Chapter 11
The next few days were full of in-person meetings about the festival. My eyes were on Adam as he led the team. I told myself it was against my will, that I wasn’t clocking where he was in the room or tuning my ears to his voice.
During these meetings Adam made sure to listen to everyone, giving everyone a chance to be heard. He looked at each person attentively with a concerned crease between his eyes, like he’d given me when I was feeling insecure the other day.
He’d ask us if we were thirsty and made sure we’d taken our lunch break. I’d overhear him checking on people’s families and pets.
Adam remembered birthdays. And kid’s names. And seemed to take care to include everybody. Including me.
I started to learn Adam’s different tones. Such as his serious, no-nonsense work voice that usually showed up in the thick of problem solving. One afternoon we got a call that our long-time printing business, that printed every single thing for us from flyers to tee shirts, was going out of business. Adam immediately went into action and got into his serious mode. His voice sounded just like the day he called me at the coffee shop.
I was watching him intently as he squinted over his glasses at me, “Miss Rhodes?”
“Nothing, nothing.” I shook my head at him. Realizing, Adam was worried when we spoke on the phone, trying to give the festival his absolute everything. And boy do I relate to that.
It’d just be like the side of Adam I was getting to know to get so focused on the steps for success he planned for the summer festival, that he forgot to plan for people like me and their reactions.
At the end of the day, Adam’s shoulder would start to hunch and he’d rub his temples. It made me want to demand, “Is anyone checking on if you’re thirsty? Is anyone celebrating your wins? Do you need a hug?”
One Friday afternoon, I left a late meeting while chatting with my coworker, Danaya. I was so immersed in our conversation that it wasn’t until the elevators were closing on us that I realized my arms were empty. I had forgotten all my stuff in Adam’s office. I stuck my arm out to stop the elevator doors and sprinted back toward Adam’s office.
I was in his doorway when I saw him leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. I stopped in my tracks. His tie was off, he’d unbuttoned a couple of the buttons on his button-down. He looked more undone than I’d ever seen him. He ran his hand through his dark hair and released a deep, tired exhale.
My response surprised me. I wanted to replace his hands with mine in his hair, run a thumb across his bottom lip, and ask him what he needed. I wanted to take care of him. It was a total system meltdown. It completely sent me running.
His eyes were closed, so I dashed in to grab my little work tote and water bottle sitting on the chair and ran out of the office before he noticed I was there.
I jogged towards Olivia’s waiting car with the image of tired Adam in my mind. I wondered how he might look in bed on a late Friday night, sleepy eyes looking for comfort as he falls against a pillow...and then I immediately closed that tab in my mind.
I had dinner with Olivia at the Mexican place that served my favorite spicy margaritas. We were heatedly discussing the Bachelor over nachos and since I wasn’t driving, I’d ordered a second drink. I needed my phone to pull up a contestant’s dramatic Instagram post. I started to reach for it when I realized I had no purse with me.
And no phone.
And no car keys.
And no wallet.
I closed my eyes and could see exactly where my purse was in Adam’s office. Intruding on him in a quiet moment, the way it affected me, making me dizzy and distracted, resulting in me leaving my purse behind.
“Olivia,” I said, a little pouty and tipsy. “I left my purse at Adam’s. It has my phone and my wallet.”
“At Adam’s?” Olivia’s jaw dropped.
“His office,” I clarified.
She glanced down at her watch. “Well, it’s past eight. The doors are probably locked.”
“But, surely there has to be some workaholic still in that building?” I looked down at the chair beside me in case somehow my purse would magically appear beside me.
“We could just call Adam?” Olivia offered tentatively. “I know Victor would send me his number.”
I shook my head. “I cannot call that man for help.”
“Why not? You two are coworkers now. You’re getting along fine, right?”
“He’s why I left my bag. He gets me all…” I tried to think through my tipsy, swimmy thoughts. “He throws me off. He knows it, too. I can see it in his cocky little smirks. Then those smirks throw me off some more.”
Olivia sighed like a mother dealing with a stubborn toddler. “Fine. Let’s go see if someone’s in the city offices.”
After we paid, she drove me there and we marched up the steps to find the place dark and the doors locked.
I started to knock, but Olivia grabbed my hands. “Luce, no one is going to answer these doors. I’m calling Vic for Adam’s number.”
“No, no,” I panicked. “I can’t call Adam like this. Let’s try tomorrow?—”
“Tomorrow is Saturday. No one will be here. Plus, you need your phone. You need your wallet.” She put her phone to her ear. “Victor, can you send me Adam’s number?”
Within what felt like seconds, Olivia was shoving the phone in my face saying, “It’s calling Adam.”
