She paused for too long. That was never good when it came to Sofia Austin.
“So-fi-a,” I growled, elongating her name.
“Gotta go. Naptime.” And with that, she hung up. I didn’t have the time to be worried about whatever was going on in that head of hers. A moment later, she texted me.
Sofia:BTW. Saw Niko’s picture on the website. Can you say Turkish delight??
Me:I’m saving this to show Luke
Sofia: Won’t matter. Man is smitten with me
Me:Yeah, cuz he likes older women
Sofia:Rude
I snorted and slid my phone in my pocket. She was only a few years older than Luke, but I loved to tease her about robbing the cradle.
Plopping myself back down in my chair, I swung it side to side, trying to order my thoughts so I could get back to my busy day.
From nowhere, that memory of Niko saying,‘As you wish’infiltrated my traitorous brain again, as if once wasn’t enough. There was no stopping the full-body shiver that followed. I still didn’t know how he could possibly have remembered that line from my favorite movie. It had been ten years, for crying out loud.
I closed my eyes and pictured Niko with a black mask across his face and one tied around his head, saying those words on a hillside. A Turkish pirate. Nowthatwould be interesting. I was all but sighing and ready to fan my face when someone knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I yelled, expecting Jaz.
Niko, in all his black, pinstriped, three-piece Armani glory, tentatively opened the door and stood stiffly in the doorway. Wow, he looked amazing in black. Great, I’d manifested the dread pirate Roberts himself.
Get a hold of yourself, woman.
“Oh, um. What can I do for you?” I asked gruffly.
I stood up and almost slipped on the pen I’d sent flying earlier, but caught myself on the desk before making a complete fool of myself.
“Are you all right? You look a little flushed,” he said, walking toward me, eyes wide.
I held my hand up to stop him, which he did, mid-stride. He nodded and backed away, getting the message.
“I’m fine. What can I do for you?” I asked, taking my time and making sure my chair didn’t slide out from under me.I looked up at him, hoping to maintain some semblance of control.
“Well, it’s been a week since I started, and I wanted to know if you wanted to do an evaluation.” His posture was straight as a pin, his hands clasped together in front of him like a shield awaiting my verbal onslaught.
“An evaluation? Ofwhat?”
He looked around, confusion coloring his face as his brows lowered. “Of, of me.”
“After a week?” I croaked out. Was he kidding? He needed to leave so I could splash cold water on my reddening face.
“Well, yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your employee handbook for the department heads, which I appreciated reading, said you usually conduct them after six weeks. But by then, anything I’m doing wrong is already a habit. That’s what my research says. So I thought I’d ask now so I didn’t, you know, pick up any bad habits.”
He delivered his monologue so deadpanned that I thought he might be joking. Memories of his dry humor filtered in, but I pushed them aside as I tried to figure out what to say.
I was due in a meeting in about twenty minutes, but he had knocked me off my axis with this silly request. I should’ve given him a hard time, but instead I did the dumbest thing ever.
“Why did you have people call you Nick in school?” I blurted out, like the loose-lipped moron I was. Must’ve been the pirate thing. The question had been ready to slip out whenever I was around him. It was just so strange for a grown man to have changed his name like that, and to my chagrin, it bothered me.
