Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Genevieve
“He’s unbelievably difficult. Walks as if he owns the world and the rest of us are peasants.”
Collin smiled. “He does own this fraction of the world.”
I gave him a look that wiped the smile off his face.
“Your food is growing cold.”
I stabbed the pasta with my fork, gathering a few into my mouth, but the tasty meal had the same flavour as cardboard after Kazimir was brought up.
“I don’t get it.” I let the fork fall with a clang. “You men act like the floor he walks on is gold-plated and he farts treasury bills and shits out bitcoin.”
Collin almost choked on his sandwich. “That’s one way to put it.”
“It’s the truth.”
He wiped the corners of his lips with a serviette before looking at me. “It’s primal male envy. He has the looks, the money, the charisma, the cars and the women. That’s way more than the average guy desires.”
“Yeah, but he’s like the biggest jerk.”
He nodded, gearing up for another bite. “You’ll find out not many people care for values and personality in the face of wealth and power.”
I watched his teeth sink into the thick stack of bread and vegetables, his statement echoing in my head.
He was right. A lot of the younger males in the company looked at Kazimir like he was a god, while the other half wanted to be him.
The women weren’t any different. They softened their tone, loosened a few buttons and walked with an extra sway to their hips whenever they came in contact with him.
Not that I was any different, but in my defence, I was watching from the outside. My view and knowledge of him was limited to his entry and exit from the elevator and the annual meetings.
Those gave very little insight as to who he was while magnifying my crush.
But now, I was in close range and I could barely stand him.
Those women had been in close range for years, seen him for who he truly was, and still threw themselves at him even though he barely acknowledged them.
Granted, the man was as handsome as sin and had a body that was carved in a way that promised the best night, but they could be subtle.
Part of my frustration was from the way my body reacted to him despite knowing all of these, but Collin didn’t need to know that.
“And you? Do you believe wealth and good looks excuse bad behaviour?”
He paused, regarding me briefly before speaking. “I believe manners maketh man.”
My shoulders slumped in relief. “Exactly what I’m saying. All that money and no decency equals gorgon.”
If my shower head could hear this, she would’ve yelled liar at the top of her nozzle.
I hurriedly added my next comment before my head began to conjure images. “I knew you had a functioning brain between those shoulders.”
Collin smiled. “You think my shoulders are nice?”
“That wasn’t what I said.” I internally winced at how that came out. “I mean, you don’t look bad, but I wasn’t checking you out or anything.”
His only comment was an unconvinced “Mhmm.”
How do I always get myself into these situations?
“Regardless of your grievances, you’re still going to spend the rest of the day with him and I know you’ll be needing food for that.”
I looked at my pasta. It still looked as yummy as it did when it arrived, but I just couldn’t work up the appetite.
Kazimir and I had fallen into a cold war—well, I had fallen into a cold war with him since he pulled his silly stunt at the conference.
I made it a point to ignore him when necessary. I pretty much did most of my work in Caroline’s office under the guise of needing her assistance.
He was chill at first, almost as though he didn’t notice what was happening, then he suddenly switched up.
I couldn’t tell if he was finally laying all the work on me or just being a plain asshole. I had loads of emails waiting, meetings to organize and appointments to make.
I’d convinced myself it was exactly what I wanted, to earn my place, but when a notification came this morning to secure an appointment with Svetlana, I knew he was straight-up being an asshole.
“Maybe I should quit.”
Collin’s head snapped up. “Really? You got a better offer somewhere?”
“No. But I can try.”
He smiled, giving his head a shake. “You might not believe this, but I can guarantee more than 50% of workers hate their boss. You might end up with a shitty person.”
“And a shittier pay,” I grumbled, shoving pasta into my mouth.
“Atta girl.”
“He’s still an asshole.”
His brow quirked as he dusted off the rest of his meal. “You know you’re yet to tell me exactly what he did.”
I gave him a blank stare. “He embarrassed me in a board meeting, remember?”
“In his defense, you were over half an hour late.”
“So that makes it right?” The question sounded as stupid as Collin made it out to be, but it wasn’t like I could tell him the exact reason I was late.
What would I say? That I spent the night with him and he left me in the bed the next morning only to make a fool of me for coming late?
I’d sound like a butt-hurt ex who was mad for being dumped.
Collin was cool and he has been really nice and helpful to me, but I wasn’t going to make the mistake of trusting him with a secret this heavy.
“How about I take you to this really cool place to get your mind off things for a bit?”
I glanced at my phone. We had about fifteen minutes till lunch was over.
“I’d love that, Collin, but we only have fifteen minutes left and, after last time, I cannot afford to be late to another meeting.”
“I wasn’t talking about now,” he replied. “We can do after work or tomorrow. It’s Friday anyways.”
“Oh… would Caroline and Rose be there?”
I probably sounded like an idiot, but I did meet him through the duo and the only reason we were having lunch alone was because Rose had an emergency and Caroline had to prep for the meeting.
And if he was asking what I was thinking, I needed to be sure about it.
“No Caroline or Rose. Just the two of us. We could get to know each other better without the noise.”
The noise.
“So it’s a date?”
His lips curved. “If I must spell it out to you, then yes, it is a date.”
