Chapter 55
STEPHANIE
Apaid vacation sounded like a wonderful thing. Unless you didn’t know whether the vacation would become permanent and unpaid soon. I stood in the shower, letting the warm water cascade over my shoulders with my head tipped back.
The water would run cold within the next few minutes probably, but Tiana was at work. Like most employed people tended to be on a Thursday afternoon. As for me, I got a message from Jeremiah on Wednesday morning after he stormed out on Tuesday night.
No explanation about where he went or why he left, not whether he was pissed at me for overstepping or simply planning on relaxing on his own for a few days. All I got was a very succinct, impersonal message telling me to take a couple of days off as he wouldn’t be in the office either.
It wasn’t exactly enlightening. I was partly convinced he was going to fire me for yelling at his father about such personal matters as I had on the day of the kidnapping. I spent a few hours each day scouring the internet for possible job opportunities I could apply for if my days at Williams Inc. were numbered.
I didn’t want to believe he would fire me, which was probably why none of the opportunities tempted me to apply at all. But I wanted to be ready if he did.
The parts of my brain loyal to Jeremiah kept telling me to stop overreacting. That even if he didn’t want me to work for him anymore because my big mouth made me overstep in too many ways, he would transfer me instead of letting me go.
I wanted to trust that part of me, but I just didn’t know what to do or think. Two days off in the middle of the week without a peep from my boss or office had my imagination running rampant. I woke up in a cold sweat last night after dreaming they were holding interviews for my replacement while I was at home watching movies in my pajamas.
I kept telling myself to be patient, that my boss had gone through something terrifying and traumatic and was more than entitled to take a few days off after that experience. As the guy I was kind of seeing, I told myself he just needed some space to deal with the fact that an ex-fling had kidnapped him.
In both capacities, as boss and quasi-boyfriend, the guy deserved a break. Logically, I knew that. In the middle of the night when I replayed the events of that day in my mind, it became difficult to remember anything but how I might have jeopardized things on both fronts by yelling at his father and the big boss.
There was also a large part of me convinced I was overthinking things and should enjoy the time off while I had it. With all this time out of the office, Jeremiah and I were going to have to hit the ground running when we got back to work.
After waiting the required period of time for my conditioning hair mask, shaving, and exfoliating, I finally shut off the water and got out of the shower. Wrapping a fluffy new towel I treated myself to when I got my first paycheck from Williams Inc. around myself, I went to get dressed.
My phone was lying face down on my bed when I got to my room. I picked it up to check the time, but when I turned it over, I saw that there was a new message waiting for me.
My heart leaped. Please let it be Jeremiah.
I drew the pattern to unlock my screen, disappointed when I saw it wasn’t from him. It was, however, related to him. The message was from Shawn. Surprise rippled through me. I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear from him.
Shawn: Meet me at Lucky’s tonight for drinks? Happy hour starts at six.
Lucky’s was a bar Jeremiah and his friends frequented. I knew because they’d asked me to put drinks with them on his calendar there a few times.
Contrary to what some might’ve thought, I knew Shawn wasn’t asking me out. Well, out yes, but not out on a date out. If he wanted to have drinks with me, it was about Jeremiah. I was sure of it.
That alone was enough to get me to agree.
Me: Sure. See you then.
I walked into Lucky’s at six on the dot. It was one of those local bars where it felt like everyone knew everyone, with a warm, welcoming atmosphere and furnishings that had probably been there since the place opened.
The ceilings were low as well as the lighting. Shawn was already waiting when I got there, nursing a beer at one of the far corners of the bar. He waved when he saw me, picked up another beer off the marked wooden counter and moved past round standing tables to an empty booth along the back wall.
“Thanks for coming,” he said when I approached him, handing me the spare beer. “Two for one special. I thought we could split it. The beer goes flat otherwise. Unless you want two of your own to guzzle down immediately?”
I smiled, instantly relaxed by his easygoing nature. “I don’t like flat beer. This is fine.”
“We can always get another when this round’s done,” he said, motioning for me to slide into the booth first.
Shawn sat down across from me, holding his beer in one hand and resting the other on the table. Just like Jeremiah, he had this confident air about him, like the air itself would bend to do his bidding. He had no reason not to be though.
The man was gorgeous. I wondered if that was a requirement to be let into their group since they were all seriously good-looking men. With cafe au lait skin, eyes the color of the richest dark chocolate and bone structure statues would envy, Shawn was a head turner alright.
He was about as tall as Jeremiah, but his muscles were leaner. A relatively well-known male model, I’d seen some of his spreads. I knew what he was packing under his casual, yet elegant emerald sweater.
There was a reason he was as in demand as he was in his job. And with the ladies. As we talked, I noticed more than a few women trying to catch his eye.