“Well, there are reasons for people to target Ridley, but… yeah,” Ace said, tilting his head.“Why?”
The cogs in my head were whirring at full speed.“Mr.Harvey asked me to look into threats or disgruntlement against Ridley,” I said, grabbing my mouse and opening up my email inbox.I needed to amend the request I’d made to IT.“If this is against him or you, that changes everything.”
“You can call him Oliver,” Ace said slyly.“Especially when he’s not here.”
I gave him a horrified look, and Ace burst into laughter again.
“Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves,” Mr.Harvey said from the doorway.He stormed in and took his seat again.Clearly, whatever he’d needed to discuss with Caleb Coleman, it hadn’t gone well.“Have you found our package dropper?”
Ace wordlessly handed him the printout and Mr.Harvey swore viciously.
“See?”Ace said triumphantly to me.“No need to mind your language in this office.”
“Stop corrupting my new secretary,” Mr.Harvey growled.He put the printout aside and set his jaw.“We’re going to be here late.Let’s order takeout.”
“Something from that Chinese place around the corner?”Ace suggested.Mr.Harvey just nodded, turning his attention back to the contract pages as if they were going to reveal the answer to everything.Ace gestured towards my computer.“You should find the company account on your system.We order from them a lot.I think Helen or whoever was here before her made some kind of file with everyone’s usual orders on it.”
I had seen something that caught my eye before – a file on the desktop marked ‘Golden Dragon orders’.That must have been it.“I’ll order both of your usuals?”
“And whatever you want,” Mr.Harvey said without looking up.
So, I was going to stay and eat with them.I should have figured that, given that we were all here for as long as it took, and Mr.Harvey had made it clear that he wanted me to leave the office only when he did.But, still, the idea of eating with him sent a strange thrill up my spine.It was… strangely intimate, for a boss and an employee to share a meal.Not out of the ordinary, surely, but still.
I needed to get a grip.
He was hot, yes, but hewasmy boss.A boss, I had to remind myself, I kept trying to secretly film.I’d turned my camera off in a panic earlier, but I still had all intentions of capturing something here.It was probably a bad idea to get closer to someone I was already planning to betray.
Even if he’d wanted me to get closer in the first place.
Because for him, I was just his – probably slightly nerdy – employee.Or, really nerdy, if I was being honest with myself.Offering to eat with me was practical, not an act of friendship or anything else.And even below all that: Ace was the gay one, not Mr.Harvey.It was just a shame Ace wasn’t my type at all.
Or not a shame, since, again, I was supposed to be focusing on my job.
That I’d had fortwo days.
Jesus, I needed to get a grip.
I rang through to the takeout place, keeping my voice low so as not to disturb the urgent conversation Ace and Mr.Harvey were having.By the time I finished and hung up the call, Ace was leaning back in his chair, running his hands through his shoulder-length black hair and letting his head hang over the edge.He looked like the picture of a bored, frustrated kid.
“Ugh,” he said, giving voice to my internal image of him, and I had to hold back a smile.“This sucks!I wish we could just figure out who it was and move on already.”
Mr.Harvey gave an impatient sigh.“Go wait in the lobby for the takeout,” he told him.“Stretch your legs instead of your mouth.”
Ace got up gladly, almost sprinting for the door.
I wished he hadn’t gone.
“So,” Mr.Harvey said, turning his full and impressive attention on me again.“What was that miscreant telling you?”
“Oh!”I laughed awkwardly.“It was nothing.Um, I just swore out loud, and then I apologized and he told me not to.”
“Hmm.”Mr.Harvey stared at me for a long moment as if he wasn’t sure I was telling the truth.
“I know it’s stupid, we’re all adults here,” I said with another half-laugh.Something about the way he stared at me made me want to fill the silence.Unfortunately, I had nothing to fill it with but awkward and meaningless babbling.“And it’s not like I haven’t heard you swear before!”
Mr.Harvey’s face changed instantly, and I regretted opening my mouth.He looked…
Sheepish?Guilty?Whatever it was, it looked absolutely alien on his face.
