May
Walking into the lobby of my office building, I shouldered my purse and took a preemptive gulp of my coffee as anxiety pooled in my abdomen. I didn’t want to give my new team any reason to dislike me or give my new boss a reason to fire me. Heading for the elevator, I punched the button and rocked back on my heels to glance at Oran. He’d obviously never been in this building, and I gnawed my inner cheek before opening my mouth.
“So, before we go up, I should mention that my co-workers are wary of me, but my boss is absolutely gunning for me. I’m honestly convinced he thinks I set David up. They were kind of buddies.” Rolling my lips between my teeth at the quizzical glance Oran sent me, I hugged my purse to my side tighter. “I’m fifteen minutes later right now, honestly.”
“Well, you’ve got a good excuse. You’re going to present to me when, normally, you’d have to go to Don or one of his lackeys.”
“You just want to make me happy so I’ll invite you over again. I know what you’re doing, Oran.” He held up his hands in surrender, and I couldn’t help but laugh as the elevator doors slid open. Stepping across the threshold, goosebumps blanketed my body when Oran held my waist, and I tilted my head back just as he ducked to kiss my neck.
“I’m glad both my ulterior motives are obvious.” The moment was so fast, I barely had time to react, and a gasp breached my lips when Oran grabbed my ass and squeezed. Turning as the doors slid shut, I reached to touch my neck, the phantom of his lips tingling on my skin. He didn’t try to touch me again, and I kinda missed it as I glanced over at him with the smallest, handsomest smirk on his face.
“So, if I said dinner on Friday would make me happy, what would you say?” His brows rose suggestively and he tilted his head just so with a slick smirk. “Late and light?”
“Late and light.” Accomplishment blossomed in my chest at his confirmation, and I smiled as I tucked stray strands of hair behind my ear. The elevator suddenly stopped and Oran gestured me out first and onto my floor. The cube farm I lived in sprawled out in front of me, and my desk was right in the middle of it all. Each team had a cluster of desks, and my position was telling— I was farthest away from my team and in the middle of the dreaded ‘perfume cloud’.
“Hold your breath, Oran.” Just as I spoke, the stench of cheap perfume slithered along the roof of my mouth, and hevery activelycovered his mouth with the back of his hand. We finally reached my desk, and I crouched to pull open the lowest drawer. “I’m sorry. It’s not like you can do anything about it, unfortunately. You complain and suddenly it’s an ice bath in here.”
“I do not envy you, May.” The overstuffed folder wasn’t very tidy, and I popped up to hold it to my chest as Oran looked around warily. At least four inches thick, the manila file was smooth against my forearms. He glanced down at me with admiration. “That’s quite the folder.”
“Praise me more.” Gesturing him to follow me, I wound my way to my team leader’s desk, but he barely glanced up at me even as I cleared my throat. “I’m going to need the conf—"
“It’s in use.” Cutting me off, Jerry squinted at his computer, leaning in, telling me clearly that I wasn’t wanted around. I licked my lips as apprehension flooded my gut.
“Jerry, come on. I have a pres—" Holding up a hand, he turned to me with his scruffy beard and tired eyes, and my own narrowed. “I know I’m supposed to book it in advance, but—"
“Yeah, May, you are, because it’s in use. You begging isn’t going to make it not in use.” Irritation seared across my chest, but Jerry had a point and he knew it. Turning to Oran, almost as a second thought, he scoffed a little and shook his head. “You could’ve called if the meeting was that important and abrupt.”
“You have to share a single conference room between the five teams working on this floor?” The question didn’t come from me, and Jerry frowned under his bushy, salt-and-pepper eyebrows as they drew together. Tension zinged in the air, barely noticeable, and all I could do was stand there awkwardly between them.
“Who are you? Why are you here?” Jerry lifted himself from his chair as he posed his questions. He wasn’t rotund or greasy or anything, but he clearly didn’t like me or anything I tried to do. Watching him square up with Oran, knowing the muscle hidden under that dark blue jacket, would’ve been comical with Jerry’s aged frame.