I was a grown woman. A grown woman with tequila in her system, but a grown woman nonetheless. I could do this.
“Hello?” Adam answered roughly, surprising me with how it made my heart skip a beat.
“Adam,” I hiccuped.
“Hi? I don’t have this contact saved?”
“It’s Lucy Rhodes. Red hair. Consultant for the fest?—”
“I know who you are, Lucy.” Adam muffled a laugh. “You have a new number?”
“This is Olivia’s phone. I left mine in your office. Along with my purse.”
“Oh, no.”
“I’m at the city building right now, but it’s locked. No one is here to let me in,” I explained.
Olivia mouthed, Ask him if he has a key, and mimed unlocking a door.
“I’ve got a key,” he offered. “I’m down the street at Chauncey’s.”
“Oh, Chauncey’s? Adam is at a bar!” I said this completely scandalized and giggly. Olivia covered her mouth to muffle a laugh.
“My book club meets here on Friday nights.” He chuckled. “I can walk right over. See you in a minute.”
Olivia was waiting with me until Gracie called her needing homework help, but Olivia’s phone was dying. “I’m going to go sit in my car over there.” She pointed to the parking lot off to the side of the building. “ I need to hook my phone up to the charger and finish my call with Gracie.”
She took a few steps, then hesitated. “Do you need me to stay? Gracie could wait.”
“Olivia, you can see me from there and I can see you.” I pointed toward her car in the parking lot. “I am perfectly safe.”
“I mean…to help you talk to Adam. You’ve had one and a half drinks and I know Adam has an effect on you.”
“Adam doesn’t have an effect on me.” I rolled my eyes.
“You just said it yourself.” Olivia pointed at me. “He throws you off.”
“He throws me off, but…” I waved my hands for her to go. “I can handle him. Go call Gracie.”
“Fine, fine,” Olivia said skeptically. “Shout for me if you need me.”
A few minutes later, Adam strode up the steps to find me standing by the door.
“Miss Rhodes, fancy meeting you here.” Adam grinned at me. His cheeks flushed, his hair a mess, and his top few buttons still undone. My reaction felt chemical.
“You got the key?” I asked, trying to be all-business like him during meetings.
“Indeed. Happy to be your knight in shining armor.” He shook a keychain in front of me.
“Not sure I’d say knight in shining armor, more like the guy I can use to get into the office,” I said following him to the doors.
“Happy to be used by you,” he said gruffly as he slid the key into the lock. Click. We entered the office.
I swayed inside ahead of him and could practically feel the warmth of Adam behind me, like a breath against my neck. He turned the flashlight of his iPhone on and directed my steps onto the elevator.
The doors closed and we both leaned against the rail on the back. “I thought Olivia was with you?”
“She’s in her car in the parking lot.”
“Okay, good.” He nodded. Was Adam making sure I wasn’t alone?
“Are you worried about me?” I asked suggestively, the margarita still salty on my tongue.
He cocked his head to the side. “Is that so shocking?”
“No.” I set my gaze on him. “I’ve seen how you watch out for everyone around you.”
He looked like he was holding his breath as I swayed close to him, one of my hands on the railing, the other itching to grab his collar. “You’ve been studying me?”
Ding. The elevator doors opened onto his floor. He guided me with the flashlight to his office door, then I snatched the keychain from his hands. “I can do it,” I announced, flipping through his keys, completely unsure of which unlocked his door.
“You had something to drink with dinner?” He leaned against the door, watching as I tried a key.
“That might be true.” The key didn’t work. I searched for another. “But so did you, Knight in Shining Armor.”
“Book club gets discounted beers.” He shrugged. Then, he slipped behind me and placed his hands over mine, his warmth spreading around my back and neck as he flipped to the right key. With his hands and arms still over mine, he guided it into the lock and twisted it until the door clicked open. If he looked closely, he’d see every hair on the back of my neck standing alert at his presence.
He switched a light on as we entered the office. There on the floor by his desk was my cross-body, sunshine yellow purse where I’d dropped it when I first walked in, eager to see a picture he had opened on his desktop.
I didn’t want to examine the reason why, but I ignored the purse. I wandered around his office like I was looking for it, dragging out this break-in for as long as I could.
“Do you remember where you went when you first walked in?” he asked, trying to help me find my not-so-lost purse.
“I remember someone needing me the minute I entered the room,” I said, then imitated his voice. “Lucy, Lucy, come see this picture.”
“Well, who needs who now,” he said, stepping closer to me. “Calling me over tonight.”
“My sister called you.” I moved closer to him. I could see his chest rising and falling.
