Getting the Feels
Jordan put in her earphones and switched on some music. It was month-end and Barbara guffawing in her donkey-like manner was making it extremely difficult to concentrate on her reconciliations. Fucking Mervin!
After ten minutes of listening to all that neighing and snorting, she was ready to choke a bitch. And it wasn’t Barbara.
She looked up when the heavenly smell of freshly baked pastries floated to her nostrils and smiled.
Margo was here. She came every Tuesday morning to deliver hundreds of cakes and tarts and muffins.
Her assistants took care of the rest of the building, but she always delivered to the thirty-eighth floor personally.
This was her way of saying thank you to Tyler Evans every single week.
Most of the employees didn’t know why they got free muffins and donuts every Tuesday, but Margo had explained the entire story to Jordan.
Almost three years ago, Tyler noticed a beggar sitting on the steps outside the office building.
Anyone else would have probably called security, but he knelt down beside her and asked her why she was begging.
Margo, at the time, had nothing but the clothes on her back.
She explained to Tyler that she had lost her job, could not afford to make rent and had been living on the streets for a few weeks.
“If I give you two hundred dollars, what would you do with it?” he’d asked.
“Well, I would take the first twenty and buy myself a decent meal,” Margo responded. “And then I’d take the rest and buy ingredients to make some cream donuts. There’s a hostel just a few blocks away that has a nice kitchen I could use.”
So Tyler pulled out two hundred dollars from his wallet and gave it to her. The next day Margo stood outside the building with a make-shift box she used as a stall, selling cream donuts.
Tyler bought one and enjoyed its creamy goodness right there on the sidewalk. At lunch time he returned to the stall with an envelope. “If you could do all this with two hundred bucks,” he’d told Margo. “Let’s see what you can do with this.”
“How much is in here?”
“Fifty thousand.”
Margo had tried to give the money back, but he refused to take it.
She used the money to start her own bakery and it flourished beyond her wildest dreams. Margo now owned three bakeries and one restaurant all because Tyler Evans had taken the time to talk to her.
She’d offered him an equity stake in her business several times and that too, he had declined.
So instead she delivered a wonderful array of baked goods every Tuesday and catered for every function Diamond Properties hosted free of charge.
Margo walked to Jordan’s desk carrying a glass platter and set it down in front of her.
“Oooh,” Jordan said, peering down at the calorie-filled platter. “This one looks interesting.” She lifted a chocolate ball covered in coconut to her lips and took a bite. “Oh, my God! That is….mmm…yum…” She chewed a bit more. “What is that?…Nuts?…mmm…so delicious…marry me, Margo…marry me!”
Tyler walked out of his office and headed towards Jordan’s desk.
Although he didn’t want to admit it, things were different since their second not-a-date and more often than not he felt awkward around her.
Images would pop into his head involuntarily.
Images of her in those dresses. Those awesome breasts and long legs were messing with his head in the worst way.
If only life had a rewind button so he could go back to the point when body parts of Jordan hadn’t caused him to lose sleep.
Those were things he didn’t want to think about. He should be focusing on getting Trisha back and the business acquisition that was a few days away from being a done deal. He noticed Margo at her desk and felt some of the tension leave his body.
“Good morning,” he greeted as he reached the two women.
“Tyler, you gotta try this one,” Jordan said, pointing to a chocolate ball.
“I don’t think so,” he replied and turned to Margo. “I’ll just have my cream donuts.”
As usual, Margo had already set aside two cream donuts in a small box on the corner of the platter.
“Are you really not going to try the most amazing thing she has ever made?” Jordan asked through a mouthful of chocolate.
He shook his head.
“But it’s like a piece of heaven.”
“Jordan, when it comes to food, you can’t expect me to take anything you say seriously. You eat ice-cream for breakfast.”
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped just a bit. “I can’t believe you would bring that up. Besides, sometimes I sprinkle some muesli in there and it makes for a very nutritious breakfast option.”
Barbara’s screeching ripped through the space and Tyler shut his eyes as his brain tried to absorb the noise. “Sometimes it sounds like a cat dying…a very painful death.”
