Chapter 4
Sam
Ididn’t want to be that guy, but I was totally that guy.
I was that guy who let impulse take control. I’d kissed Brian. I should have stopped myself, but he’d been so spectacular all night long. I’d kissed him without asking permission first, which was a major red flag in so many ways. Consent was a thing, and I was usually all about it.
Worst of all, I’d kissed him in the café, while we were both technically on the clock for the event.
I could have waited until we’d locked up and left, or until Brian was over at the house I shared with my brothers, which he was more and more lately.
But I hadn’t done any of that. I’d just gone for what I wanted, and in the end, Brian had run away.
“I heard all about how things went last night,” Gilbert said as he walked into the office on Wednesday morning.
I’d been sitting sprawled in the desk chair, staring at nothing, my lips tingling as they remembered the contours of Brian’s mouth and his taste. My brother’s arrival had me jerking to the point where I could have slipped out of the chair and sitting straighter.
“It was a lapse of judgment,” I defended myself. “I shouldn’t have done it. I’ll face whatever consequences there are.”
Gilbert froze on his way to the smaller desk at the side of the room. He looked at me as if I’d sprouted antlers. “The games night,” he said in a voice that said he thought I was being weird. “I was talking about the games night.”
“Oh,” I said, face heating.
Gilbert broke into a teasing chuckle as he walked the rest of the way to the small desk. “Although I did hear another rumor about last night,” he added as he sat down and turned on his laptop.
Mortified, I slumped in my chair. “I wasn’t thinking,” I said. “It was totally inappropriate.”
“Yeah, it was,” Gilbert continued to laugh, focused on his computer and not me.
“I really do know better,” I went on. “I won’t let it happen again.”
Gilbert flinched and swiveled in his chair to gape at me. “What do you mean, it won’t happen again? You and Brian have been circling around each other for ages now.”
It was my turn to stare incredulously at him. “He’s an employee. You know the rules.”
Gilbert sent me a sideways look before facing his computer again. “Last time I checked, we were the ones who make the rules around here.”
“True,” I nodded, trying to focus on my own computer and the purchase orders I needed to complete before noon. “But you remember what happened with Matt and Melissa.”
Gilbert huffed a loud laugh. “God, they were insufferable. Both when they were head over heels in love and after everything blew up. I just wish they’d both quit and spared us the grief of having to fire them. That sucked.”
It had more than sucked, but again, that’s why the rule discouraging employee dating had been put into place. Both Matt and Melissa had been good workers who had brought something special to Common Grounds. Losing them had been a pain.
A few more minutes passed, and I was just about convinced I’d gotten away with my indiscretion without too much teasing when Gilbert spoke up again with, “Personally, I think the two of you make a cute couple. And if the two of you working together and doing other things together means you come up with ideas like games night, I’m all for it.
Just try to keep the noise down if you do your collaborating at our house in the wee hours of the night. ”
I sighed and frowned at him. “It’s not like that. We’re not going to—”
My insistence that I wouldn’t end up with Brian on his back in my bed with his ankles by my ears was cut short by the teeth-clenching sound of a jackhammer starting up outside, just on the other side of the office wall.
“Goddammit,” Gilbert hissed, slamming down the top of his laptop. “This noise has to stop.”
He got up and marched out of the office, looking like he would singlehandedly fight an entire army to gain a little peace for the café.
I hated to say it, but I was glad he left.
I was still so edgy with emotion and pumped with memories of Brian that I would have only embarrassed myself if he’d kept pressing and teasing.
And I had work to do. Not only were the purchase orders still lingering, the first tournament-style games night that I was in charge of was tomorrow, and I still needed to rustle up business for it.
Brian might have been cute and exactly my type, but I’d be damned if I let him win in our little games night competition.
I’d just finished the purchase orders and submitted them when there was a knock on the office door.
When I glanced up to find Brian standing in the doorway, looking somehow gorgeous, even though he just wore the standard black trousers and green polo with a Common Grounds apron.
The man didn’t need to do anything at all to take my breath away.
