“Ryan and Mike like to think they beat me here every meeting, but obviously, we know they don’t.” He turned to the white board and made a tiny mark in the upper right-hand corner. Squinting, I could see a chart with the names of all the owners and tally marks below. Duke made a notch under his name proudly.
He was sitting down in a seat next to mine when Mike and Ryan came barreling into the room, red-faced and panting.
Mike pointed at Duke. “You!”
Duke’s face was a mask of innocence.
“Yes?”
“You locked us in the men’s bathroom.”
He sat back down, rubbing at an invisible spot on his shirt, as though bored. “Why in the world would I do that?”
Ryan looked at all of us, asking, “Did he mark it?” before whirling toward the tally marks.
“How many did he have yesterday?”
“It could NOT have been that many,” Mike said.
“Should we start the meeting?” Duke asked innocently, smiling at all of us at the end of the table. No one seemed to have any trouble smiling back at him.
“Remind me not to go into business with my friends next time,” Ryan quipped. He and Mike slammed into Duke’s shoulder good-naturedly as they slunk into their seats, bragging about finding a way out of the locked bathroom door.
Once the meeting started the trio was all business. First, Duke dumped a handful of swag onto the table. Everything from backpacks and t-shirts to mirror compacts, chapstick, pens, and water bottles, all made with the RDM logo.
“You guys are welcome to grab anything you want,” Duke said. “We bought some of this stuff to hand out at conferences, but we’re going to make a couple changes to our logo before the next event, so these will be out of date soon.”
The big items were snatched up quickly, but I snagged a t-shirt probably two sizes too big and some chapstick.
Duke began the meeting with a speech about how thankful they were to have us all here. While he spoke, I opened my new chapstick and slowly applied it to my lips, low-key impressed at the quality. It glided on smooth. I pressed my lips together before applying another coat.
“Anyway…we’ve really appreciated the, uh…the… Um. We’ve really appreciated the…”
I looked up at Duke as he stalled in his speech and was startled to see his eyes trained on me. As was the rest of the group, looking from Duke to me in confusion. He blinked and looked away, though he still couldn’t seem to get his focus together.
“Sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I lost my train of… We really appreciate the…uh…”
“Help,” Mike supplied, flitting his gaze toward me while hiding a sardonic smile behind his hand.
“Help. There we go. You interns have been invaluable to us. So thank you.”
I looked at Duke. Then to Mike and Ryan, both trying not to laugh and glancing at me from the corner of their eyes. To Anita, furiously applying chapstick on her lips. Was that…was that about me? Was Duke flustered because of—
Duke quickly ended his speech and passed the rest of the time over to Ryan before returning to his seat next to me. He settled in, leaning back in his chair. Though my cheeks were warm and my hands suddenly felt like two left feet, I had to address this. It wasn’t often that I had the upper hand with Duke and I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. I waited until I made sure the focus of the group was solely on Ryan before I dared a glance his way. Out of reflex, he met my gaze, taking in my expectant raised eyebrows before he shook his head slightly and looked away, fighting an embarrassed smile.
While Ryan continued on, it was my turn to fight focus. Duke seemed to be coming back to himself. For that matter, was Duke somehow closer than before? Our chairs suddenly seemed mere inches apart when, before, it had been at least a foot. Unless I imagined it all. He had to have noticed that I was staring at him since I wasn’t the slightest bit discreet, but other than the tiniest twitch of his mouth, he kept his gaze intently focused on Ryan.
Heat from his shoulder at my left arm had me biting my lip even as my heart rate spiked. I wasn’t completely crazy. The chairs were definitely getting closer together.
While Ryan continued on, I fought to focus. The enticing odor of Duke’s cologne caused my mind to swirl. I really needed to pay attention. This was a meeting for the interns. It was MY meeting. Just because Duke was sitting next to me, didn’t mean I had to freak out. It was fine. We were friends. He was my boss.
My arm fell off the armrest.
No. It was pushed.
As much as I tried to school it, my lips took on a life of their own. I bowed my head, trying to hide my reaction as Duke brought out an entire Pandora’s box worth of emotions with this one action–emotions I had tried very hard to keep at bay. The warm memory of the night of the kiss cam had taken weeks to fully dim. Maybe years. And apparently, it hadn’t ever gone away. When I made certain nobody was looking our way, I reclaimed my dominance over the armrest.
Duke relented and leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table as I watched him hide his own smile with his hand. My heart burned with a rush of excitement. We needed to stop.Heneeded to stop.
