Chapter 8 Gabriel
Gabriel
There is nothing better than waking up with a woman in your arms, even on a deflated air mattress.
Sophia shifted, unable to find comfort on the hard ground.
I just wanted to enjoy the moment, but I had a lot to think about.
Any minute now, I’d either receive an unpleasant visit from authorities or my payment from Victor.
I had no doubt he would make the right decision, but there was always a small chance assholes like him would make the wrong one.
Sophia groaned in her sleep, then nestled in closer, resting her head on my chest. “Time to wake up,” I said with a raspy voice.
She responded by wrapping her arm and leg over me.
She was out. Most of the employees here were working from home today, and no one had a reason to visit my office.
“Sleep as long as you need,” I whispered.
As if defying me, her phone rang under the blanket, the ringing chime making my throbbing hangover worse.
It didn't wake her, of course. This woman could sleep through anything.
“Just leave a fucking message,” I said under my breath.
Finally, the ringing stopped, but the silence was broken again by frantic honking. Sophia sat up and rubbed her face. “Good morning,” I said despite my growing irritation.
“Do you have coffee?” she asked with a hand on her forehead, her eyes scrunched shut.
“No, but there’s a great place down the street. I met a cute girl who works there; she gave me free coffee once. I think her name is Sophia. Beautiful girl.”
She gave me an appreciative smile then lurched back onto the floor and groaned. “Ugh, I’m so hungover.”
“Coffee would help. Let’s go,” I insisted.
“Why is someone laying on their horn outside?” She covered her head with my pillow and curled up under the blankets.
I let out a long breath. “I don’t know, but you missed a call.”
She sat up abruptly, eyes wide with surprise, and yanked the blankets off, revealing my body and her phone.
Naturally, she couldn't resist stealing a glance at me—how could she? She looked at her phone and rolled her eyes, groaning. “Great. The horn is my ride. I’ve gotta go.” She moved around the room gathering her things, still wearing my white t-shirt, but the sweatpants she fell asleep in must have been tangled somewhere in the sheets.
My big shirt covered her modestly until she crouched down by her clothes in the pile she left them in.
My heart raced at the sight. It took everything I had not to drag her back onto the floor with me.
“Damn it, they’re still wet,” she said, throwing them back to the ground.
“Sophia,” I called to her.
She turned to face me and said, “I can’t go out like this.”
I returned her desperate gaze with a smile. “You do kind of look like a mess, but I like it. You might need some pants, though.”
She rolled her eyes while stomping back toward me, then dug the sweatpants out of the tangled blankets. “Who’s picking you up? Your boyfriend?”
She looked at me in shocked disbelief. “No, my other boss, Henry. You know, the guy who dropped me off?”
The horn blared again. “Holy fuck, stop honking,” she yelled. Jesus, she has some pipes.
The hangover must have been clouding her mind, I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was, he dropped her off in the rain last night, why would he be surprised that her clothes were wet? He wouldn’t even notice. The real issue was she was covered in the sticky remains of dried whiskey.
“Just call him back and say a friend already picked you up,” I calmly offered. “Say you will be home later. Why is he so involved anyway?”
She ignored my question but took my advice and tapped at her phone.
The moment she held her phone to her ear, he answered.
“Hey Henry, no, Emma picked me up earlier.” I could hear the guy through her phone; he sounded like a jealous boyfriend to me.
“Yes, I’m at Emma's house. I’ll be back later.
Okay. See you then.” She sighed and slumped into my office chair.
“See? It worked out perfectly.” I climbed off the ground and walked over toward her. “Now, call your friend Emma and have her bring you some of her clothes so we can go get some coffee.”
“Yeah, not happening. I’d rather wear these wet ones.” She shook her head, as if she couldn't believe she was in this situation. “If Emma found out I was stuck here in your clothes, she would never leave it alone.”
The throbbing in my head demanded relief, and this back-and-forth was getting me no closer to it. “I'll just grab some coffee for us from the break room,” I said, stepping over the contents of my desk sprawled out across the floor.
“Ew, no,” she said as I reached the doorway.
I turned back toward her, “What's wrong with the break room coffee?” I didn't take her for a high-maintenance girl, but then again, what did I really know about her?
