She knows I work here.
I turned, desperate to keep some distance, and walked out of the restroom.
When I turned, just before the door closed, Cora was smiling.
22
JONAH
The night after Evie’s incident, I spent that hours pacing my apartment, too keyed up to sleep.
I told myself I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t care that I never got to tell her that what I wanted from her didn’t just involve sex. That I wanted the dinners, the dates, and the conversations just as much as I wanted the sex. That I wanted to know more about her past, and her wishes for her future.
By morning, I was still wound up, like someone had knocked something loose in me I couldn’t put back together.
The timing was shit. I needed to wait until she was done with her internship, and while she wasn’t in the middle of trying to figure out where her daughter would be spending her days in four months.
I should have known what that fear looked like. It was the same reason why my Mom had handed me over to Dad when I was four. Because while Mom had truly loved me, she wasn’t able to give me the financial safety I needed. I learned that when I was nine, and a letter arrived from a lawyer with Mom’s name on it and my dad finally explained why I would never be able to meet her again. Her alcohol addiction, which had started aftergiving me up, had taken its toll on her. She’d died from alcohol poisoning in a matter of a day.
I didn’t think I could ever recover from that loss.
Which was why I respected Lexi’s decision to prioritize her child over me. So I made a change to the day care policy, thankfully one that didn’t need the board to vote on.
The attraction between Lexi and me wasn’t subtle. It was loud, electric, impossible to ignore. So was the pressing need to not pursue her and complicate life further.
So, I buried myself in work. Back-to-back meetings, strategy reports, and late nights I pretended were about the quarterly targets when, really, they were about not thinking of her. I stopped taking the elevator to her floor, and told myself I was over her. That it had been a passing thing.
I’d almost convinced myself.
Until today.
A few days passed since that that Thursday evening when I’d discovered Evie wandering alone. This Monday morning had been hell. I’d come in earlier than usual after our head of sales tipped me off that we lost two major clients.
On top of this mess, I had lost my favorite coffee thermos. The engraved one that had once belonged to Mom. I’d made do with another cup, but I hated not knowing where I’d left Mom’s. One of the break rooms perhaps?
I was forcing myself to forget about it and push through work when Lexi walked into my office, not bothering to wait after she knocked.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked, stunned as I looked up from my monitor to find her. The sight of her brought a mix of emotions I hadn’t been ready to deal with today.
Her hair was slightly windblown from her hurried march through the office. I hated that my first instinct was to admire the way the light hit her skin and how beautiful she looked.
I stood slowly, every muscle pulled tight.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did,” she said, her voice trembling. “You don’t know what it means to me to have the daycare option available for me. Thank you.”
Right on cue, a knock sounded at the door behind Lexi and I groaned inwardly. Couldn’t I just have a minute in my office with her without being disturbed?
“Come in,” I said.
Derek Wei, my CFO, and Miles Harrington, my CTO, entered. Both were broad, imposing men who didn’t spare Lexi so much as a glance as they made their way to the chairs in front of my desk.
“We need to discuss the quarterly projections—” Derek started.
“Not now,” I cut him off, my tone leaving no room for argument. “Come back in ten minutes.”
Derek’s eyebrows shot up. Miles looked between me and Lexi, finally seeming to notice her presence.
“But the board meeting is in forty—” Miles began.
