Working Late
“Ithought you had a date tonight,” Mona says as she walks past my desk around five.
I haven’t told her the full extent of my terrible dates. Partly because she was on a cruise with her family, and partly because admitting it out loud means acknowledging that this experiment was a stupid idea and is failing miserably.
I was so certain I’d find the man of my dreams using this app. That certainty is fading. Fast.
“Tyler needed me to stay late to finish this project. It’s a second date, so I rescheduled,” I say.
What I don’t say is that it’s a total lie. I canceled on the cowboy the second Tyler hinted that he might need me to stay late, and I have no intention of rescheduling.
I had to sniff peppermint essential oil last night just to get the scent of cow manure out of my nose. There is no desire to have to do that again.
“Oh, a second date? Someone made it past date one? I need details,” she says, hopping up to sit on my desk.
Tyler walks by just then, and I could kiss him for the timing. I nod toward him and stand. “Gotta go. Talk later.”
Hurrying to catch up to my boss, I sigh in relief when we step into his office and close the door. I hate lying to Mona, but if I tell her too much, she’ll see right through me. I’m a terrible liar.
Short, white lies are best.
“I didn’t know you had a date tonight when I mentioned staying late,” Tyler says. “I can take care of this if you need me to.”
“Trust me, you saved me.”
He leans back in his chair and studies me. “I did?”
Decker’s not around, and I haven’t talked to him since the night he picked me up from Thomas’s house. We keep missing each other, and I need to talk to someone about this.
Someone who isn’t Mona and won’t tell me to my face I’m stupid.
“This is probably more information than you need because, well, you’re my boss, but I can’t tell Mona. And I think I might explode.”
“You look like you might burst. What’s going on?”
I swallow and look at him. “I’m testing this new dating app that sounded absolutely perfect, but so far, it’s been nothing short of a disaster.”
“You’re testing an app? Aren’t there already thousands out there that aren’t in testing phases you could use?”
And now I feel stupid. I opened the door, and I can’t just slam it shut. If I asked, Tyler would drop it. He’s good like that. But I need a very outside perspective on this.
“You’re probably not aware because you’ve been in a serious relationship for years, but the dating pool?
Hazardous. It’s like a zombie apocalypse on the best of days.
So, when the ad to test this app for something that appeals to a specific group of people popped up, I kind of jumped at the chance.
Head first. But I’m thinking it might’ve been the shallow end, and it’s going to hurt. Probably.”
“What kind of group of people?”
“Um… readers. Of romance novels.”
His eyebrows shoot up, and I see a genuine smile cross his face. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time ever. “Okay, you have to explain this to me.”
I roll my chair around to his side of the desk and show him my phone, giving him the rundown of the way it works. “I’ve had three dates so far, and all three were terrible.”
“Tell me?”
Tyler’s laugh eases my nerves. He doesn’t want to hear to make fun of me. He wants to hear about these dates because it interests him. And there are probably details I shouldn’t share with my boss, but they’re also kind of needed to get the full picture of how bad things are.
I tell him about Benny B., the fake biker. And his ridiculous kutte. I also make sure to tell him, with a slight demonstration, about his fall getting off his “hog.”
“That’s kind of amazing,” Tyler says and chuckles. “Not a great start, but it’s funny.”
“Oh, he’s not even the worst.”
“What can top that?”
I shake my head, still embarrassed how na?ve I was. I tell him about Thomas—leaving out a few details like his small dick—and get more laughter.
At least he didn’t laugh as hard as Decker did. He actually had tears in his eyes when we got something to eat after he picked me up.
“Last night was a cowboy. Literal cowboy. I couldn’t get rid of the smell for an hour. Didn’t shower or even change after helping birth a calf before showing up. Late.”
“That’s who you were supposed to see tonight?”
I roll back to my side of the desk and laugh. “I didn’t expect him to ask for another one. And I’m not great with face-to-face confrontation. You know this. It’s been in my reviews. I expected it to come after he left. Through the app.”
