Chapter Twenty-Two
IT WAS A GOOD THING we had such a wonderful week and weekend together, if not we may have broken up before we ever really started again.
Ian wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to maintain professional boundaries while in the office.
I agreed with him, but I guess I thought he would have lightened up some, or at least softened on how he approached me.
Monday morning started off all well and good. I came in to find Delfia anxiously waiting for me in my office that was now filled with flowers and get-well cards. I noticed too that some furniture rearrangement had been done in my absence. The credenza was now back in its original place.
Delfia was to me in no time, hugging me. When she pulled away her eyes were all alight like she knew something. I’m sure she had her suspicions about me and our boss. “By the way, Mr. Greyson would like to speak to you.”
“Thank you.” I tried not to give anything away. I’m not sure how well I did because her toothy grin was pretty wide.
I set up my laptop and read some of the cards before I made my way to the adjoining door.
As I approached it, I wondered if I should knock, or if he would mind now if I just walked in.
I decided I would test the waters. I opened the door without knocking.
I peeked in and found him sitting at his desk, looking like Mr. Greyson.
“You wanted to see me,” I said as a way of announcing myself.
He looked up and smiled, so I guess it was okay that I didn’t knock, but then . . . “Yes, Ms. Bryant.”
I shut the door and frowned. “Ms. Bryant? I thought we decided to cut that nonsense out?”
“I said you could call me Ian,” he didn’t miss a beat.
“Well, if you need my permission, you have it, please call me Kelli.”
“I can’t.” He set down the pen he had been holding.
I didn’t even know how to respond to that ridiculousness, so I stood there dumbfounded.
He waved to the chairs in front of his desk. “Would you please sit down?”
I did as he asked, but I wasn’t happy about it. When I took one of the seats in front of his desk, I looked at him as if to say this better be good, really good.
“Ms. Bryant,” he said with a smile. “I have a good reason for not wanting to call you by your first name.”
“Care to share with the class, Mr. Greyson?”
My snarkiness didn’t faze him. “Besides it making it easier to separate our professional and personal relationships, I can’t call you Kelli in the office because there is no hiding how I feel about you when I say your name.
I’m trying to prevent any undo backlash that may come your way if people in the office honestly knew how I felt about you. ”
So, it was good, really good, but I still didn’t like it. “You know, I’ve dealt with that before. There were a few people who were very unhappy about me receiving my current position. They chalked it up to nepotism and the fact that Gary and Holly had wanted me to marry their son.”
“And you think I want you to have to deal with that again?”
“No, but you don’t have to protect me. I’m a big girl now, and I just happen to be their boss too.”
He sighed in frustration. “Please, can you just trust me? I’m trying to prevent any unnecessary complications.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“That’s not to say you’re a complication,” he quickly added, “but regardless, I have Chandler’s reputation to protect as well.”
I could understand that, so I dropped it for now. “So, what did you want to see me about? I’m assuming it wasn’t to discuss name preferences.”
His eyes begged for me to understand before he clicked a few things on his laptop and turned it around to face me.
I was surprised by what the screen held. There were my designs, front and center. My eyes drifted from the screen back to him. “Where did you get those?”
“When you asked me to retrieve your laptop after the accident, I noticed the folder on your desktop.”
“So, you thought it was a good idea to open it without my permission?”
“Do I need to remind you about the disclosures you’ve signed pertaining to anything on company computers?”
I shot daggers at him with my eyes. “Need I remind you—”
He headed me off at the pass, “Ms. Bryant, your designs are perfect.”
“Yeah . . . well . . . thanks.” His flip-flopping was giving me a headache.
“Why didn’t you show these to me in the first place?” He admired them.
I sat up a little taller. “I was planning on it, but then you brought back that ‘contracted designer.’” I used air quotes as I loosely said the term. She couldn’t design herself out of a box.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I still would have liked to see them.”
“Especially since we’ve got nothing better right now,” I teased.
He didn’t take the bait. “I would like to set up a demo with Matt for this afternoon to show him this so he can get to work on adding it. Are you available at three?”
I nodded. “Is that all?”
“Just one more thing. You are a talented graphic designer, but I need your attention focused elsewhere.”
I glared at him. “Fine, Mr. Greyson.” I got up and stalked off, slamming the dang adjoining door as I went. He was the most infuriating man I had ever known. This was why all the experts advised people not to date their coworkers.
I sat down at my desk fuming. My phone rang almost immediately.
I saw the number on the display screen and considered not answering it, but then I figured he would probably come marching on over here if I didn’t, and I wasn’t in any mood to see him even though he was looking quite fine today in his blue suit. “Hello.”
“Kelli.”
“Didn’t we just have this conversation? Don’t you mean, Ms. Bryant?”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he replied, “I should clarify, this is Ian, and I was calling to make a lunch date with the woman I love, who, by the way, looks stunning today.”
“You know this is ridiculous, right?”
“Ridiculous? I thought women liked their boyfriends to call them during the day.”
“Typically, we do, but not after said boyfriend just criticized her.”
“I’m sure you took it the wrong way because I know for a fact that your boss thinks you’re amazing and talented.”
I sank into my chair and sighed. “Ian, how are we going to make this work?”
“Kelli, we’re not the first couple to work together. We both need to be determined to make it work, and please know there is nothing more important to me than making us work. So, will you go to lunch with me?”
How could I refuse after such a sweet speech?
We met at his rental car at high noon. His Infiniti had been totaled and he hadn’t purchased a new car yet. In fact, he asked me if I wanted to go car shopping with him that night, something else I agreed to do.
Lunch was fabulous. He took me to the park, and we ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches, but the best part was just lying in his lap while he stroked my hair.
We talked about all the somethings and even the nothings of life while we enjoyed the warm sunny weather.
It made me not want to return to the office where I became Ms. Bryant again.
“Please try and understand. I don’t want to repeat past mistakes, especially when so much hangs in the balance,” he begged on the way back to the office.
It was a sweet sentiment, and on many levels, I got it. It was just hard for me.
“So, hypothetically speaking, what’s going to happen if, you know . . . our title changes to a more forever type of scenario? Will you call me Mrs. Greyson in the office?”
He picked up my hand and kissed it. “I like the sound of that, but no, I wouldn’t call my wife that.”
“So, what would you call me?”
“Are you saying you want to get married?” he asked instead of answering.
It was very warm all of a sudden. I had imagined marrying him more times than I could count, but I wasn’t ready to take the plunge with him .
. . yet. I wanted to work on getting to know him again, to see if we were still the right match.
My guess was we still were, but thirteen years is a long time to be apart, and I needed time to learn how to trust him again.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe someday.”
He kissed my hand and smiled. “Well, then, someday I’ll tell you.”
“Has anyone ever told you how infuriating you are?”
He laughed. “You’re not the first.”
“Well, you know the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem,” I quipped.
His smirk said he probably wasn’t going to change. I figured that was the case.
I did get some vindication that afternoon as we met with Matt, and he was blown away by my designs. What did he say?’ “Kelli is the only designer we need for this project.” I tried not to smile too big. But sometimes it was so difficult to be professional.