.” He held her hand for long minutes. Finally, given it was after midnight, he rose, pulling her up. “Time to sleep.” The time for talk was over. Plus, he didn’t want to leave room for discussion about Samuel’s strange interest in Patty. Or that he learned the future of Edison Tech was in danger. He also didn’t want to go into the growing ache in his chest that he couldn’t tell if it was love or not. And most of all, he wasn’t ready to share the fact he had to get on a plane soon—without her.

For the first time, they shared a bed and didn’t have sex. Perhaps they were too tired from the day. But it felt … odd. Maybe the bubble was finally bursting. Just when he’d been given permission from his bosses to go for it.

Life could be a cruel beast.