“Oh, Holly.”
“It’s like drafting an email when you’re angry. You don’t send it right away. You write it the way you feel, then you walk away, and when you come back, you work on it to come across professional. I can’t do that in person.”
“Which is why you rarely say no unless you have a legitimate reason,” Tyler says. “I get it. That’s part of the reason I don’t mind if you socialize more than the others on the team.”
“I’m a people pleaser. So, long story short, you saved me. Now, all communication with the cowboy can be through the app. Which means, when it comes time to reschedule, I can say no. Nicely. After obsessing over my wording for an hour.”
I expect him to turn the focus to work now, but instead, he just looks at me. Then he sighs. “I guess I can share something personal, too.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I’m single.”
What? I’ve met Rachel multiple times at work events and was sure he’d be proposing soon. If he hadn’t already.
“I’m sorry.”
“It was time,” he says, running a hand through his copper hair—a rare break from his usual attempt at perfect professionalism. “We weren’t long-term.”
“Weren’t you together for, like, five years?”
He bites his lip, avoiding eye contact. “Yeah, but people change. You can grow together, or you can grow apart. We grew apart. We had very different desires in life.”
There’s not much sadness in his tone. It actually sounds a lot like relief. “At least you figured it out before marriage and kids.”
“Yeah. I realized it was over when I went ring shopping. Nothing made me feel anything other than dread. Paying that much for a lifetime commitment to someone I couldn’t picture in my future like I once had made me want to throw up.”
“To be fair, it’s not necessarily a lifetime commitment these days. Not like it used to be.”
“It is for me. If I get married, it’s once. Divorce isn’t an option. That was one of our disagreements. I was too traditional. She wanted a nomadic life.”
I frown. “Nomadic?”
“No roots. Live in a van. See where life takes her.”
That does not sound like the Rachel I knew. She was always the polished, female version of Tyler. “That kind of surprises me.”
“Me, too. But she went through with it. Moved out six months ago. She’s been on the road for a month now. She’ll be back soon to pick up some of her stuff she left behind, but we haven’t talked since we said goodbye.”
“Wow, she actually did it?”
Stretching back, he rests his hands behind his head. “I thought I’d be a wreck without her, but honestly, I can breathe again. There’s one sign you can’t ignore though—one I probably shouldn’t mention to my employee.”
Laughing, I slouch in my chair. “Right now, we can just be two people who maybe aren’t quite friends but more than acquaintances. Not boss and employee.”
“You’re not going to report me to HR?”
“If I do, you’ll know I spent two hours drafting up the email before sending it,” I joke.
He laughs. “Not exactly a confirmation, Holly.”
“Unless you did something completely heinous and unforgiveable, I wouldn’t go to HR. I like the arrangement we have, and I’d be too scared of who they’d have me report to instead.”
His tongue runs over his lips, and he gives me a look that’s… heated. Almost carnal. Even though he’s still my boss, the way he looks at me makes me wish we were both naked and laying on the top of his desk.
Damn this dry spell.
I want something lasting and forever, but I also really want to get laid. It’s making me a conundrum of emotions.
“The sex changed,” he says quietly, “and then it completely stopped.”
“Changed how?”
My voice comes out much breathier than I intend, and I notice his breathing picks up, too. The room feels charged. That throb between my legs? Yeah, I’ll be dealing with that at home later.
“It became… robotic. Going through the motions. Sure, it felt good, but it wasn’t a connection. Not like we used to have. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, but I’m a very… sexual man.”
Before this, I might have doubted that confession. Right now? I’m convinced he’s picturing the same things I am.
“I’m on the same page. Sex helps you connect.”
He exhales shakily. “We should probably work on this project before things get complicated.”
Complicated? Sure. Because now all I can think about is his mouth on me, his hands roaming everywhere, and what he would feel like above me.
But, sure, let’s pretend this conversation never happened. Totally doable. Not awkward at all.