I grabbed my purse and cell phone out of my desk and headed out of the office, so I didn’t see Chris watching me, shaking his head and rubbing his temples.
Once I was in the lobby of the building, I made a beeline for the little coffee shop near the atrium. When all my friends used to work in the building, we would meet for lunch there at least once a week. Now that Lucy was gone and Yancy worked from home two days per week, we didn’t do it as often.
I bought a latte and settled down at a table in the atrium. I scrolled through a news app as I drank. After the week I’d had, it was nice to just sit down and relax for a few minutes.
“Is this seat taken?”
I glanced up from my phone, the coffee cup still pressed to my lips and saw a man hovering over the chair across from mine. He was smiling at me, revealing dimples in his cheeks.
A quick look around revealed that the tables surrounding mine were empty but I still shook my head and lowered the cup to reply, “No, it’s not taken.”
“Do you mind if I join you?”
His question was light but I appreciated that he didn’t just assume he could sit down and start talking to me. I placed my phone face down on the table and returned his smile. “Please do.”
He placed his laptop bag on the chair to my left and sat across from me. Holding out a hand to me, he said, “I’m Phillip.”
I took his hand and shook it, noting that his warm palm felt nice against mine even if it didn’t make my entire arm tingle the way that it did when a certain man touched me. Then I locked those thoughts away. Landen had his chance and he blew it. I wouldn’t waste any more time thinking about him. The man in front of me was good looking in a clean-cut, all-American sort of way. His hair was sandy brown instead of dark chestnut and his eyes were light blue rather than dark, but he was handsome nonetheless.
“Hi, Phillip. I’m Chelsea. Do you work in the building?”
“I just started a job on the tenth floor a couple of weeks ago.”
“So you’re an attorney?” I asked, bringing the cup to my lips.
He grinned at me. “Yes. How did you know?”
“A friend of mine works on the tenth floor. You may know her, Tanya Blake.” I caught myself. “Sorry, Hawke. I forgot that she changed her name when she got married.”
Phillip’s eyes widened. “You’re friends with Tanya?”
I laughed at his expression. “Yes. I know she’s tough but she’s a good person. You’ll see.”
He made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat and I suppressed the urge to chuckle. When Tanya was at work, she wasn’t to be fucked with. I’m pretty sure they called her a ballbuster around the office, but they also respected her. She got the job done. It also meant that she probably intimidated Phillip, which made my urge to laugh fade. If he couldn’t handle Tanya, I doubted he could handle me.
Too many times to count, men saw my curly blonde hair, short stature, and big blue eyes and immediately thought that I was as sweet as I looked. Then, once they’d recognized that I wasn’t some reticent, retiring little thing, I rarely heard from them again.
I looked exactly like my mother but I was as bold and brash as my father. I liked who I was too much to try and change my personality to please other people. True, my blunt tongue and tendency toward sarcastic remarks made it difficult to make friends, but the ones I had were the best. I’d take quality over quantity any day, and that included the men I dated.
Phillip and I chatted for a bit and I learned that he was single and he’d moved to Dallas from Virginia because he’d been offered a position at the firm where Tanya worked.
Then he asked, “So what do you do?”
“I’m Chris Barden’s executive assistant,” I answered.
He appeared surprised. “Chris Barden? Wow, that must be a demanding job.”
I shrugged one shoulder, knowing he’d probably heard talk about Chris from other people in the building. Anyone who ran a company in Dallas knew who Chris was and also knew he had exacting standards when it came to his employees. “It is but I love it.” I peeked at my phone and saw that I’d been here for nearly twenty-five minutes. “Speaking of work, I probably need to get back.”
When I rose from my chair, Phillip mirrored me. “Look, I really enjoyed talking to you and I’d love to do it again sometime.”
I blinked at him and realized where he was leading. I also thought it was kind of cute that an articulate attorney had difficulty asking me out on a date.
“I enjoyed talking to you too, Phillip,” I replied.
He stepped closer. “Are you free for drinks tomorrow after work?”
Again, he asked me a question instead of demanding that I go out with him, which I liked. I nodded. “We could meet in the lobby at five-thirty. I know a place that has great Happy Hour cocktails and serves tapas.”
He grinned and the way his light blue eyes sparkled drew my attention. They were pretty but not as striking as the indigo blue eyes I’d stared into over a week ago. I cut that train of thought off ruthlessly. I’d wallowed for ten days and now a handsome, nice, and successful man was asking me out on a date. I intended to go and have some fun. So what if his hand hadn’t given me tingles earlier? Maybe those would come with time.
“That sounds perfect,” he replied. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a business card case. Quickly, he pulled out a card and flipped it over. Then he removed a pen from his laptop bag and scribbled something on the back. “Here’s my cell number, just in case you need it.”
I took the card and returned his smile. “It was nice to meet you, Phillip. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”
“Bye, Chelsea,” he said.
As I walked toward the elevators, my coffee cup in hand, I tucked his card into my phone case. When I entered the elevator and turned around, I saw him standing where I’d left him, watching me. Then he winked and I grinned.
No, he might not give me the tingles but he was definitely a charmer.
