“Can’t complain,” one of the girls says—I think her name is Lucy. “Things have been pretty slow ever since Mr. Hurst took over. We’ve just been twiddling our thumbs, waiting for something to happen.”
I frown a little at this information. “Are we not selling as many properties?”
Lucy shrugs and looks at the girl sitting next to her. “It’s definitely declined.”
My lips pull down even further. Does Theo know about that or not? “I’ll have to look into that. It’s not like our agents haven’t been able to work since Theo took over.”
Lucy stirs her salad around in her bowl. “Who knows? Ijust work here. But like I said, you won’t see me complaining about less to do.”
My lips thin into a line, and I’m about to change the topic when I’m interrupted.
“Whitney,” a deep voice that I’ve grown increasingly fond of mutters behind me. I can sense a tinge of amusement in his tone that has my palms breaking out in a sweat.
I turn around to face Theo, who is watching me and the girls with an amused grin on his face. “Hi, Mr. Hurst.”
His eyebrow twitches at the formality, but he doesn’t object. He wouldn’t do so in front of his employees. “I thought we could debrief my phone call real quick before I have to run into my next meeting. Do you think you could come back upstairs in a few minutes?”
“Of course, I’ll be right up.”
He gives me a soft smile. “Thanks, Whit.”
I already know my cheeks are heating up, just like they did this morning when he called me that. My skin prickles with the awareness of the other girls watching the interaction closely. Theo holds my gaze just long enough for it to be uncomfortable before he walks out of the cafeteria.
“Geez, just ask him to fuck you already,” Lucy mutters under her breath, breaking me out of my spell as I watch him walk away.
I stare at her, slack-jawed, scandalized that she just said that. “Excuse me?”
“We all saw how he was looking at you,” she muttered, stabbing at her salad with her fork.
I frown at her as I gather up my things. “He’s my boss. Nothing more.”
Some of the other girls share unconvinced glances, but I don’t give them any more energy. I didn’t lie. Theoismy bossand nothing more. There hasn’t been anything further than a few awkward glances and a wink or two.
It doesn’t matter that I turn to complete mush when he winks at me or gives me his sideways grin.
Definitely not.
Lucy rolls her eyes and goes back to her meal with a little smirk playing on her lips. “Whatever you’ve got to tell yourself, Whitney. Trust me, I don’t think he’d be that opposed to it. Just be careful. I’d hate to see you get fired when you’ve worked here so many years over a stupid fling. Don’t be stupid about it.”
My face flames, and I can’t find it in myself to fire anything back. Instead, I simply walk away, letting her words play on repeat.
As I walk back to our office, I’m gripping my glass bottle of sparkling water so tightly that I think the cap is making a permanent indent in my palm. The elevator dings to our floor, and I step off, still grumbling to myself about what she said. It was ridiculous. And inappropriate.
I find Theo in his office, tapping furiously on his keyboard. He looks up when I enter and folds his arms over his desk, giving me an amused glare. “I hope I didn’t interrupt.”
I wave him off with the hand holding my bottle of sparkling water, but then everything goes wrong.
“Shit!” I exclaim when the bottle flies out of my hand and smashes into a million pieces on the floor.
Theo hops up from his seat and rounds the desk, coming over to view the mess. His hands shoot out to stop mine when I crouch down and reach to pick up a few pieces with my fingers. “Stop, you’ll cut yourself.”
I pull my hands away before he can touch me, but the movement causes me to fall back. I stagger in my heels, off balance, but then fall backwards until I’m sitting on his floor.I cover my face with my hands and shake my head. Embarrassment burns on my cheeks.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine, Whitney. It was an accident.” Theo’s baritone voice has taken on a more soothing tone as if he can tell that I’m overwhelmed and frustrated. “I’ll go find something to clean this up. Do we have a broom closet on this floor?”
I pull my hands away from my face and push myself into a standing position. “We do, but I can get it.”
