“Mrs. Andrews and I are going to work together and she’s going to share some of her secrets.” She winked at me and I took a swallow of water to wash out my mouth.
“Oh, really? You’d better share these secrets with me when I come back,” I said. She shook her head slowly.
“No way.”
“Then you’re fired,” I said and she just rolled her eyes. It just showed how much she’d changed. If I’d joked like that in her first few weeks, she probably would have burst into tears and believed me.
“Nice try, boss,” she said, waving and going back to her desk to answer the phone.
~*~*~
“Feeling any better?” Lucah asked as he walked into my office that evening.
“Um, yeah,” I said. The Tums had worked and I’d been eating oatmeal someone had stashed in the staff kitchen. I was officially starving and had been contemplating nibbling on my keyboard for the past half hour.
“You ready to go home?” he asked and I forced myself to shut down my computer for the day. It took a lot of effort because I wouldn’t be back until Monday. Three whole days. I’d done it a few weeks ago, but this was different. I was overseeing so much right now and I was so scared that something was going to go wrong. I’d started having nightmares that I was inadvertently going to make one tiny mistake and destroy the entire company in a series of domino effects, ending with the building crumbling into a pile of rubble at my feet. I hadn’t told Lucah about that one because it was too stupid.
“Yeah,” I said, forcefully pushing myself away from my desk and running through the list I’d made of everything I needed to get done before I left. I’d postponed a few emails and so forth until Monday, but everything that had needed to get looked at had gotten done.
“Sunshine?” The way he said it made me look up at him. “It’s time to go.” He held his hand out and I took it. He didn’t necessarily drag me out of my office, but I did put up a wee bit of resistance.
“Come on,” he said, laughing a little.
“Get her out of here,” Lilia called from her desk. “Get her out of here and don’t let her come back until Monday morning.” I glared at both of them.
“I’m a grown woman!” I said and they both just gave me sad looks. “I hate both of you.”
“See you on Monday!” Lilia called as Lucah marched me to the elevator.
~*~*~
“I was totally prepared to throw you over my shoulder and walk out with you,” Lucah said as we got into a cab.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I said as he slid in beside me and gave the cabbie our address.
“You have no idea what I would do,” he said, reaching back and pulling the pins out of my hair so it tumbled from its carefully styled bun and down onto my shoulders.
“I think I have a little bit of an idea,” I said, holding up two fingers and pinching them together. He wound some of my hair around his hand and then let it slide through his fingers.
“So, how was your day?” I leaned back against the seat.
“Good, I guess. I’m just worried how everything is going to go tomorrow. Roland’s holding the reins for me on Friday and I know he’s capable. Still it’s one of those things where you don’t trust anyone but yourself to do things right.” That wasn’t completely true. I trusted Dad. I’d always trusted him. Sometimes more than I trusted myself to make decisions.
“It’s all going to be fine, you’re going to have a ridiculous time with the girls and you’ll come back happy and smiling and probably with a few more battery-powered friends.” He wiggled his eyebrows. God bless this man who wasn’t afraid of using a vibrator.
“I also wouldn’t be surprised if they found a male stripper to come out and do a cabin call.” Lucah narrowed his eyes. “Hey, I didn’t ask for a stripper. You’re the only man I want taking his clothes off for my entertainment.” He snorted.
“Well, that’s good to know. Still, if you have a stripper… No, I’m not going to tell you what to do because I am a grown man and I am secure in our relationship and I don’t want to be that guy.” He had never been that guy. He couldn’t even if he tried.
“Well, I’m going to say the same thing if you have one. I’m not a huge fan of the idea, but I can definitely see Ryder doing that.” Could I ever. Lucah gave me a look like I’d lost my mind.
“Do you really think Sloane would be okay with him being within a ten mile radius of a female stripper?” Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. Imagining her reaction made me burst out laughing.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“So there you go,” he said and that was that.
~*~*~