Matty was on a breakfast date.
It wasn’t so much that I minded seeing him on a date. Matty could do whatever the hell he felt like. If that meant that the easiest way to get over me was to start dating again, I harbored no ill will toward how he chose to heal what had been broken between us. What I didn’t like was the fact that just witnessing it had stopped me dead in my tracks.
The man with Matty was pretty handsome, a tall blond that looked best suited for the folds of a GQ magazine. My immobilization only started to wear off when Matty happened to glance in my direction, our eyes meeting from across the street. For a second, Matty appeared to be horrified over the fact that I’d just so happened to stumble across his latest conquest, but it was quickly replaced by a smirk I knew all too well.
He was reveling in the fact that I was there, watching.
Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, I stormed off, unsure of exactly what feeling I was thriving in as I marched my way closer to the office.
I truly wasn’t mad, but was I jealous? Sure, it was weird that Matty was on a date with someone other than me, but I didn’t wish I was the tall blond. I’d yearned to be free of Matty for years, for many complex and detailed reasons that went beyond a simple breakup. We’d been drifting apart for years without either of us noticing, too afraid of stirring the boat of our relationship to see what was painfully obvious. So was it just the fact that I’d been caught off guard be seeing Matty that had made me stop?
After a few beats thinking more on it as I entered our building, I decided that’s exactly what it was. While it did sting that not much time had passed since our divorce, I wanted Matty to be happy, whatever form it was that that needed to take. Plus, itwas hard to be jealous when I still had the memory of what the cute bartender had tasted like last night chiseled into my brain.
Maxim was there to meet me at his desk, holding up another coffee for me to take just as I finished the one in my hand. He truly was gunning for assistant of the year.
“God, you’re the best.” I said, tossing my empty coffee in the little trash can next to his desk and gratefully taking the coffee he offered me. “How’s the attendance this morning?”
“Only two aren’t here,” Maxim smiled. “Wrage called and said he wasn’t going to be able to make it. And Francyn said she’s just running really late.”
I smirked. Francyn and Wrage had snuck out of the karaoke room, mostly unnoticed by everyone except for me. Clearly, things had gone really well between them.
“Sounds good. Thanks, Max.”
“You got it, boss.”
Chuckling, I gestured with a nod toward the meeting room. “Let’s head in.”
Maxim followed me inside the board meeting room, and I saw no less than five pairs of sunglasses from people that were clearly bothered by the lights, thanks to their nursing hangovers. I guess that was one question answered.
“Good morning everyone,” I said cheerily as I made my way to my seat. Everyone had taken their exact same seats as yesterday, with only Francyn and Wrage’s seats left empty.
They all mumbled a collective half-hearted hello, confirming that everyone felt pretty much the same.
“Leave it to the person who’s idea it was tohavethe damn party at the bar to skip out on work the next day.” Ozmo sighed, not bothering to remove their hair from out of their face so their eyes could be seen, their hair working as their own shield from the buzzing fluorescents above.
“And where the hell is Wrage?” This was from Berthyll, an agitated look out of place on her bark-like face.
“He won’t be in this morning.” I smirked, opting to not out the assumed tryst between Francyn and Wrage that I’d spotted. Everyone was entitled to a little bit of privacy, even amongst fellow board members.
Pivoting to a different topic, I was just about to go over some talking points from the first meeting yesterday, but the door to the board room blew open so hard that the hinges were singing with deliberate force. Squeals dribbled into the room as someone who looked very much like Wrage stomped into the room like his mission was far from over.
No, it wasn’t Wrage. It was the brother. Again. The one I’d been endlessly fantasizing about whenever I had a free moment. Now that alcohol wasn’t controlling my basic motor functions, I was able to really take in his features and could really see how different he appeared from Wrage.
This petrylle was a little shorter, had a little less of the bodybuilder shape that his brother donned and more of a personal trainer vibe. Where Wrage had been bald, this creature had black hair that was buzzed close to his head. But the grey skin that looked like it was crafted out of the finest stone, the finger sized horns just above either side of his eyebrows and piercing sky blue eyes were identical.
“Excuse me,” I said, standing up from my seat and staring at him like he was insane. The rest of the members looked scared out of their minds at his intrusion. “Can I help you?”
He scanned the room, going over the faces before him, ending with a glance in my direction. “My brother isn’t here?”
Why the hell he was on this much of a warpath in regards to his brother’s schedule, I wasn’t sure. But I knew that this wasn’t how I wanted this meeting to go, especially with a room full of Orbs nursing hangovers. I slid over to him and guided him out of the meeting room doors that looked like they could use a good straightening to be back in working condition.
“Perhaps we can talk outside for a minute.” I told him,closing the doors behind us and sighing when they didn’t fully close. Gesturing to my office, I added, “Here, we can talk in my office.”
Bypassing Maxim’s desk, we sauntered into my office. I made sure to leave the door open, in case he decided he wanted to let out his anger on me. If it was in a sexual way, I might’ve been into it, but given his abrupt entry into the boardroom, I didn’t think things would progress that way.
“Wrage called in sick,” I managed to elevate my voice higher than a whisper. Seeing his chest rise and fall in heavy succession from underneath his neon pink crop top was doing things to me. “What’s your name?”
“Wrex,”Rex, just like the human name. He said it so fast that I barely had time to attach it to the naughty things we’d been doing in my head since I’d first interacted with him at the bar. “I should have mentioned that at the bar last night, I apologize.”
