Chapter Three
Blake
I hit send on an email and glanced at my watch for the tenth time that hour. It was five fifteen, I’d just finished my last meeting, and I still needed to wrap up a few things before I could take off for the night. I usually worked later than this, because I accomplished a great deal more when I was the only one in the office, but I hadn’t been able to focus since running into the Scooter’s girl in the elevator during lunch.
What were the odds?
The last thing in the world that I was looking for was a relationship, even a casual one. Skye and I called off our engagement months ago, yet the residual ick had me determined to stay single for a long-ass time.
Forever sounded pretty fucking awesome to me at that point.
But there was just something about the Scooter’s girl. Amy. After so much dishonesty with Skye, so many little white lies that piled up as teasers to her Big-Ass Lie, it was refreshing to be around someone who seemed so open. I’d only met her for a total of five minutes, so technically I didn’t know dick about her, but compared to my just-let-me-explain former fiancée, she felt…real.
I hated small talk—and most people—in general, yet talking to her had been fun. After we’d gone our separate ways in front of the Incite building, I’d sent her a quick text, just so she had my number.
Testing 1-2-3.
She’d responded immediately. NOW who’s the bunny boiler? I JUST left the building and you’re already texting. Obsessed much, Joe Goldberg?
I’d stopped walking to send: Did I mention that one of my cats is blind?
Because the look that had crossed her face in the elevator when I said I had a cat was fucking golden.
She replied, You are a menace, Mr. Chest, and I should probably block you for that sort of filth. Also, on a random side note, when you call tonight, make sure you have the kitties nearby so I can hear their little meows.
Damn it if I wasn’t really looking forward to calling her.
Fucking lunacy, that.
“Knock, knock.”
I looked up and Pam Carson, the HR manager, was leaning into my office.
“Hey, Pam,” I said, giving her a smile even though all I wanted was for her to go away.
“Hey.” She smiled back and said, “Listen, Isabella Shay, our new generalist, started today, and I just wanted to introduce you before she goes home. If you have a second.”
“Sure,” I said, even though I had no interest in meeting her new employee.
It wasn’t that I was uncaring, but Pam—and the entire HR department—ran like a well-oiled machine. Technically, on the org chart, they were part of my team, but unless something unusual was going on, the HR director handled everything and I had very little contact with the group.
Except when Pam showed up at my door every few months to introduce me to a new hire.
“Isabella, this is Blake Phillips.”
Pam stepped sideways in the doorway, and a brunette smiled and raised her hand in a casual wave. I opened my mouth to say, Nice to meet you , but the girl standing just outside my office looked exactly like— no, holy shit, it was —Scooter’s Amy.
What in the actual hell?
Izzy
“You have got to be kidding.” I knew I was beaming like a toddler looking at an ice-cream cone, but what else could I do except grin? Fate was literally throwing this man at me. This big, gorgeous, charming man. I said, “You again ?”
“This is getting ridiculous.” Mr. Chest looked super important, sitting behind the huge desk in the huge office. He was smiling at me, but that wrinkle was back between his eyebrows.
“Do you two know each other?” Pam asked, swinging her gaze back and forth between us like nothing had ever been more interesting.
“I spilled coffee all over this guy at Scooter’s this morning.” And also gave him my number. “It’s a shockingly small world.”
Mr. Chest leaned back a little in his chair and crossed his arms, looking every inch the executive. A very expensive-looking watch peeked out from under his right cuff, and I think I was distracted by it because I didn’t quite get it when he said, “Pam called you Isabella.”
“Yes…?” Is it an actual Rolex?
“So I thought you said your name was Amy.”
“Oh.” Oh, noooo. I’d been so locked in on the prettiness of his face and the shine of his watch that I’d forgotten all about the stolen coffee. My face was instantly hot as I stammered, “Oh, uh, yeah. Um.”
He asked, “Is Amy your middle name?”
I suddenly felt like I was on trial. He looked like a stern prosecutor— hot thought to be revisited later —and Pam was like a juror, quietly watching the cross-examination. I opened my mouth and was about to snatch up his middle name excuse like the liar I’d apparently become, when Pam said, “No, her middle name is Clarence. Right, Izzy? Isn’t that what you told me when you filled out the I-9 form?”
God, why? Why did I ramble nervously to my new boss about my stupid middle name?
Pam laughed and said to Blake, “I think she said it was her grandfather’s name. Isabella Clarence—can you imagine?”
I rubbed my lips together for a second— shit, shit, shit— before confessing, “Amy isn’t actually my name at all. It’s, uh, kind of a funny story.”