Jordan groaned and shook her head. “I associate that sound with a different animal.”
“Good morning,” Mervin sang, grinning widely as he walked past her desk.
“Morning, Mervin,” Tyler greeted.
“You’re an asshole!” Jordan replied tersely.
Tyler chuckled at her curt response. “Margo, please give Barbara a few extra muffins today. It looks like Jordan needs her mouth to be occupied.”
“Will do.” Margo smiled, handed Tyler the box that contained his cream donuts, and went off to serve the other employees.
“Those chocolate balls are amazing,” Jordan said once they were alone. “How can you not even give it a try?”
“I already have a favorite,” he replied simply.
“But how do you know it’s your favorite if you haven’t tried anything else?”
“Because I know. Anyway, I’m not here to debate with you. I need your help with something.” He placed a hundred-page spiral bound book on her desk.
“Sure, Tyler. What do you need?” She looked up at him with those pretty blue-gray eyes and he almost forgot what he wanted to say.
“These are the latest revenue projections for Hampton Homes. They’re asking for two hundred and fifty million, so crunch the numbers and let me know if it’s worth that price. The meeting’s at nine on Thursday morning.”
Jordan had already begun scanning the document, but his words made her head snap back up. “Thursday? It can’t be done. It’s too little time. I can’t get through all this information in two days.”
“So work late,” was all he said before he turned and walked away.
Jordan stood up and scampered after him. “You know this is impossible, right?”
“There is no such word in your vocabulary.”
“Tyler…wait.” She doubled up her steps so she could keep up with his long strides in her heels. “You’re not listening. This deal is worth two hundred and fifty million. I need more time.”
Nothing irritated him more than unnecessary arguments and those were never in short supply when she was around.
He was already feeling edgy this morning and while it wasn’t entirely her fault, she was quite a significant contributor.
Being dictatorial and domineering wasn’t his management style, but right now she was forcing it out of him.
He stopped and turned to her with a slight humph of annoyance.
“Jordan, how many employees do we have working here at head office?”
She responded with a confused twitch of her eyebrows. “Seven thousand, eight hundred and forty two.”
“Right. And out of those employees, there are over a dozen people I could go to, but I came to you. I have listened to all your ifs, buts and maybes for the last two years and I have taken every shred of advice you’ve given…
apart from the chocolate covered balls. I trust your judgment.
Now all I’m asking is for you to trust mine. ”
“But, Tyler—”
Still arguing! “I’m not sure how you misconstrued that this was a negotiation. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. You will get it done because you don’t know how to fail.”
He turned and walked back to his office, leaving Jordan gaping behind him.
* * * * *
It was almost 10 p.m. and Jordan was starving.
These numbers were all wrong. She had worked on the projections for twelve hours straight and it still wasn’t making any sense, but now her eyes were sore and her tummy was rumbling and she couldn’t look at it for one more second.
She had worked extra hard the last few weeks so she could ease into the Fourth-of-July celebrations on Friday and here she was, still in the office two hours before midnight.
She’d told Tyler this was an impossible task and she still believed that statement to be true.
She was going to fail and all the faith he had in her would dissipate into nothing.
She couldn’t allow that to happen. For some obscure reason, his opinion mattered.
Maybe more than it should. Somewhere in the transition period between June and July, she had developed a teeny, tiny crush on her boss.
And every time she acknowledged that feeling, she threw up a little bit in her mouth.
She’d get over it eventually. His odd behavior and weird little quirks would soon remind her that he wasn’t crush material.
But right now he was her last concern. Food first, then she needed to get her head in the game again and figure out what the hell was happening in those projections. Matthew had left an hour ago, but Tyler was still in his office. She walked to his door and tapped lightly.
“I’m just popping out to get a bite to eat. Can I get you anything?”
He lifted his head from the contract he was perusing and looked up at her. “Where are you going?”
“I know a place…it’s just a couple miles away. The food is cheap but it’s great.”
“I’ll come with you. I need to take a break and clear my head.”