Chapter 16
Chase
This past weekend was nothing like I expected it to be. It went from a disastrous Friday night of passing out drunk in Maryellen’s hall. To us talking it out all day Saturday and getting to know one another. To her spending the day at my place on Sunday.
We went the whole time, forty-eight hours, without having sex. We kissed, we made out, there was plenty of that. But no sex. And I was still happy getting into my bed last night.
We finally had a conversation yesterday about us.
Us as a couple.
“I’m scared,” Mare said. “I don’t think I’m ready to do this at work, or even outside of our apartments anytime soon. I need to go slow.”
“We can work with that,” I told her. “We can make that work.”
It wasn’t ideal, but as I told her, she was worth it.
I finally got to play my guitar for her.
That was probably my favorite part of our Sunday.
I played her the song I’d written for her, although I only played the music, no words.
She had no idea it was something I wrote.
As I watched her while I played, I loved how her eyes closed and she got lost in it.
It meant a lot to share that part of myself with her.
Other than my mother, no one had truly appreciated this side of me.
My father would tell me to “put the damn guitar down” and get back to my homework while I was growing up.
The fact he was no longer around the office made having my guitar here at work a nice benefit. Picking it up to relax had become commonplace.
I was still up on the thirty-fifth floor, unsure when the new office would be ready.
Maryellen was not looking forward to us being on the same floor as much as I was.
She felt it would lead to more opportunities to let the cat out of the bag about us.
I was simply excited I’d be able to see her from my office door.
Me: I already miss you
I was tempted to head to the fortieth floor to see her. Gage wasn’t in the office today; he and Harper were still away on their special weekend getaway.
Me: This weekend was amazing
Finally, the three dots appeared.
Maryellen: It ended up being an amazing weekend
That put me back in my place.
I needed to work hard to not screw this up.
I only had one relationship before this that had been serious, and beyond that nothing seemed worth it.
From my college days to Amanda, to most recently all the damn hookups, I never handled any relationship properly.
There was no responding to text messages or calling back after a night of sex. I was a dick. A total dick.
But Maryellen wasn’t like the others. This even felt different from the two years I had spent with Amy. That seemed juvenile. This felt…real.
They were all meant to be temporary.
Not her. She was never temporary.
The knock on my door startled me.
“Come in.”
In walked the most striking blonde to ever work for Parker Financial. I jumped up and ran to her side.
I tried to stifle the temptation.
“Hey, beautiful, what brings you to the thirty-fifth floor?” I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her in for a hug.
Strike one.
She broke from my hold and pushed against my chest. When I looked at her, though, those bright blue eyes remained playful.
“Chase,” she said. “Not here.”
She took out her tablet and sat, crossing those sexy legs.
This was going to be so damn hard.
“Sorry. Touching you is almost an innate thing for me. What do you have on the agenda for today? I hope it takes my mind off your legs.”
The smile that stretched across her face made me smile right along with her. Normally my joking would make her angry, but she was rolling with it.
“Well, we need to look at the applications for your new assistant,” she said. “Grab your computer so you can see what I’ve sent you.”
That wiped the smile right off my face. I flung myself against the back of the couch and rubbed the stubble along my chin.
“I have an idea.” I leaned toward her, intent on getting her attention. “How about I get you as my assistant, since I’m moving to a new position? It would make more sense to have someone with experience, and we give Gage the newbie.”
The fact that she didn’t guffaw at the idea immediately meant she thought it had merit. She went to her tablet and perused a few things before responding.
“Although that does sound like a reasonable idea, I think you’d have to bring it up with Gage. I don’t know how he’d feel about it.” She went back to her tablet.
And I waited.
And waited.
“What?” she asked. But I could tell by her pinched brows she knew what I was waiting for. “OK, fine, I’m not sure I think it’s a good idea, either. I mean it’s a good idea for every reason but one.”
As I leaned closer to her, it was damn near impossible not to rub her legs, which extended beyond the hem of her skirt. But I resisted and sat back while literally putting my hands behind my head.
“Is that one reason because you’d constantly be thinking about doing dirty things to me while we’re alone in an office?” I asked.
As soon as I did, I knew it was strike two.
Her eye roll was intense. I’d be surprised if it didn’t give her a headache, her eyes rolled so far around in her head.
I screwed up.
“Chase,” she said. The chastising tone was deserved.
I threw my hands up in a defensive mode.
“I’m sorry, really. I’m just getting used to this. My flirting with you is how I get through my day.”
Her fingers went to the bridge of her nose before she rubbed at her eyes.
“This is exactly what I was afraid of, Chase. I don’t want this to be hard for us.
To be here, at work.” She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them momentarily.
I wasn’t sure if she was done or not, but then she looked up.
“I need this job. I know you may not understand that, considering your background, but I need this job. To survive.”
Her words cut through me.
This was one of those differences she tried to explain, and I refused to understand. I didn’t need this job to survive. The fact of the matter was there was money for me no matter what I chose to do in this life. My father would be disappointed in me, but I would survive.
I wanted to hug her. To tell her everything would always be OK.
Neither was an option. This would be a struggle.
“Mare—”
“Stop. Let’s not do this right now, OK? We have work to do, and that’s what we should be focusing on.” She went back to her tablet and started tapping away. “If you pull up the email I sent you about an hour ago, it will have six resumes I’d like us to go over.”
We spent the next few hours going through the resumes and discussing the candidates. I behaved and kept my focus on the task at hand, trying to prove to her we could do this. It was probably the most productive I’d been at PFA in quite a while, if I was being honest.
“I think it’s about time we break for lunch, dontcha think?” I asked.
She looked at her watch and her eyes went wide. Grabbing her phone, she typed out a text.
