I didn’t know, but I needed my sister. I called her and begged her to meet me for lunch. She readily agreed. She tried to get me to tell her what was wrong over the phone, but I told her I couldn’t talk about it. I bided my time until noon, and then I rushed out of my office. I couldn’t help but notice the two lovebirds together in the conference room looking at a monitor.
Mr. Greyson called out my name as I passed by.
“I’m late for an appointment.” I didn’t even stop, or pass go, I just hurried down the stairs.
I drove like I was auditioning forThe Fast and the Furiousto Amanda’s and my favorite little deli down by the river walk. The entire drive over, all I could see was Alexa’s face. Sure, her makeup was way over done, but she was attractive, and she obviously fit his type, except she didn’t have bluish eyes, they were more hazel. She reminded me a lot of how his ex-wife looked. I had to say, I was perplexed in his choice of women. They didn’t seem to fit him, but why should I even care? He was only my boss.
“I hate my boss.” Those were the first words out of my mouth when I sat down at our favorite booth in Carl’s Deli.
Amanda started to smile, but then I think she realized I was serious. “What happened?” she asked.
I rested my head on what I hoped was a clean table. “Alexa Manselle, that’s what happened.”
Amanda stroked my hair. “Who’s Alexa Manselle?”
“Mr. Greyson’s vixen who he hired to redo all of my graphics for my software and who knows what else.”
“So, he has a girlfriend?” She sounded so surprised.
“I told you there was a woman, and it wasn’t me.” I sat up. “And now Mr. Professional Boundaries has brought her into my office, and she’s prancing around like she owns the place, and she can’t keep her hands off him. It’s absolutely disgusting. Oh . . . and to top it off, she’s a horrible designer. But I guess when you’re sleeping with the boss, it doesn’t matter.”
She grabbed my hands and cracked a smile. “You wouldn’t be jealous, would you?”
“Of course not. I wasn’t planning on sleeping with him.” That was kind of my dirty—or maybe angelic secret. Not even Amanda knew that I was still, you know, a virgin. I think she just assumed I wasn’t, because really who was anymore? At least, not a lot of people my age. It wasn’t like I planned on being the only thirty something around to never have had sex, but here I was. I wasn’t ashamed. There was nothing wrong with waiting for someone you loved and were undeniably and irrevocably committed to. I had seriously planned on that happening a long time ago. It was actually something that bothered Ian. He hadn’t care that I was a virgin. In fact, he admired it, but he was afraid of stripping me of my innocence, as he called it. He made sure to never cross the line with me. It was weird how he’d been the only man I’d ever imagined giving the honor to. The only man I’d dated that I could see myself married to. That’s how much I had loved him. But that was a long time ago.
“Honey, I know you’re smart enough not to sleep with your boss,” she interrupted my thoughts, “unless, you know—”
“Unless what?”
She paused. “Never mind. What I meant was, do you wish you were his girlfriend?”
“How many times do we have to go through this? No! It’s just, I thought maybe things were going to be okay between us.” I divulged the details of my two weeks of phone calls with Mr. Greyson.
She couldn’t smile wide enough at the news. “And you’re sure this woman is his girlfriend?”
“Yes.” I threw my hands in the air. “It all makes sense. He said he had personal matters to take care of in Colorado, and he told me he had mixed business with pleasure at his own company, and guess what, she worked for him at IAG, and now she’s here, and he’s calling her by her first name, and she literally can’t keep her hands off him.”
She leaned back in the booth and folded her arms. “Well, that’s surprising. I guess Zane and I were wrong.”
“Thank you,” I said smugly. “And you know what the worst part is?”
She waited patiently for me to answer.
“I redesigned the interface and was planning on showing him today when he got back. I think it was my best work, and now it was for nothing.”
“You should still show him,” she suggested.
“No. He didn’t want me working on it anyway.”
“I’m sorry.”
I was sorry too.
We spent the rest of our lunch talking about their upcoming vacation. She followed me back to my office because she wanted to see Alexa Manselle for herself. Since it wasn’t unusual for my sister to visit me at the office, I agreed to let her come up and take a peek. This way, she could see for herself that she and Zane were wrong. I hoped this meant they would, once and for all, quit implying that Mr. Greyson and I were supposed to end up together.
I stopped her on the landing on our way upstairs. “Don’t say anything to embarrass me,” I whispered.
She smacked my arm playfully. “Oh, Kelli Jelly, I would never.”
