This Dress (Mergers & Matrimony)

Chapter 1

one

“WALKING ON SUNSHINE” — KATRINA AND THE WAVES

Tavey

I know it’s going to be a good day when I arrive at my desk and find a contraption out of LEGO Technic pieces waiting for me. For the uninitiated, LEGO Technic are the fancy LEGOs with gears and moving parts.

This gadget looks like a kid’s scooter, but when you push it, the “handlebars” flap like wings. Beneath it, there are five pages of printed line art dragon pieces … heads, bodies, wings, and tails. On the top page I find a scrawled note that reads:

for inspiration

if you want to decorate it

Oh … it’s going to be a very good day.

Of course, I recognize the handwriting. It’s Miller’s.

Not that I needed the handwriting, or even the note, to know that Miller left the contraption for me. I know it’s from him because he’s the person who does things like this for me.

Miller Evans is my coworker at FMJ, a nerdy tech company in Austin, where I’ve worked since I moved to Austin three years ago to be closer to my brother and his family.

Miller and I both work in the security department.

Before you imagine him in a uniform and cute little hat, wandering around the building at night with a flashlight, no, it’s not that kind of security. (Though, that would be hot.)

Not that that kind of security is unimportant. It is. But what we do … creating the protocols that protect our systems from being hacked, is way more important. Especially since FMJ creates cutting-edge technology that pretty much everyone on the planet would like to have a preview of.

FMJ has flex hours, which is a fancy way of saying that they expect us to put in long hours, but they don’t care when during the day those hours happen.

The huge fourth-floor bullpen, which has space for about forty desks, is only about half occupied most of the time.

I’m extra early this morning, so the bullpen is nearly empty.

And, yes, I’m one of those obnoxious morning people. Don’t judge me!

Of course, Miller isn’t in yet. He only leaves toys for me when he stayed at work late the night before. Since it’s a Monday, that means he came in over the weekend. Which means he probably found and fixed the bug we’ve been trying to track down.

Miller has been with FMJ for years. If he was a different kind of guy, he’d be in management by now. Probably VP of Very Important Things.

But he’s Miller, and that kind of thing is not for him. So he sits in the bullpen with the rest of us schlubs. We don’t have cubicles on the fourth floor. Cubicles are so last century!

No, we have “work islands,” which is a fancy term for a bunch of desks squashed together in an “organic formation” to encourage the flow of ideas throughout the workspace.

All of which is clearly bullshit, because there is nothing organic about desks, even if they are rhombuses instead of rectangles.

As much as I laugh at the corporate speak, I adore my “work island” because it means Miller’s desk is catty-corner to mine. Most days — i.e., days when he didn’t work too late the night before — I only have to glance up to see him.

And, yes, Miller is super hot in a taciturn, growly, uber-competent kind of way. Which, in my opinion, is the best way to be super hot.

And, no, I don’t enjoy sitting near him just so I can creep on him throughout the day.

He might be hot and single, but our friendship isn’t like that.

Unfortunately.

Much to the eternal dismay of my delicate heart and my starved-for-attention lady bits.

This particular morning, I settle in at my desk, carefully setting aside the coloring sheets Miller left for me—I will play with those at home where I have access to my complete collection of markers, colored pencils, and other art supplies—and log in to my workstation.

I pull up the intra-office messaging center and find—as expected—detailed notes about Miller’s progress from the night before.

I open up the files to review his work, occasionally pushing my little contraption around to make its wings flap as I bop along to Katrina and the Waves playing on repeat through my noise-cancelling headphones.

About an hour in, I take a bathroom break and check my personal phone to find a message from the family group chat.

Family Chaos

Holly

Hey, I need a yay or nay on the Fourth of July

I assume you’re coming, but I need to know if you’re staying the night because the house is filling up.

Yes to both

Holly

Cool.

You should invite that hot coworker of yours

Didn’t you say he doesn’t have family in town?

Don’t know for sure

Also, his name is Miller.

I feel like it would be unprofessional for me to refer to him as merely, “My hot coworker”

Possibly even sexual harassment

Holly

No, it would be unprofessional if you were completely honest and referred to him as “the hot coworker you desperately want to bone.”

And it would be sexual harassment if you said that to his face

Max

Holly, please stop.

Holly

What?

Max

Please stop talking about men my baby sister may or may not want to bone.

Holly

Seriously, Max. Be more evolved than that patriarchal bullshit. Your sister is a grown woman who can bone whomever she wants.

Max

Agreed.

I just don’t want to hear about it

Besides, our daughter is in the chat.

Rosa

Don’t mind me

Holly

Max, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud

Rosa’s in college. She knows what text is

*text

Stupid autocorrect!

TEXT

S

E

X

Rosa

Holly

You all know what I mean

Max

Unfortunately

Max has left the chat

Rosa

Bwahahahaha

Please!

Can everyone just stop!!!

This is horribly inappropriate

Holly

How? Oh drain it. I thought this was your personal number. I’m not texting this on your work phone am I?

No.

But it’s still inappropriate!

Rosa

So you *don’t* want to bone your hot coworker?

I am not having this conversation

Holly

You’re no fun!

Rosa

She’d be more fun if she boned her hot coworker

Holly

Fist bump emoji

You are all dead to me.

Holly

Damn it. I meant to send an emoji. Not type it

But seriously …

you really like this guy, right?

Obviously

He’s one of my best friends

Holly

And you’re attracted to him

Rosa

Duh

Of course she is

***

Rosa

I saw the picture you took with him showing off that spinning top he built you

He’s HAWT

For an old guy

He’s not old!

Rosa

And, mom, before you jump down my throat, yes, I know that physical looks are only part of the equation and that real attraction and affection are more complicated than blah, blah, blah

Holly

Rosa

My point is, you should go for it!

Holly

Rosa is right. If you like him and you’re attracted to him, what’s holding you back?

Oh, I don’t know…

The fact that he’s one of my best friends?

I mean, we’re just work friends, but still. It’s not like I have a ton of friends in Austin yet, so work friends are the only friends i have here

The fact that he’s crazy smart and successful?

The fact that I have no idea if he feels the same way about me?

Holly

For all you know, he’s sitting there thinking the exact same thing

I’m torn between laughing my ass off and bursting into flames of embarrassment by the time I put my phone away.

Still, Holly’s final words stick with me. Somehow I doubt that wherever he is, Miller is thinking about me.

But a girl can dream, right?