Three
August Seventeenth
Whitney
The first few weeks of work, Whitney spent hours combing through the previous engineer’s notes, trying to get a feel for the island’s system. They’d given her an office in the same building as Margaret, alongside the other people who kept the place running. She liked the job well enough, even if the island itself was weirdly idyllic and a little too… wholesome.
She knocked on Margaret’s open door. “Hey, do you know what happened to the blueprints for the solar panels? They disappeared from my desk.”
Margaret looked up from her paperwork. “The new electrician, Fade, has them. He is up at the solar farm, you could check if he is done with them.”
She smiled.
“Oh, okay. I’ll go find him, thank you.”
Whitney forced a polite smile but inside her pulse sped up just a little. The last time she’d seen Fade, he’d blown her off without so much as a goodbye. She couldn’t figure out if he was uninterested, an asshole, or both. Either way she wasn't thrilled to chase him down for something she needed to do her job.
Grabbing her new retail therapy purse off her desk, she headed towards the elevator that would take her to the upper level, where the solar panels stretched along the mountainside. On the way up she pulled out her nicotine deterrent and took a slow inhale, letting the hit calm her.
The elevator dinged and the sound of her heels clicked against the concrete slab before being softened by dirt. She didn’t care that they weren’t exactly fieldwork appropriate, heels made her feel confident. And after years of her last job, confidence was non-negotiable.
She walked along the rows of panels until the sound of a metallic clank drew her attention. Whitney found Fade halfway under one of the panels, and she quickly stashed her electronic cigarette back in her purse.“Hey,”
She called, keeping her tone light. “What are you doing?”
Fade looked up, squinting at her against the sunlight. “Oh, hey. Just checking the mounting and wiring on these. What are you doing up here?”
“I came for the blue prints.”
She nodded toward the rolled up papers sitting next to his tool bag.
Fade scoffed, setting his wrench down. “Sorry, I still need them.”
“For what?”
She demanded, arms crossing.
“I’m checking the solar charge controller next.”
He twisted the cap off his water bottle and took a long drink, “What do you need them for?”
Whitney sighed, already feeling her irritation rise. “I would like to dissect the system again, to really know what I am working with before I move forward.”
He shrugged, turning back to his tools. “I’ll bring them to you when I am done.”
Whitney’s eyes followed his right arm, tracing his tattoos. “How long is that going to take?”
“I don’t know.”
He shrugged. “A few hours?”
She scoffed. “I might as well go home for the day if you’re going to take that long.”
“Well, what are you going to do? Sit here and watch me?”
Without thinking, the words slipped out. “This place is so boring, that would probably be the highlight of my day.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I could help.”
He chuckled. “I doubt you’d be any help.”
“You don’t know that, I took a few classes in electrical engineering.”
She took a step closer, watching the way his bent knee shifted as he crouched. Her eyes wandered up, the metal buckle of his belt caught her attention along with the sliver of inked skin where his shirt rode up.
“Mm-hm,”
Fade responded with his eyes still on his work. “The only thing a woman will be good at out here is nagging me until I hand over the plans.”
He laughed at his own joke as his arm fastened a bolt tighter.
Her jaw dropped. “Wow. And here I thought we could get along.”
She shuffled her feet. “They’re literally curled up by your tool box not being used.”
“I told you… I need them.”
Whitney huffed at his response and pulled her placebo cigarette from her bag, taking a few long hits. Behind her, the faint bloom of vapor caught his eye. “Am I stressing you out that bad?”
he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting.
She ignored him, pulling out her phone. “Margaret? Hey, the electrician won’t give up the plans.”
She paused. “Really? Okay, thanks.”
Dropping the phone back into her bag, she turned on her heel. “Looks like you win.”
Without waiting for a response, she stalked toward the elevator.
Fade
“Wait.”
She stopped but didn’t turn, just tilted her head back toward him with an expression of pure exasperation. “What?”
She barked.
“I thought you wanted to keep me company?”
He grinned, not bothered to hide it. She was right, this place was boring. And he had noticed the way she checked him out when she thought he wasn’t looking. A little fiery thing like her? Could be entertaining.
“No,”
she snapped. “I’d hate to be a nag.”
Whitney flipped him off and headed back to the elevator. He was surprised that his joke had gotten to her. Was it wrong of him to assume she had thick skin?
Fade shuffled out from under the panel and called out, “Whitney.”
She half turned, arms crossed, eyes narrow. “I’ll put them on your desk when I’m done.”
he offered.Without a smile she headed back towards the elevator.
Fade watched her go, half annoyed and half intrigued, wondering how much fun it would be to push her buttons again.
********
Fade emptied his pockets onto his dresser and headed into the bathroom. His roommate, a firefighter, was gone half the time. Which was nice because it was almost as if he lived alone, like he preferred. He thought about her again, irritated with himself looking in the mirror before his shower. He stripped off his shirt, muscles still tight from his post workout high and it was all because of her. Whitney.
That mouth on her…sharp and quick. The way she looked at him, like she wanted to either punch him or climb him and maybe she hadn’t decided yet.