But I needed this job, at least right now.
“I own this building and everyone in it, including you.” Oran plucked a card from his pocket, and his smirk was almost malicious as he held it out between two fingers. “Oran Santino. I’m your boss’s boss’s boss’s subsidiary’s boss’s boss’s boss’s . . . boss.”
Amusement and authority thickened Oran’s tone, and suddenly, Jerry wasn’t looking down his nose at him. My team lead stood up a little straighter and I feltimmenselyrelieved in this moment. The validation! Taking the card, Jerry’s brows came together tightly as he glanced down at it.
“So, let me get this straight. You somehow managed a meeting on the fly with the CEO when you’re not currently working on any projects even close to being prepared for a presentation.” Jerry handed Oran back the card and took on that tone of talking down to someone, and my face heated in offense. “I don’t buy it. Just because you have a nice suit and a card doesn’t make your story any more believable.”
“Jerry—" Turning to me, Jerry frowned in disapproval and straight disdain, and I sucked in a sharp breath. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I clenched my jaw hard.
“No offense, May, but I seriously don’t have time for this. You were late, you just want the conference room for God only knows why with someone off the street, and whatever is in that folder isn’t something assigned to you, which means you’re working on something personal during work hours.”
“You don’t give me any work to do, anyway. I was commissioned for this before I had to change teams—”
“Before youchangedteams? You got your entire team fired by claiming they were all in on this big conspiracy against you.” Oh, I sawred!Handing my huge folder to Oran, I stepped up to Jerry to poke him right in his stupid, thin chest.
“Don’t you interrupt me, damnit! I put up with your huffy ass for a whole month, Jerry!” Fire surged from my nose as I yelled at him, and he went a little wide-eyed as his chin doubled over against his sternum. The entire cube farm went quiet, and I poked him again, this time hard enough to send him into his chair with a grunt. “I didn’t do anything but expose David’s lies aboutmywork. If you want to blame someone for him being fired, blame him. The investigationprovedhe and everyone else on his team knowingly committed innovative theft, and if David wasn’t so . . . sofucking stupid, then why the hell did he send me to a meeting that would’ve inevitably ended in an investigation!”
“May. May.” Taking my shoulders, Oran squeezed as I trembled with a mix of embarrassment and rage, and I glared hotly at Jerry. “Hey, relax. It’s not like he compared you to a flat-earther.”
“What’s with all the noise?” Blood drummed in my ears and I swiped back my hair with a huff as the head supervisor weaved his way between chairs and nosy people. When he saw Oran, he paused for a brief second, and Oran squeezed my shoulders again before turning to my supervisor. Shivers gripped my spine and I crossed my arms tightly as the curiosity thickening the air reached its peak. “And you are?”
“We’ve spoken on the phone, but I don’t believe we’ve met in person. Oran Santino.” My supervisor obviously recognized Oran’s deep timber, and he smiled even though it didn’t get very far. “How many conference rooms do you have available, and are any of them in use?”
“We have three, and only one is being used right now, sir. I apologize. I didn’t know you were stopping by.” The supervisor cast me a brief questioning glance, and I huffed and puffed in an effort to calm down as I curtly shook my head. I smoothed my dress against my abdomen with sharp movements, and my supervisor turned his curious eyes on Oran. “What can I do for you today, sir?”
“Ms. Hart has a presentation for me. Seeing as her new team lead has been so gracious with her workload, she’s willing to present what she’s managed to scrape together the past few weeks. If you’re going to give her a hard time about a conference room, I can always bring her to my office, but you’ll probably never see her again. She’s very good at her job from what I’ve seen so far— too good to be working in the muck the interns don’t want to do.” The compliment dumped cold water on my anger, and flames licked up my neck as my supervisor took on an absolutely horrified but muted expression. Casting a narrowed, critical glance at Jerry, Oran frowned in distaste that glistened brightly in his eyes. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one disliked upon first glance. “I should’ve done it already, I suspect.”