“Yes, I’m actually running late.”
I didn’t think I did a good job of hiding my disappointment because she gave me a pitying smile.
“We are not having lunch together, Chase. I usually have lunch with a group of girls on Mondays, and I’m already late.” She gathered her things and headed for the door.
I quickly followed. When she reached it, I held it closed and lifted my other hand over her head. She turned toward me, our faces almost touching. Her breath hitched when she saw how close we were.
“Chase,” she whispered.
Ignoring her protest, I bent down and put my lips on hers gently. A small kiss. That was all. When I pulled back, her lips spread into a small smile.
“I’ll see ya later,” I told her. My hand reached for the handle behind her and opened the door.
She simply nodded as she slid out.
“So, you’re telling me you got her to agree to a relationship? With you? You’ve got an ugly mug and were the biggest womanizer I know. Shit, if I knew she’d hook up with you, I’d have thrown my hat in the ring with her.” Mitch roasted me between bites of his burger and chugs of his beer.
I knew he was joking, for the most part, but hated even thinking about him having an interest in Maryellen.
“Shut the fuck up, man. And my womanizing days are over.”
He raised his eyebrows at me.
“What? You don’t believe me?” I asked.
He guffawed at me. Literally guffawed.
“Dude, I went home with a girl from The Velvet Rope the other night and didn’t get laid. Left her place. It was weird, but I didn’t feel like doing the frat guy shit anymore, ya know?”
He literally threw the rest of the burger onto his plate and sat back against the booth. His eyes went wide before he took a long chug of his beer, draining the pint glass. He raised his hand for our waitress, and she came right over.
“You want another?” he asked.
I lifted my empty mug as my answer, and he ordered us both another drink. He settled back against the booth and stared at me, then began shaking his head again.
“What?” I asked. “I’ve had relationships.”
He resumed eating and had a mouthful before answering.
“Nothing.” Then shook his head yet again. “I don’t know, I guess I never thought it would happen for real, that’s all. We all knew, except for you, that Amy wasn’t it for you.”
Now it was my turn to shake my head. But he was right.
“You were the ultimate bachelor, man,” Mitch said. “You took home multiple girls a night sometimes. We all wished we could’ve been you, and you turned a girl down? While in her apartment? You’ll have to tell me how that went over.”
All I did was shrug. He didn’t need to know the full truth, and I wasn’t about to bare my heart to him about my feelings for Maryellen. He knew all he needed to know already.
“Alright, alright,” he said. “I can take a hint. She’s the one, and I hope it works out for you guys. But if she’s not willing to go public, that might be a struggle.”
Full pints were placed in front of us. We clinked our glasses and took long draws of the cold drafts.
“I mean, I get it, working together and all, and you being a head honcho. Gage might not be on board. But still, it’s gonna put a strain on you guys, dontcha think?” he asked.
Why was everyone against us working out?
“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “We’ll be fine.”
The finality in my tone told him I was done talking about it.
“What I wanted to ask you was if you’d come out one night this week, get Maryellen and her friend Evie to come to Iggy’s with us.”
I knew Maryellen said no dates, but we could still hang out as friends, with friends. Convincing her would be a challenge, but if I got Mitch on board, it would help. If I had Evie’s number, I bet I’d get her on board as well.
“Does Maryellen know you’re doing this?” he asked.
“Not yet, I wanted to ask you first. If you weren’t around, it wasn’t going to be worth trying to talk her into it.”
Mitch laughed out loud. He threw his rolled-up napkin onto his empty plate and drained the rest of his beer from his mug. He slid off the bench and started putting his coat on.
“I have to get back, I have a call in about twenty minutes.” He waved our waitress over to get the check.
“I’ve got it.”
“Oh, I know you do,” he said and howled.
I threw a hundred-dollar bill on the table to cover the check, and we started back for the office.
“Well, what do you say? You in one night this week?” I asked.
“Sure, I’m in.” He turned and had a conspiratorial smile for me. “It should be an interesting night if you convince her to go.”
I shoved his shoulder as we walked.
Inside, I was giddy.
I wasn’t sure if I should go see her or if texting her was the better option. Trying to make the plans sooner than later was important since I knew she wasn’t a fan of going out during the week. If it was going to happen, I’d need some time to convince her.
As I stood at the floor-to-ceiling window in my office, I decided to send her a text.
Me: Have a question for you
The dots came up immediately.
Maryellen: What’s up
Me: Would you be interested in going out one night this week? Hear me out, it would be as friends, Mitch would come and you could ask Evie, it would be a group thing
The dots came up, then disappeared. They came up again, then disappeared again.
Then I was left stranded with no answer for a couple minutes.
I contemplated texting her again but decided against it, thinking I’d come off as pushy.
I threw my phone onto my desk and resumed looking at the reports on my monitor.
I’d promised Gage I would have their analysis completed before tomorrow when he returned, and I wasn’t even close to done.
My phone buzzed against the mahogany of my desk.
Maryellen: Evie is around on Thursday of that works
My fist bump went high in the air.
This was my first time experiencing joy about a girl that I had to literally keep to myself. I glanced around the office as if there would be someone to share it with, knowing full well there wasn’t. Nor could I.
At least I had Mitch.
Me: It’s a go for Thursday, good for you?
Mitch: Yeah, is Evie hot
I wasn’t sure if them hooking up was the best thing, but I wasn’t in control of that either.
Me: Yeah
Mitch:
The challenge would be to focus on work for the next few days. Work I had no interest in doing. At all. She was the only benefit of coming to the office for me.
Fuck it. Work would wait. I needed to figure out the songs for karaoke. That took precedent. Out came the headphones, my phone, and my guitar.
This was gonna suck once my brother was down the hall.