Keaton
Scrolling through endless posts about how amazing Ridley Angus was and how much everyone loved him was not good for my crush. Especially not now that I’d met the man in person and seen he was genuinely a decent guy.
In fact, it was possible he was actually better-looking in the flesh.
Stop thinking about how hot Ridley Angus is.
I glanced up involuntarily at Mr. Harvey, who was staring down at the contracts with an impassive look on his face. Carved from stone as always. This job was like torture. Was I always just going to be surrounded by the hottest men in the universe, while remaining frustratingly single?
It really didn’t help my self-confidence that I’d just gone and spilled everything about my last relationship to my super-hot boss.
On my second day in the job.
What had I been thinking?
Mostly, I knew, I hadn’t been thinking at all – because when Mr. Harvey asked me something, a deep feeling of panic welled up inside me.
I didn’t know if it was because I wanted to impress my new boss and do well at my job, because I was terrified of being caught filming, or… just because he was, well, so damn hot.
Or maybe that icy blue stare and his unchanging expression inspired the same kind of fear in everyone who worked for him.
“Anything?” Mr. Harvey asked, making me snap to attention once again.
“Not yet, sir,” I told him. Instantly, I cringed at the use of ‘sir’.
Was it appropriate to use it when replying to him like that, or did I just sound like a tremendous suck-up?
I’d noticed Ace was extremely informal around him, but I also had the feeling that he was probably the only person in the building who could get away with it.
“I’ve seen a lot of posts from fans of rival teams, but it’s mostly just trash-talking.
Nothing that would really stand out as something to be concerned over. ”
“I need to take that call,” he said. I noticed he seemed oddly hesitant for a moment – staying in his seat, his hands hovering just slightly above where they had been resting as if he wasn’t sure whether to get up or not. “Just keep searching until Ace is back.”
I checked the clock. He was right. It was about time for his call with the Coleman Group.
I realized he was still waiting for a response and nodded smartly.
“I’ll keep going,” I told him. “Do you think it might be a good idea to call IT and ask them to search for any threatening or unhappy emails on the server that mention Ridley?”
Mr. Harvey nodded once. “See to it.” Then he stood and swept out of the room, leaving me staring at the place where he had been standing the moment before the doors closed.
Oliver Harvey seriously had some kind of presence that filled a whole room.
Oliver… it was a nice name. I rolled it around in my head. Olly. It was… sweet. Thinking about attaching that sweet name to a man like him…
I shuddered involuntarily. There was only one scenario in which I could imagine getting close enough to the ice man to call him a nickname like that. It did not involve appropriate workplace behavior.
I had been alone in the suddenly cold and empty office, trying hard to concentrate and not let my skin crawl in the unfamiliar space, for maybe two minutes before Ace barged back in.
“Oh,” he said. “Where’s the boss?”
“Stepped out to take a call,” I said. I figured it was a good idea not to reveal exactly who with. As for what it was about, I didn’t even have the information in the first place. “Did you get anything on the security cameras?”
Ace sighed and slipped a printout across the surface of my desk. I grabbed it and stared at it eagerly – and then my face fell.
“Yep,” Ace laughed humorlessly. “That’s about as good as we’re going to get.”
The figure that had been captured dropping off the envelope clearly knew that they were going to be on camera.
Their whole body was shrouded in mystery: they wore an oversized hoodie that revealed nothing about their curves or lack thereof, and the hood was pulled up around their head to hide any glimpse of hair.
As a final touch, a cap with a wide peak was pulled down low over their face, hiding any hint of an identity.
“There’s no other shots that show anything?
” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.
After all, the envelope being hand-delivered had been my find.
I wanted it to be the thing that solved this whole mystery.
“I mean, we can see they’re tall, but is there nothing else that might give us a clue? Not even a glimpse of chin?”
“Nothing,” Ace sighed. “Whoever this was, it’s like they knew where our cameras are located. They only strayed in sight of this one and always kept it either directly above or directly behind them, so there were no side angles. I can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, then glanced up in alarm. I’d forgotten I was in a workplace. “Sorry.”
Ace burst out laughing. “Don’t act like a fucking saint on my behalf,” he grinned. “Swear as much as you fucking like.”
