“As you know, you’ve been with us three weeks now and so it’s time to evaluate your progress. So, how do you think you’re doing?” I folded my hands on my desk and thanked whoever had written a sheet of questions for me to ask so I had something to look at other than his face.
“I enjoy my job. It is challenging and exciting; I feel like I get along with everyone here and I think I’m contributing.” Well said, but with about zero emotion.
This wasn’t him.
I cleared my throat.
“Well, I agree with you on all of those points. You’re a hard worker. You’re on time and you finish everything you start and—” I was interrupted by him using his hand to smother a laugh. That caught me completely off guard.
I looked up from my paper and saw that his face was red and he was still trying not to laugh and failing.
“I’m sorry. Go on.” He coughed and tried to put his serious face back on.
“As I was saying, you finish everything you start and—“
Cue laugher. This time he couldn’t stop, and I caught it.
“Oh, you are such a perv.” I grabbed a pen and threw it at him. “Of course you would take something as simple as an evaluation and make it dirty. Typical guy.” Yup, any semblance of professionalism went out the window.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, you just looked so serious when you said it.”
I looked up from his evaluation form. “Hey, I’m not the one who’s had serious face on all week.”
“Yeah, well your bitch face has been getting quite a workout. Every time I check you’ve got it on. I mean, it’s just as sexy as your not-bitch face. If you were trying to not be sexy, it didn’t work.”
“Yeah, ditto.”
He leaned back and his face relaxed and mine did too.
“So,” he said.
“So.”
“We sucked at that, didn’t we?” he said.
“Sucked at what?” He put his hands behind his head and I pushed the evaluation sheet aside.
“At the one night plan. When . . . when I woke up and found you in my arms . . . I knew that I couldn’t have just one night. I wanted more. Still do.”
Oh, these were all the things that girls want boys to say to them, but they were wrong in this context.
“Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you can have it,” I said.
“Actually, it’s been my experience that it does. I always get what I want, even if I have to work for it.” He was incorrigible.
“Why are you making this so hard on me, Lucas? Oh, and why did you ask me to call you Lucah?”
That caught him off guard. Hmm.
“It’s . . . it’s a nickname I had when I was young. Only certain people are allowed to call me that.”
“And I’m a certain person?”
Our eyes met and locked.
“You are.”
I took a shaky breath.