“Thank you,” I said because I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Yeah, that didn’t come out exactly the way I wanted it to. Sorry about that. But, yeah. It means I like you. As a boss.” Now her face was downright scarlet. I’d never seen it that red. Lilia was saved from further embarrassment by the arrival of the waitress who asked us if we needed anything else. I asked for another iced tea and Lilia choked out that she’d like one too.
“That’s another thing I do when I get more comfortable. I kind of say things that make other people uncomfortable. I’m able to keep it under control in the office for the most part, but here I am. Doing it again.” She giggled nervously and I was trying to figure out what had triggered this little episode. We’d gone to lunch tons of times and talked about all kinds of things. Not sure what had changed to cause her to get so nervous like this.
“It’s okay. No big deal. You haven’t seen me freak out before. Lucah things it’s hilarious. I start blurting out my thoughts and I tend to take everything to the worst-case scenario and then I pace. A lot. He always suggests that I pace naked,” I said, rolling my eyes. He was always saying that it would help me think better to be unencumbered by clothing.
She laughed, but her face was still a little red.
“I bet he does.” We both laughed and then started talking about other things and she didn’t have any other little moments.
~*~*~
When I got back to my desk, there was a sticky note on my keyboard. It was in Lucah’s handwriting and just said, look in your top drawer –Lucah. Part of me considered not looking, because whatever was in there was bound to be inappropriate. My curiosity outweighed my reservations and I pulled the drawer open and had to stifle a gasp.
It was the red spandex thing he’d worn the night before, sitting right on top of my boxes of pens and file folders and thumbtacks. I picked up my phone and dialed his extension.
“Lucah Blythe,” he said in his most professional voice, even though he knew it was me.
“I could have you fired for this. It’s sexual harassment,” I said.
“I have no idea what you mean, Miss Clarke. Is something wrong?” I wanted to reach through the phone and smack him.
“What if someone came into my office looking for something and found these. They’d think I was a perv,” I hissed at him. My sex life belonged outside of work. Well, except for those times when I banged my former assistant in the supply closet. And the boardroom. And on my desk. I should probably stop doing that. Oh, but it was so much fun.
“But you are a perv. So am I. It’s why we work so well together. It’s why we did those things we did last night.” God, I was still tingling from that.
“Okay, so I’m a perv and you’re a perv, but I swear, if anyone else in this office finds out about it, I will never do anything sexual with you ever again. Ever. Never ever, like ever.” I was so full of shit, but at least I could threaten.
“Everyone is a perv. Everyone has those little kinks and fetishes and likes certain sexual things that someone else might find strange.” I didn’t really want to think about that. It was like thinking about how everyone looked in their underwear. I just didn’t need to know.
“Okay, well, we can keep that at home and be as pervy as we want. But at work, I’d like to keep that in a special box that we don’t open,” I said, leaning back in my chair.
“So that means no more hooking up in the supply closet or anywhere else on the premises?” Damn. I was hoping he wouldn’t bring that up.
“Don’t put your weird spandex bananahammocks in my drawers, okay? Can you just do that for me.” His only answer was laughter.
“Yeah, sure. I think I can do that for you, Sunshine.” I bit my lip and didn’t say anything else before I hung up on him. A few moments later I got a text message that was just a picture of Lucah smiling at me from his desk. Stupid boy. Stupid boy and his spandex holder for his boy penis.
~*~*~
The rest of my day involved a lot less spandex and a lot more emails and meetings and math. I called my mother when I got out of work and asked how Dad was doing. I hadn’t talked to either of them for a few days and I was so paranoid that something else was going to happen.
“Hey, Mom. I just wanted to call and check in,” I said.
“Hello, Rory. That’s so sweet. Everything’s good. Your father has made it back to the club and played a round of golf today so he’s happy about that. And he’s already down seven pounds with the new diet.” That was all good news.
“That’s great. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine. Much better. How are you? How was your party this weekend?” I gave her very sanitized details.
“Sounds like fun. I can’t remember when I had a good girl’s weekend. They can do wonders.” Yeah, I bet. Before Dad had gotten sick, she’d been far too busy. Now she’d cut back on her activities, but she had him to worry about.
“Well, you know, Lucah and I could always come and stay with him and you could go out for a night or two. Just let me know when you want to do it and I’m there.” She deserved more than just one day at the spa.
“That’s so sweet of you to offer, Rory. I’ll think about it. What else is going on with you?” I didn’t want to talk about the fact that I was having a hard time with work and I didn’t want to talk about my recent issues with Lucah. So I just talked about wedding stuff.
“When would you like to do the fitting? Sloane’s available anytime on a weeknight, but weekends are better. Do you think this weekend? She could bring everything to the house, so you wouldn’t have to leave Dad.” I knew Sloane would be more than happy to accommodate Mom.