I couldn’t help but laugh back, but it soon devolved into a groan. “This is really bad, isn’t it?” I asked. “I know I haven’t exactly been here long, but it doesn’t feel like this is a normal Tuesday.”
Ace slumped back into his chair at the coffee table.
“It’s not. This is bad. I don’t know who’s trying to do this, but someone is trying to sabotage us.
They put us into a position where, if we hadn’t caught this in time, we could have majorly pissed off two different sponsors and gotten into hot water in the public eye.
Ridley is our biggest star. They had to know that causing a scandal for him would not only cost us a lot of time and money but also put off other upcoming athletes from signing with us. ”
Something sparked in my brain. “So, you think the firm is being targeted, not Ridley?” I was first-name-checking Ridley Angus. This was wild. Two days ago, I couldn’t have imagined even being in the same building as him.
“Well, there are reasons for people to target Ridley, but… yeah,” Ace said, tilting his head. “Why?”
The cogs in my head were whirring at full speed. “Mr. Harvey asked me to look into threats or disgruntlement against Ridley,” I said, grabbing my mouse and opening up my email inbox. I needed to amend the request I’d made to IT. “If this is against him or you, that changes everything.”
“You can call him Oliver,” Ace said slyly. “Especially when he’s not here.”
I gave him a horrified look, and Ace burst into laughter again.
“Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves,” Mr. Harvey said from the doorway. He stormed in and took his seat again. Clearly, whatever he’d needed to discuss with Caleb Coleman, it hadn’t gone well. “Have you found our package dropper?”
Ace wordlessly handed him the printout and Mr. Harvey swore viciously.
“See?” Ace said triumphantly to me. “No need to mind your language in this office.”
“Stop corrupting my new secretary,” Mr. Harvey growled. He put the printout aside and set his jaw. “We’re going to be here late. Let’s order takeout.”
“Something from that Chinese place around the corner?” Ace suggested.
Mr. Harvey just nodded, turning his attention back to the contract pages as if they were going to reveal the answer to everything.
Ace gestured towards my computer. “You should find the company account on your system. We order from them a lot. I think Helen or whoever was here before her made some kind of file with everyone’s usual orders on it. ”
I had seen something that caught my eye before – a file on the desktop marked ‘Golden Dragon orders’. That must have been it. “I’ll order both of your usuals?”
“And whatever you want,” Mr. Harvey said without looking up.
So, I was going to stay and eat with them.
I should have figured that, given that we were all here for as long as it took, and Mr. Harvey had made it clear that he wanted me to leave the office only when he did.
But, still, the idea of eating with him sent a strange thrill up my spine.
It was… strangely intimate, for a boss and an employee to share a meal.
Not out of the ordinary, surely, but still.
I needed to get a grip.
He was hot, yes, but he was my boss. A boss, I had to remind myself, I kept trying to secretly film. I’d turned my camera off in a panic earlier, but I still had all intentions of capturing something here. It was probably a bad idea to get closer to someone I was already planning to betray.
Even if he’d wanted me to get closer in the first place.
Because for him, I was just his – probably slightly nerdy – employee.
Or, really nerdy, if I was being honest with myself.
Offering to eat with me was practical, not an act of friendship or anything else.
And even below all that: Ace was the gay one, not Mr. Harvey.
It was just a shame Ace wasn’t my type at all.
Or not a shame, since, again, I was supposed to be focusing on my job.
That I’d had for two days.
Jesus, I needed to get a grip.
I rang through to the takeout place, keeping my voice low so as not to disturb the urgent conversation Ace and Mr. Harvey were having.
By the time I finished and hung up the call, Ace was leaning back in his chair, running his hands through his shoulder-length black hair and letting his head hang over the edge.
He looked like the picture of a bored, frustrated kid.
“Ugh,” he said, giving voice to my internal image of him, and I had to hold back a smile. “This sucks! I wish we could just figure out who it was and move on already.”
Mr. Harvey gave an impatient sigh. “Go wait in the lobby for the takeout,” he told him. “Stretch your legs instead of your mouth.”
Ace got up gladly, almost sprinting for the door.
I wished he hadn’t gone.
“So,” Mr. Harvey said, turning his full and impressive attention on me again. “What was that miscreant telling you?”