Chapter 4
"Sulk" is my middle name
Alex
Astack of paperwork sits on my desk, but I hate asking Amelia to walk down to the copy room and stand there for five minutes to make copies for me when she doesn’t feel well.
If she were any other personal assistant, I wouldn’t think twice about it. But she’s not. She’s Amelia.
I have to force myself not to think of her asmyAmelia.
I often fail. Luckily, I only fail in my head, not aloud. I want Amelia Sinclair to be mine. Hell, I want her to be Amelia Delgado. But there’s no way she feels the same way. She’s young and cheerful, and I’m her older, grumpy boss.
But I’m not as grumpy when she’s around. She’s the sunshine in my days. I’ve never looked forward to weekends because I like my work, but now I hate them because it means two days without her. Every now and then, I find a reason to call her on a Saturday or Sunday just to hear her voice.
I bet Amelia can’t wait for the weekends. She probably groans when she sees my name show up on her phone.
Silently begging my half-hard cock to calm the fuck down like I have to do every time she calls me Mr. Delgado, I try to focus on work-related issues.
“Did I hear something about time off?”
“Oh, yeah, I need to put it on the schedule.” She picks up her phone and checks a text message before pulling up thecalendar on her computer. “My bestie is getting married.” She shakes her head lightly as I walk the few feet to sit in the chair next to her desk.
“Is that a bad thing?” While we don’t talk about our personal lives a lot, I do hear her on the phone almost daily.
“It’s… I’m not sure how I feel about it, honestly.” She sighs heavily. “I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t expect her to settle down for a long time still. And he’s… I don’t know. He’s just not who I expected her to be with long-term.”
“Well, for the record, you would look lovely in any color bridesmaid dress.”
Her face turns that shade of pink I’m obsessed with. “Thanks, Alex. You’re wrong, but that’s sweet of you to say.”
“I’m never wrong,” I say with a smirk.
“Mmmhhmmm, sure. Who won the Super Bowl last week?”
I groan. Okay, I was wrong with my pick. Never bet against a woman with a winning fantasy football team.
She smiles and says, “I’ll have to wear something pink or red tomorrow to prove to you just how wrong you can be.”
“I look forward to it. I’mnotlooking forward to a week without you here. I don’t think I’ll make it. The whole place will fall apart.”
I’m only slightly exaggerating. Amelia picks up my dry cleaning and re-ties my ties when I fuck them up—sometimes more than once a day. She stops at the coffee shop downstairs for both of us on her way up every morning, and if she sneaks down a second time in the afternoon, she brings me more coffee or a tea. She orders my lunch daily, answers the phone and always knows who I actually need to talk to, sets my appointments, and deals with the majority of the emails that come in. She makes sure we have a supply of my favorite pens, notepads, and paperclips.
Sure, I can do most of those things myself for a week. Maybe. But she does so much more than that for me. She brings laughter into my life and makes me smile like no one else can. After a lifetime of seeking out solitude, I'm somehow never bothered by her presence. She's taken me by surprise with the way she brings out a part of me I've always hidden away. A part I've often forgotten existed.
She chuckles, that sweet sound I can’t get enough of. “You’ll be just fine. You made it through Christmas, didn’t you?”
“The office was closed for the week you were gone at Christmas, Amelia,” I remind her.
“And you ignored that fact and still came to work, Alex,” she says with an eye roll. Jesus, I love it when she’s sassy.
“And I had to text you at least once a day about something, so I clearly didnotdo well without you.” I texted her in hopes that she would call me back so I could hear her voice. And she did, in fact, call me every time, which helped keep me sane.
“Katie will send someone up here for the week, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
“A temp won’t be the same,” I grumble.
“Okay, enough sulking. I have work to do, and I’m assuming, as the big boss man around here, you do, too. If not, you’re being ridiculously overpaid.”
