Chapter 9
Serena
This is getting ridiculous.
Deciding it’s cool enough for Rue; I slip around the frosted glass screen that separates her desk from the rest of the office. There are walkways on either side, but knowing what I know, I wouldn’t want to try and get past her.
“Heeey,” I say casually, placing the tea down on the high counter.
Rue regards me with a cool expression, her arms folded. “Finally decided to stop stalking, I see.”
Biting back the snort of amusement, I reply, “I was trying to wait for the tea to cool, but I seem to have been run out of both the kitchen and my own desk.”
She raises an eyebrow and looks at the mug. “That for me?”
“Yeah, it’s probably hotter than you’d like, which I know is crap.”
Unfolding her arms, she reaches for the mug and picks it up, blowing on it slightly before taking a small sip. “It’s fine.”
“Good. Listen, I’m sorry about earlier. I was a bit stressed, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I’m sorry too. I judged you, and that was wrong. I see a lot of people coming up here trying to see the senior partners…I’m very defensive.”
“I know, and that’s good. So are we?”
“Good?”
“Yeah.”
She smiles. “Yeah, we’re good.” She leans forward. “Can I give you a couple of pieces of advice?”
I nod, figuring what can it hurt.
“Steer clear of John Jeffers, the other named partner. You are exactly his type.” She counts them off on her fingers. “Young. Blonde. Gorgeous.”
Blinking, I must look slightly shifty because she leans in closer. “What did he do?”
“It’s nothing,” I brush it off, but she gives me a foreboding glare.
“What did he do?” she hisses.
“Seriously, it’s nothing. He tried to intimidate me, that’s all.” I tell the lie with a straight face. I really need this to not become a thing.
Rue purses her lips. “Hmm. Well, if he tries anything, tell Allison. He’s icky.” She shudders. “Luckily, I’m not his type.”
“What, he doesn’t like gorgeous young brunettes?” I joke.
She snickers softly. “Nope. And I’m not young enough if you get my meaning.”
“Eww. But I’m twenty-five.”
Her eyes go wide. “Seriously? You look about twenty.”
I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.
“It’s a compliment,” she giggles. “I’m twenty-nine, so way too old for his perverted tastes.”
“He sounds like a delight.”
“Hmm.”
“What else?”
“Oh!” It seems she forgot that she had other advice to give me. “Yeah, don’t let Logan get to you. He’s not a people person.”
“You don’t say,” I comment.
She snickers again. “Seriously, though. He can be mean. He made the other one cry yesterday after he made Dolores leave like her ass was on fire. Fuck knows what happened, but she just up and left seconds after she arrived.”
“He is definitely an asshole,” I say blithely. “Anyway, I’d better get back to my desk.”
She nods and takes another sip of her tea.
Wandering back to my desk, mindful of trying to look older than the twenty years I apparently look, I sit back down and get to work on the files, ignoring Logan completely. If I don’t have to interact with him, I won’t.
Answering the phone, sorting through the files, and figuring out the admin system takes up the morning, and before I know it, someone is looming over my desk as I’m bent over in my chair to place a file in the bottom drawer.
Straightening up instantly, I breathe out when I see it’s only Rue, her white skirt and jacket immaculate, not a rumple in sight, standing in front of me, scrolling through her phone.
“You wanna grab lunch?” she asks, looking up from her screen.
“Sure,” I reply, grabbing my bag. “How long do we get?”
“Half an hour, so chop-chop.”
“I’ll just tell Logan I’m going.”
She presses her lips together. “Good luck, hun.”
I roll my eyes and rise, smoothing down my decidedly crumpled skirt and easing into my jacket.
Striding over to the half-open door of Logan’s office, I rap loudly and stick my head around. “I’m going to lunch.”
He doesn’t even look up from his legal pad; he just waves his hand, almost as if he is shooing me away.
Not saying anything else, I back away and try not to let Rue’s laugh distract me.
“Honestly, this is going to be fun watching you two.”
“How so?”
“He’s grumpy, you’re sunshine. Always makes for a good pairing, if you ask me.”
“Humph.” I don’t want to think of us as a pair. He’s a dick. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to shove the expression he had on his face away when I returned to my desk from my run-in with John Jeffers. It will haunt me, taunt me, tempt me.
It was fierce and protective; even if it was for a fleeting second, I saw it. I’m trying to deny it, I haven’t thought about it really until now when Rue mentioned us being a pair.
“Well, I’m sure he probably has some seductress as his girlfriend, and I’m a mere annoyance to his day,” I add.
“Oh, that’s his type. My friends and I see him out sometimes, always with a different woman. Last time, a few nights ago, he was with this one. She was all over him. He didn’t seem that into her, but she was fawning all over him.”
“Naturally.”
“Right? So I’m pretty sure you have to be something extra special to grab his attention. She was hot, sexy, and all the things you’d imagine he’d want.”
I look back over my shoulder as we get to the elevators, and Rue stabs the button, giving a quick two-finger wave to the Security guard who seems to have taken her place.
If hot and sexy are the things he looks for, and even that’s not enough, then I’m out.
Not that I want to be in. He is my boss, an asshole, and fifteen years older than me.
If those three things weren’t enough to put me off him in a sexual sense, then the air of danger that seems to waft off him definitely does.
He might be the city’s most eligible bachelor, according to the Grove City Times, but to me, he is as ineligible as they come.