She looked at me sheepishly. “A few months ago, I found a ton of mold in the water reservoir when I was cleaning it.”
I stared at her, my eyes narrowing as she pressed her lips together and offered a weak smile.
“That would have been good to know, assistant.”
“Sorry,” she offered with as innocent a smile as she could force.
Light filled the room as the sun rose higher.
She stepped over the broken lamp and scattered papers to the window and soaked in the warm rays with closed eyes.
Damn she was beautiful. “Will you please go get coffee from Cabana cup for us? I really don’t want to think about how to get out of this situation until after I feel a little better.
” My body ached from sleeping on the ground for half the night; hers probably did too.
I stretched my muscles and tried to work through my own hangover.
My phone vibrated. It was my new friend Victor, wishing me a good morning.
“Money sent. Now fuck off.” I was glad Sophia wasn't looking; I couldn't hide this smile if I tried.
I walked toward the woman bathing in sunlight and kissed the side of her neck from behind.
She tilted her head, giving me more access to her soft skin with a tempting moan.
“I’ll go get us some coffee,” I said before slapping her ass. She bit her lip and gave me the look I was after, despite her hangover.
The hot, humid air was oppressive as I left the building.
Cabana Cup was just down the street, but I wasn't about to walk there.
I squinted and walked briskly toward my car, then froze, a tingling wave of hairs standing up on the back of my neck as I caught a glimpse of a threat in the corner of my eye.
A man with a wild look in his eye charged toward me from behind the building.
I relaxed, the instinctual reaction fading.
Normally, something like this meant I was about to give someone something to regret, but this funny-looking guy was shorter than Sophia with a frame to match.
“Hey. Hey,” he said with his chest puffed out. “Is Sophia in there?” His shrill, whiny voice was begging me to punch him in the mouth.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked lazily, towering over him.
“I’m Henry, Sophia’s… friend,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Okay, Henry. No, she’s not in there. Some girl picked her up earlier.
She was working all night.” He moved out of my way as I opened my car door and got in.
“That’s a nice car, is it Italian?” I put on a pair of sunglasses and looked at him.
“Sure.” I closed the door and drove off, trying to figure out why she would tolerate working for a guy like that.
If it was because she couldn’t afford not to, that would change soon enough at least. Getting him off her back, though, would probably be another story.
Cabana Cup was much busier than the last time I was here.
It felt like a different place now. Half of the people looked like tourists, and the rest were clearly locals seeking their morning fix.
I wasted no time getting her some frilly drink and myself a strong black cold brew, relief washing over me at the first few gulps.
I got back to the office and found Sophia draping her wet clothes over a clothesline she somehow made by the open window.
An accomplished smirk etched on her face as she tightened the line.
“What do we have here?” I asked.
Her eyes widened at the drinks in my hand. Without a word, she rushed forward, took my coffee, and drank as much as she could before stopping for air.
“If I had known you were such a fiend, I would have gotten two. I assumed you wanted this girly one.”
She looked at the other cup in my hand, then puffed out her lip as if she were thinking of keeping mine. I reached out toward the cup, she blushed a little and hesitated to trade with me, but couldn’t resist. I sat at my desk and drank from the half-empty cup, finally feeling somewhat normal.
“Take a seat, there’s something I want to talk to you about.
” She sat in the chair across from me cautiously, as if I were just her boss again.
“Relax, it’s good news, great news actually.
” She perked up a little and fluttered her eyes while taking a sip of her sugary caffeine.
I held her curious gaze for a long moment. “I’m giving you a raise and a bonus.”
She looked like she didn’t understand what I said.
“What? Why? I mean, thank you, but why?”
I exhaled through my nose. I expected her reaction to be different.
Some people just can’t accept good fortune even when it falls in their lap.
She was one of them. “We received a large donation due to our discovery that Rosso Drilling is polluting the coastline. It’s only right you benefit from your work.
” I was expecting her to be happy, but she still just looked confused.
“I don’t understand. Have we even submitted the report yet?” She looked at the scattered papers on the ground curiously.
I cleared my throat. “That was just a blank copy.”