So why the hell was he currently sitting at his desk trying to come up with one appropriate question that Colette wouldn’t throw back in his face. A question that had meaning. A question he actually wanted to know the answer to. It wasn’t that he couldn’t come up with anything. Because he could. He could think of a thousand things he wanted to know about her. It was that he didn’t think she’d answer anything he asked. At least not honestly.
Because she hated him.
Instead of trying to brainstorm questions, it was probably a better idea to come up with a list of ways to make Colette believe he wasn’t the devil himself.
It had been a very long time since he’d had to be smooth enough to wine and dine a woman and make her feel special. Usually, he just looked at them and they fell all over him. Not Colette. He knew she wouldn’t be easy to tame.
That stunt she pulled at the restaurant, leaving him high and dry, nearly made him panic.
Until he thought of the flowers.
It would cause quite a stir in the office, letting his staff know that they were dating. Which they weren’t. But no one had to know that. The rumor mill was a powerful thing and people’s lips were probably flapping so hard out there they were on the verge of catching fire.
He’d never dated.
Because he didn’t date.
It was just that simple.
Except with Colette, it wasn’t that simple. Nothing about her was simple.
She was the reason he was banging other chicks instead of banging her. She was the only woman he’d ever known that wouldn’t give him the time of day. She wouldn’t even look his way most times, like he didn’t exist. Even though he was her damn boss. In a way, it was her fault. All of it. He was a man with needs and he had to take out his frustrations on more than just his hand.
Okay, so it wasn’t her fault.
He’d been screwing random women for a long time. Since high school, which was likely before Colette was even born. Not quite, but the thought still made him wince. He knew he was what other people called damaged goods when it came to the good old emotional, mental well-being. His family life at home had been shittier than shit. Just like everyone else, he had things he didn’t want to deal with. So he made sure that instead of using his brain, he was using other appendages. It worked out alright for him.
Until it didn’t.
The one woman he wanted to go on a date with, finally, after years of waiting and not asking her out, giving her a chance to find someone else, anyone else, giving himself a chance to try and get his shit together, waiting for the right time- the time when she was actually of legal age to drink, so he wouldn’t look so much like a perv- and he’d blown it.
By being, surprise, surprise, a huge fucking asshole.
Blaze gave his head a shake. He wished he could shake thoughts of Colette right out of it, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He’d been trying to banish her apparition from his head for a long time. Unsuccessfully.
He found himself opening up his laptop, which he truly only ever did use for work, since he wasn’t a piece of shit, at least he liked to pretend he wasn’t, and he was above anyone ever finding anything inappropriate on his machine should they ever happen to randomly break into his office and check his browsing history, which, by force of habit, he cleared every single night before he left. It could happen, and he always liked to be prepared. Life taught him that when someone hands you lemons, they’re usually an asshole about to squirt one in your eye. The point being, you can never really trust anyone, since most people have only bad intentions at the heart of them. Human nature and all that. He didn’t believe it was inherently good.
He had himself as proof.
After browsing through a couple of sites, trying to get an idea of how to make it up to Colette, he slammed his laptop down and sighed in disgust. He ran a hand through his hair, trying not to think about how she was out there, probably sitting tucked in her cubicle, warding off a thousand questions from her co-workers. She was probably pissed off. Scratch that. She was most definitely pissed off.
He had all the money in the world and still, he was a useless shit.
He couldn’t think of one single thing she’d like to do. He had no idea what she liked or didn’t like, other than the obvious, and getting her a new computer so she could do more coding was not going to cut it.