He didn’t date. Ever. His ex-fiancée made sure of that. But Whitney? She seemed like the type who’d be into a no-strings thing. Could be fun if she stopped being pissed at Fade long enough to find out.
September First
Whitney
The quiet of the break room shattered the second she saw him as she walked in. “Ugh,”
Whitney groaned, dropping her lunch onto the farthest table from him. “Why are you in here?”
Fade glanced up from his sandwich.“Uh… eating.”
He stared at her slightly amused. “But don’t worry, I only have a small job to do. I won’t be here long or steal any plans you may suddenly need.”
Fade joked at her and bit his sandwich with his elbows on the table.
She laid out her food and responded without looking up. “I’ll be sure to not nag you about anything while I'm here.”
Her facial expression was flat, showing annoyance, which was hard to pull off because he was her type and she wanted to see him. He was also a dick to her and from the sound of it, all women, making it easier to dislike him.
“Alright, quit with all that,”
He said, leaning back into his chair with his arms crossed. “We can be friends. I’m sorry for saying you’re a nag.”
Her fork paused mid-air. “Not just me, all women.”
He sighed. “I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”
Whitney stabbed her salad, frustration coming out in each jab. “Maybe if you men did what we asked the first time, we wouldn’t have to nag.”
Fade’s lip twitched like he was holding back a laugh. “Okay, okay, I get it.”
He watched Whitney, finished with his own meal.
She continued to stab her salad. “I’m certain you are.”
She took a bite and felt confused about what she was feeling for him. It wasn’t a secret to her that she was interested in him but what if he was an ass? She didn’t have to deal with that, she could have stayed in Vegas and dealt with the clients at the club instead.
Whitney licked her fork slowly, catching Fade’s eyes and watched his jaw tighten. He shifted forward, planting his elbows back on the table. “So… you want to hang out sometime?”
She blinked. “No. You haven’t been nice to me since we met.”
“What do you mean? We have only seen each other like, twice.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
She snapped her salad container back together, “Maybe try being nice. Women don’t care to be ridiculed.”
He stood, pushing his chair in with a sharp scrape. “I’m not surprised you wouldn’t get over this.”
Her brows shot up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Fade tossed his trash and sauntered towards her, palms pressing into the table as he leaned over. “Women like to hold grudges,”
he said, voice low and teasing. “And create drama.”
Her throat went tight. Whether from anger or the scent of his cologne, she couldn’t tell.
“Let me know if you’re interested,”
he murmured.
Whitney took in the details of his hand tattoos and looked up at him with a tense face. “I’m not.”
He pushed off the table without saying a word and left the room.
September Twenty-Fourth
Fade
Fade sprawled out on the couch in the living room, flipping through the channels when his phone lit up. He grabbed it reading the reminder ‘Community Day Event 18+ in one hour’ and scoffed. “Yeah right.”
Fade mumbled to himself, dropping his phone back down. Memories from the last Community Day filled his head, Whitney. She was so perky then and Fade had felt like he had ruined what she initially was pursuing, a friend with benefits situation. At least he had hoped that was where it was going but he had offended her unintentionally. Would she be there tonight? Would it be worth going to try again? No. He intertwined his fingers behind his head, stretching his chest out and focused on the reruns to push out the thoughts of Whitney.
Whitney
She couldn’t talk Shianne out of missing Community Day one time, she was certain that Wolfgang was going to show up this time. Whitney sat bored facing away from the drink line to avoid Fade. At least the food was good.
September Twenty-Seventh
Whitney was done listening to Shianne talk about this Wolfgang guy and decided to help her figure out if he was interested in her back, which she had a hinkling he didn’t. “I thought of an idea that will one hundred percent get his attention.”
Shianne had been looking to Whitney as some sort of mentor because of her history of being a stripper. Whitney knew how to get men’s attention but her previous occupation had nothing to do with that.
“What is it?”
She sat up from laying on the couch, ready to engage.
Whitney set up the conversation. “What if you show up to his house?”
“Like a surprise date? Do guys like women that are forward?”
She shrugged. “Some guys do and if you have been waiting for him and it hasn’t been working, maybe you need to make the first move. Hell, be bold and lie in his bed naked.”
“You think that would work?”
Whitney gave her a confident look and a smirk. “It’s worked for me. How are you going to get into his apartment? Does he have a roommate or something?”
She began to hype her up.
“Maybe I could get into Margaret’s account and give myself access to his apartment door, but–”
Whitney’s brow scrunched together. “But what?”
“He works I.T., so I don’t know if he is going to get a notification that I was added to his door key or not.”
She flopped into the back of the couch.
Whitney pushed on. “What if he doesn’t get a notification? It doesn’t hurt to try.”
“So you think it’ll work? I’m trusting you.”
She looked up from her nails. “I think this will definitely tell you what you need to know about how he feels.”
Shianne smiled with excitement. “I’ll have to visit my aunt tomorrow during her lunch.”
“And you’ll have to let me know how it goes.”
She innocently smiled, Whitney was excited to never hear about Wolfgang again.