“For all I know, you didn’t even lose your purse.” His voice was low. I glanced sideways at my purse with its strawberry zipper by my feet on the ground, waiting to be found.
“For all I know, you stole it to get me here,” I said, drawing closer to him.
“Why would I need to do that? Since I met you, you keep finding ways to get my attention.” Adam’s blue eyes were sleepy and happy, trying not to grin as he looked down at me.
“Says the man who drew up a contract to get me to stick around.” My heart was beating wildly. My scary instincts to run my fingers through Adam’s hair from earlier were at an all-time high. Our body heat mingled.
“Oh.” He squinted. “Is that your purse right there by your feet?”
I stepped aside. “Oh, yeah, there it is,” I said looking down at it, my cheeks red. I scooped it up.
“See? Knight in shining armor.” He beamed proudly.
“Well, you definitely like your high horse,” I said as he flipped the lights off.
Our shoes tapped on the tile as we walked through the empty building. I pressed the elevator button and it immediately opened.
My reckless, tipsy self was sad to see our time together dwindling to an end. Sober Lucy ran away from Adam, while this Tipsy Lucy was plotting ways to keep him in the elevator with her.
I held my purse close to my chest like a barrier between my heart and the man who made it beat like a drum. “How long have you been in your book club?”
He studied my face before answering. Like he was looking for something I was hiding. “This was my first meeting. There’s this older guy, Gerry, probably in his eighties, that I met at the library. He invited me. It was basically me and ten retirees.”
I giggled. I could picture Adam talking books with a bunch of men more than twice his age.
“Honestly, it was a great time. I’ll definitely be back.”
“Sorry I pulled you away from your new friends,” I said, shrugging apologetically.
“Lucy,” he said, drawing out my name like I was missing something. His guard was down, too.
“What?”
Ding. The doors opened.
We made our way back outside and he locked the doors behind us while I glanced over to Liv’s car all lit up in the parking lot. I could see her in the front seat chatting on her phone.
We stepped apart, heading in different directions, saying our goodbyes. “You can call me anytime, Lucy. I’m happy to help.” His voice sounded soberingly more professional.
He gave me a small smile.
My heart, my body, and my mind were all in disagreement. “So you don’t have to keep drawing up contracts or stealing purses to get me to hang out with you?”
Adam burst out a grin. Shouting as he walked down the stairs, “You’re still the one who called me, Lucy. Victor has a key, too, and you know that. He’s the one who let you in the other morning.”
He waved goodbye gleefully. I watched him go, knowing he was right.
All weekend long, I had flashbacks to our elevator conversations and my undeniable reaction to it. My undeniable reaction to Adam. I had been afraid to work with him after our hostile first meeting, but now, I was terrified I wouldn’t know how to work with him without remembering his arms around me as we unlocked his office door.
Our Monday morning meeting loomed over me, thrilling me and simultaneously making me sick with nerves. What if Adam thought I was flirting with him? (What if he was right?) What if Adam regretted our tipsy office break-in? (What if he didn’t?)
“Nothing really happened,” I’d told Olivia on the phone over the weekend while I walked around the neighborhood in the morning sun. “I don’t know why I’m acting like it did.”
“If you feel like something happened, it probably did. If you feel like something changed, it probably did. Trust me,” Olivia said before I heard her hammering something over the speakerphone.
In our meeting Monday morning, I put my most professional foot forward and Adam did, too. Like we had silently agreed to pretend we hadn’t played with the pyrotechnic energy between us last Friday.
It was 98 percent back to normal that week, except for the two percent that made my cheeks flush when he got close to me.
Danaya had asked me over Tupperware lunches on the City Hall front steps, “Is there a vibe between you and Adam?”
“Adam and me?” My eyes went comically wide. “No, no, no. There is nothing romantic at all going?—”
“No, I meant like an unfriendly vibe. I’d heard that you two were kind of forced to work together on the festival. And I’ve heard some of your little bickering,” she explained before taking a bite of her pasta salad.
“Oh.” Of course, that’s what she meant. Because that was reality. “The rumors are true. We both wanted to run the festival ourselves and wound up needing each other. We kind of resented each other’s existence at first.” I thoughtfully chewed a potato chip. “The bickering seems to just be how the two of us communicate, honestly. Like how you mix red with blue and get purple. If you put me with Adam—you get bickering.”
Danaya snickered. “He’s really not that bad, though. He gave me time off when I was busy with graduate school last month. He grows on you.”
I nodded along. “I don’t think the guy is terrible, I promise. I probably misread him at first due to, you know, wishing he’d never taken this job. And the bickering has become…” But I didn’t know what it had become, so I let my voice trail off.
“A joke?” Danaya offered.
“Our thing.” I shrugged.