Veda reached for the door handle mumbling, "I have to get back…" and when I reached for her hand, she dodged it. But I did manage to keep the door open.
"Veda," I called, and she paused three steps away from the car, turning back. "Are we gonna keep doing this? Sex, I mean? Because I'm not here if this is just sex. I think I want more…"
A flustered expression flitted across her face as her shoulders bobbed and she said, "We'll see…" But the grin on her face was priceless.
She owned me. Heart, soul, and most definitely body.
Veda Porter was my new addiction.
8
VEDA
My brain hurt. I'd been staring at the press release Jared gave me to go over for so long, my eyes were bugging out and I wasn't able to follow a single line across the page without using my finger to track it.
The words all melded together until they were mush on a page and my head physically throbbed in pain.
It was later than I was supposed to stay, but when the team of interns got ripped apart by the boss, someone had to double-check their work and make it right.
Jared did a decent job, but his commitment to this went as far as the time on the clock allowed it.
He wasn't here because it was something he was passionate about. I could tell this was just a pitstop on the way to wherever he was going.
But to me, it was a literal life preserver.
This job, babysitting gig or not, had the potential on my resume to make or break my career.
I could not keep living on random tips from men at a bar, flirting my way through life to make rent. I had dreams and goals, and I wanted to go somewhere.
So I sat here an hour after everyone else left work to proofread the entire thing again after fixing obvious mistakes.
I didn't even know who else was in the building with me except that I had a perfect view of Asher's office door from where I sat, and I hadn’t seen him leave.
What I did see, however, was when Clayton marched past in a huff and went straight into that room.
He didn't even have the decency to make sure the door was closed before tearing into Asher for what he called "mismanagement of funds".
Their voices had been raised for the past twenty minutes, and I tried hard not to listen in, but it was hard not to hear what they were saying.
The sibling rivalry pushed boundaries at times. I could see that in the work dynamic.
But this went beyond that.
It sounded like Asher had made a choice his board chairman disagreed with and beyond their utter distaste for each other, there was some hostility over how decisions were being made within the company.
Clayton was so angry, it made Asher's outbursts at me my first few days here seem like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.
I kept my head down and attempted to refocus my mind, but when Asher's door slammed shut, I sat straight up.
I couldn’t help myself. My eyes went directly to his door where Clayton had emerged with wide, red eyes and a snarl on his face.
He looked like a madman running out of an asylum or something, and I wanted to hide. It made me wish I'd have just slipped out and gone home while they were shouting, if for no other reason than to avoid an interaction with him when he was angry.
He scared me sometimes.
But he zeroed in on me the instant he saw me watching him and marched over to my desk in the corner of the communications unit. His tie was loosened, jacket draped over his arm, and he stalked like a beast prowling. I had nowhere to run or hide.
All I could do was sit and wait for him to attack, and I could see in his eyes that he had no intention of just walking right past me.