“Hey,” I greeted him, smiling way more than I should have. Although under that was a pulsing, frazzled fear that I’d ruined everything and wouldn’t be able to fix it.
“Hey,” Brian echoed me, his smile uncertain. He took a few steps into the office and just stood there, watching me like I might leap over the desk and kiss him again.
Whether that was something he wanted or dreaded, I couldn’t tell.
“What can I do for you?” I asked, way too stilted and boss-like once the awkward silence between us had stretched on for too long.
“Diccon just checked the comment box from last night and I thought you’d like to know what people are saying,” Brian said, loosening up a little and striding quickly over to the chair by the small desk that Gilbert had vacated to go on his mission of vengeance with the builders.
“Oh, great,” I said, pivoting my chair to the side so I could face him more directly. “How did people like it?”
“They loved it,” Brian said, a big, adorable smile spreading across his face. “We’ve got two categories of reactions, for the most part. There are the people who came in groups who say Common Grounds is the perfect place to host something like this and that they’ll definitely come back.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“And we’ve got the solo gamers who had a great time getting to know people and trying new things,” Brian continued. “A good sixty percent of the people who were here last night had never been to Common Grounds before, and they say they’ll definitely come back.”
“Perfect.” I burst into a genuine smile of relief.
“That’s exactly what we need right now.” As if to underscore that, the loud growl and crunch of some piece of machinery flared up on the other side of the wall.
I grimaced, then focused on the things that really mattered.
“Where are the comment cards. We can go over each comment individually.”
Of all things, Brian’s smile faded. “Um, I left the cards in the performance space. But I remember everything each one of them said.”
I don’t know why that hit me wrong. There was nothing odd or unusual in someone reading a bunch of comment cards and summarizing what they all said. I didn’t really need to pore over everything myself to believe what Brian was telling me.
“Did anyone say anything about how we could improve?” I asked, the instinct to do something about the touch of uncertainty I felt from Brian filling me.
“Nothing overly negative,” Brian said, bouncing back to some of the enthusiasm he’d had earlier, though I still sensed a thread of caution from him.
“One person didn’t like the game selection.
Another thought the group playing Jenga was too loud.
But overall, the feedback is really good.
One person even said they’re looking forward to your chess tournament tomorrow night, though why anyone would love that sort of structured format is beyond me. ”
He was teasing me. I could tell from the blush that crept up his face and the cheeky sparkle that filled his eyes. And I loved it. I loved that Brian could loosen up with me, that we weren’t stuck in strict boss/employee roles. We could be friends.
We could be more.
It took me a full twenty seconds to realize that I hadn’t replied verbally to Brian’s teasing. I’d just sat there, making eyes at him.
God, he was so pretty. Not in an overt or showy way.
Brian wasn’t femme or anything, not that I would have minded if he was.
I appreciated men who were in touch with their feminine side as much as anyone.
Brian managed to wear his naturally boyish and charming looks like a man, regardless of his age.
He must have worked out at least a little, because his muscles were definitely there, but not bulging.
His height and his curls made him look so fresh and innocent and maybe a little unready to face the world.
I wanted to take care of him, and I wanted to take care of him. If that kiss was anything to go by, Brian was no delicate flower who only liked things sweet.
I was still staring. I needed to say something, not get lost even more in thoughts I definitely shouldn’t have been having for an employee.
I cleared my throat and squirmed in my chair, trying to find a way to sit that wouldn’t give away just how heated my thoughts had tried to turn. “So we’ve got one games night success under our belts. Tomorrow we’ll give my idea a try.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Brian said, his voice rougher than it’d been moments before. “Have you been advertising around town, fliers and things?”
I could have kissed him for focusing the conversation back on work.
Which would have been exactly the opposite of what I should have done.
“I have,” I said with a nod. “I’ve taken a slightly different approach from you.
You went for the young crowd, but for contrast, I’ve been searching out a slightly older group.
I sent around a few notices to the over fifty-five apartment complexes in the area, and I’ve gone with a more traditional community noticeboard approach. ”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Brian said. “The wider we cast the net the better.”