Blake’s head tilted just the tiniest bit.
I said, “Let me explain.”
Pam kept smiling, looking at me like she was waiting for a hilarious tale, but Blake was doing that jaw-clench thing and absolutely not smiling anymore.
He kind of looked pissed.
He kind of looked like the twin brother of the charming man I’d flirted with in the elevator. He was now Bloke, Hot Blake’s grumpy twin brother.
“Okay, so, I was running a little behind and didn’t want to be late for my first day at Ellis. I paid for my drink, but the line was super long. Like, so long that I was going to have to bail before I even got my coffee, right?”
Pam was still into it, listening in amused anticipation, but Blake just looked impatient, like he wanted me to shut the hell up.
Hard same, Bloke.
I looked down at my feet and just let the admission fly. “So after they called for Amy three times and no one came for the drink, I, um, I might’ve said that I was Amy.”
“You did not ,” Pam said, full on laughing.
I tried giving Blake an adorably playful smile. “It didn’t pay off, though, because I ended up spilling the drink all over Blake here.”
“Um.” He cleared his throat, clearly unmoved by my attempt at adorability. “Are you saying that you took someone else’s drink?”
That reminded me of the you took someone’s reservation? bit in the movie Date Night , but I needed to keep that thought to myself and focus on the task at hand.
The task that was apparently…well, not looking like a thief at my new job.
“I mean,” I started, trying to make him understand. “I paid and we ordered the same thing, so—”
“So does that make it not her drink, then?” He looked at me like I’d just confessed to beheading a puppy. “Amy’s drink is fair game for anyone who prepaid for the same order, is that what you’re saying?”
I glanced at Pam, who looked suddenly uncomfortable with the exchange, and said, “It was a very uncool thing to do, I know.”
“I don’t know about uncool,” Bloke said, his eyes pinning me in place like he was the hawk and I was the mouse he found too annoying to eat, so he just wanted to play with me until I was dead. “But it was definitely dishonest.”
“So very, very dishonest.” I gritted my teeth and tried to stay calm, because I wanted this job more than I wanted to tell off the ultrahot, über-judgmental asshole. But what a jerk. I crossed my arms over my chest, breathed in through my nose, and said, “You have no idea, at this moment, how much I regret every single thing that transpired today in relation to that dishonest cup of coffee. If I could go back and undo all of it, every single moment, I absolutely would.”
His eyes stayed on me, unwavering, and his expression was unreadable.
But I knew that he knew what I was saying.
“I’m going to take off and let you get back to work,” I said, lifting my lips so the baring of my teeth looked like a smile. “It was very nice meeting you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Was it?”
“Of course,” I said, coughing out a little laugh and smiling at Pam to make sure she knew that everything was fine. But the second Pam looked away from me, I couldn’t stop myself. I was so disappointed in the lost possibilities of Mr. Chest that I gave Blake a tiny headshake and mouthed the word nope .
Which made his jaw clench and his eyes narrow.
Which made me feel like I’d scored some sort of point.
“We’ll get out of your hair now, Blake,” Pam tittered, and I let her lead me away from the office and out to the elevators. My heart was racing and my brain was scrambling as I tried to determine how screwed I was in regard to my new job.
I mean, I worked on a different floor from Bloke, so that was good. And he didn’t seem like someone prone to office gossip (mostly because he came across as an arrogant jackass who didn’t have time for other people), so hopefully no one else in the company would ever learn of my latte pilferage.
Technically, all that had happened was I earned the disapproval of some random Ellis employee who worked upstairs. As long as Pam didn’t have an issue with my atrocities, I’d probably be okay.
But as we waited for the elevator, she said the very worst thing possible.
“I know Blake can seem a little intimidating,” she said, smiling as she looked up at the number display above the elevators. “But that’s just because he’s very focused. He’s actually a really nice guy once you get to know him.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” I muttered, relieved she didn’t seem upset about the awkward interaction with Bloke.
That made her smile. “He takes his job very seriously, that’s all.”
I tried, but I couldn’t recall what exactly his job was. Had she told me? She’d introduced me to like ten people in a row, so I’d been on autopilot, but then the minute I’d seen him sitting behind the desk, I’d stopped hearing her voice altogether. “What is his title again?”
“He’s an administrative vice president,” she said as the elevator bell dinged.
“An AVP ?” I said, as calmly as I could when my brain was exploding and yelling, Nooooooooo! all at the same time. “So that would make him…?”
“Our boss.” The elevator doors opened, and Pam smiled at the two women inside as she said, “Blake is technically the boss of everyone in administration at Ellis.”