“What about the no-fraternization rule?”
“I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Something about the response left a thread of unease in my gut.
And even if I didn’t give a fuck about the rules, I was already in a funny situation with one person and not ready to convert the situation to a growing list.
But he had such hope in his eyes and he spent his entire lunch listening to me whine about my life. I didn’t know how to reject him outright.
“I’ll think about it and let you know.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re using that as a polite escape?”
Was I that obvious?
“Not at all,” I replied hurriedly. “I just like to think things through. We’re good friends and I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that.”
His lips curled, but the expression barely touched his eyes. “So friendzone, then?”
“Easy.” I let out a nervous laugh. “I’ve not made any decisions yet.”
Collin folded his arms in front of his body, his very built upper body popping through his shirt with the movement.
He was conventionally attractive in a boy-next-door way with his sandy brown hair and matching brown eyes, but I’ve long figured I preferred my men cut with a darkness that drew me in.
“You know I mostly hang around because of you?”
“What?”
“Rose and Caroline.” He pointed. “I only hang around them more to be close to you.”
I gently set my fork down. “Oh… I didn’t know that.”
He let out a light chuckle. “Of course you wouldn’t. You’re mostly oblivious, deeply absorbed in your work, or complaining nonstop about the boss.”
I chewed at my inner gums to stifle the blush threatening to spread at the last part. Was that all I did? Complain about Kazimir?
“It’s not that. I’m just new and trying to figure out the ropes.”
“I’m not complaining,” he said softly. “It’s one of your most endearing qualities. Oblivious charm.”
The bites couldn’t hold back the blush this time. “Thank you?”
“No need. It works well for you.”
I caught the presence of a hidden message beneath the statement, but the conversation was already weird as it was and I didn’t care to press for an answer.
“Shoot.” I exclaimed at my watch. “We have barely ten minutes left.”
Collin waved down the waiter while I tried to finish off what was left on my plate.
Despite my protest, he paid for both our food, insisting it was merely a token of friendship.
Thankfully, the conversation lightened on the way back and we made it just in time for the start of the meeting.
“We decided every member of the office gets the code installed into their doors as part of the test, that way, we can get both inside and outside feedback.”
“And how do we know these codes won’t spy on us?” Richmond surprised everyone with his bold question.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s still being tested like you said, so how do we know you’re not collecting data?”
I stole a glance at Kazimir, who appeared to be very uninterested in whatever was going on, but I had no doubt he heard everything.
Did Richmond have a death wish?
“He does this all the time,” Collin whispered next to me.
“What?”
“We once had an intern challenge a new code and the concept, and the boss acknowledged his boldness and made a comment on how he loves when people have enough balls. Ever since, he has taken it upon himself to be noticed. It’s almost embarrassing at this point.”
“Do you have a phone?” The presenter asked Richmond.
He gave his signature egotistical smirk. “I believe we all do.”
“And you make use of it?”
“I believe so.”
“You have accounts and possibly bank information on there, don’t you?”
Richmond straightened, his eyes darting briefly to Kazimir as he adjusted himself into a more upright position. “I… uh… I believe so.”
“So you trust a cellular device you have no personal relations with over the company you work in? If I didn’t know better, I would argue you were calling a fraud and accusing us of stealing customer data.”
I stole another glance at the top of the table and this time, Kazimir had his eyes on Richmond while Nikolai smirked.
“I think he’s gonna shit himself,” Collin whispered, causing me to stifle a laugh.
“I don’t think so. He looks constipated.”
Collin disguised his laugh with a cough. “At least he has the attention he desperately needed.”
“Yup, and I hope he gets what he deserves.”
Collin gave me a side glance. “Not a big fan of mister hotshot?”
My eyes automatically rolled at the title. “He’s 5'7", he’s hardly big for anything.”
“You’ve gotta pay attention to this one.”
I lifted my head to find Nikolai berating Richmond and tasking him with finding all the loopholes in the recently launched products since he was so security conscious.
My lips curled into a triumphant smile.
“Whatever did he do to deserve such happiness over his woe?”
“He was an asshole while I worked in the reception.”
Collin nodded. “Then he deserves to have his dick cut and stapled to his face.”
I snorted a very unattractive laugh. “You’re evil. I—” my response was cut off by the intense heat burning into the corner of my face.
I followed the sensation to find Kazimir’s heated gaze on me. His face was expressionless and his eyes ablaze.
A shudder spread through my body as I took in the look in his eyes. For a moment, I couldn’t look away. It was as though he’d extracted me from the present and wrapped me in the darkness exuding from him.
“I believe in punishing the enemy.”
Collin's statement brought me back to the moment, and maybe the right thing to do would’ve been to shut down the conversation. It was an important meeting and I shouldn’t be whispering, but somehow, the persistent heat only motivated me to do more.
I was done letting him interfere in my every activity.
I flashed Collin my most flirty smile. “You look too innocent to be evil.”
His lips curled, his eyes settling on my lips. “I wouldn’t hold on to that thought if I were you.”
Goose pimples dusted my skin and I couldn’t tell if it was from the awareness of Collin’s eyes sweeping all over me or the now burning sensation from Kazimir’s glare, but something told me it was time to wrap it up.