3. Ava
A knock cameat my office door, luckily knocking me out of another one of my daydreams.
It wasn’t healthy to think so much about my new roommate, especially when he was on the rugby team and off-limits.
It”s not like he’d ever go for me anyway.
He was a stud with a body and an eight-pack. I might have glanced at him when he got out of the shower a few times.
He would never go for a girl like me with an apron, belly, and boobs that were barely held up by my G-cup bra I had to special order from Scotland.
“Come in,” I said, clearing my throat and trying to focus on the present.
Especially when a scowling fly-half came in.
I barely knew anything about rugby when I took the job, but as soon as I did, I was up every night researching the positions for each player and how the game worked.
Patrick Oday was a fly-half with the attitude reminiscent of a bull in a china shop.
No one ever wanted on his bad side, and now, judging from the deep scowl on his face, I had a feeling I was on his.
“How can I help you, Patrick?” I asked, trying to keep my voice cheery.
I didn’t want my office to be the typical stale, sterile, white-walled place, so I kept my lighting low and dressed up the room with a nice rug and my own chairs, which were way softer than the folding metal ones they provided.
Patrick slumped down on one of the wingback chairs, the whole thing moving with his gigantic body.
He ran his big hand over his shaved head, then down his face to the stubble of his beard. “I need you to get rid of Ella.”
“Beg your pardon?” I asked, trying to keep the shock out of my voice.
I wasn’t HR, and even if I was, he had to know Ella and I were friends.
He grunted. “She’s a distraction to the team.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Patrick, I’m not sure what you think I can do, but Ella is the team physical therapist. A lot of the guys use her, and she’s very qualified for her job. I’m sure if you’d want to work with a different PT outside of the stadium, we could talk to someone about arranging that.”
“No. It’s not that. She’s fine at her job, she just…”
He stood up abruptly, the chair toppling over with a loud clang.
I sucked in a deep breath, gripping onto my desk.
I wasn’t exactly afraid of Patrick, but a guy with that much power could accidentally hurt someone without evening meaning to.
The door burst open behind him, Michael walking in like a blonde knight in shining Nikes.
“Hey, is everything okay here?” Michael asked, staring from Patrick to me with those wide blue eyes.
“Fine, we were just chatting,” Patrick grunted.
Michael eyed the chair flipped over on the ground, then stood up straighter, taking a step closer to Patrick. “Sure doesn’t look like that, Man. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but there’s no reason you need to come into Ava’s office and start throwing your weight around.”
“I wasn’t…I was just…” Patrick stopped, running his hand over his face again before he muttered something under his breath.
Michael clasped Patrick’s big shoulder, squeezing it. “Look, whatever is going on in that thick head of yours, take it out on the field today, okay? I’ll even let you get a few hits on Liam when we scrimmage.”
Patrick chuckled. “Okay, man, I guess I can do that. If you can survive playing with your brother-in-law, I guess I can get through this shite.”
Something faltered in Michael’s expression, but he quickly covered it with a tight-lipped smile as he dropped his hand. “All right, see you out there, brother.”
That was Patrick’s cue to leave as Michael stepped forward, grabbing the fallen chair.
“Oh, don’t worry, I can get that,” I said, quickly standing up and rushing to the chair.
My hand covered his, and that electric jolt went straight through me.
And it wasn’t just static electricity from the fuzzy material.
Pulling my hand away quickly, I cleared my throat, adjusting my blouse as I tried not to stare at the way Michael’s biceps pulled against the thin material of his t-shirt while he moved the chair back to its upright position.
“Patrick didn’t hurt you, did he?” Michael asked, taking a step closer, his blue eyes roaming over my body.
I bit my lip, trying not to shiver under his gaze. “No, it just fell over when he stood up. He was upset about another co-worker, and I had to tell him there wasn’t anything I could do.”
Michael nodded. “Do you need me to rough him up a little bit at practice? I”d like to get back at him for knocking your stuff over.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “No need. I swear, it’s fine.”
“Are you sure? I can’t have my roommate getting worked up. I need you around,” he said with a charming smile, taking another step closer so I could practically see the ChapStick on his lips and inhale his body wash—the one I still smelled in my flat when I was trying to get ready.
I was used to Ella and her floral shampoo, but having Michael”s manly, woodsy scent around was intoxicating and more than a little distracting.
I cleared my throat, looking down at my shoes so I wouldn’t get lost in his big blue eyes. “Have you noticed anyone on the team having issues with the medical staff?”
“Medical staff? What? Ol’ Doc Brown making weird comments again about genital hygiene again?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of the old man with his big Coke bottle glasses saying that we needed to make sure the guys washed their balls so they didn’t get jock itch.
That was a meeting I wished I could have crawled under the table for and never came back up.
“Anyone, really. Doc, the physical therapists, even the regular trainers,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual.
“Ella’s not giving you shit about Liam again, is she? Because if she is, she needs to get over that,” he said, a growl coming to his voice.
On instinct, I grabbed his bicep, my breath catching in my throat as that electric zing went through me again. “No, Ella didn’t say anything about Liam, it’s fine.”
My gaze trailed from my own fingers up to his eyes, neither of us moving, our breathing almost in sync as our eyes met and locked.
Time seemed to stop, and the air was thick around us.
I didn’t know what else to say, and he must not have either because we just kept our eyes locked, my fingertips still buzzing from being on his bicep.
I could lean forward ever so slightly, and my lips would be on his.
I could taste what flavor his ChapStick was. What kind of toothpaste he used.
Luckily, another knock on my door snapped us out of our trance, and he quickly moved away as if our moment had never happened.
But it definitely had because I could still feel the electric current in my fingers, even as a scowling Liam entered.
“Hey, everything okay in here? Some guys said Oday was marching out of here acting like he was on the warpath.”
Liam’s narrowed eyes went from Michael to me before he finally smiled. “Oh, I wasn’t interrupting something between flatmates, was I?”
I smoothed out my skirt before walking back behind my desk, trying to control the shaking of my hands. “Nope, Michael was just coming in to check on me as well. You guys all act like I’m some delicate fairy. I’ve been around enough of you rugby mooks to take care of myself, you know?”
“Yeah, but we can still look out for you,” Liam said with a wink before shoving Michael’s shoulder.
“Especially this guy who is hopefully going to take care of me on the pitch today. If Patrick’s on a warpath, I don’t want to get taken out.”
Michael laughed. “We’ll see about that.”
When the guys left, I was finally able to slump down in my chair and let out the breath I had been holding in.
Whatever was going on between me and Michael could have just been in my head, but there was no denying the electricity scorching between us.
It”s not great for that to happen with a co-worker and, especially, not with my new flatmate.