Blade
“My normal routine is to set my alarm for two hours before I have to get up for work then continuously hit snooze for an hour and a half then rush out the door and put my makeup on in the train,” Avery said when I walked into the kitchen from doing my cardio workout. “This is actually really nice, waking up and leisurely drinking coffee.”
I hazarded a glance into her cup. “That looks like mainly sugar and milk.”
She slurped from the mug. “There’s hot chocolate mix in here too.”
“How?” I exclaimed.
“I brought my own,” she said. She was already dressed for work, in a high-waisted pencil skirt with a slit up the side. She crossed her legs, and I turned my head.
“My brothers want to have a meeting about the Harris & Schultz contract,” I told her.
“I don’t know if I can take your brothers today.”
“If I have to deal with them, you have to too,” I said.
* * *
Though I didlike to drive, I usually took the train to the office in the morning. Traffic was terrible in the city.
“I cannot wait until our company moves to Harrogate,” I grumbled as Avery followed me down the stairs into the subway station.
“You mean you don’t want to dodge pigeons and trash on your way to work in the morning?” she asked dryly. “Though at least if you’re going to work with me, I won’t get hit on by perverts.”
I had been on edge since last night, and this set me right off.
“Who is harassing you?” I snarled. Several of the people on the platform turned to look at us.
Avery gave them a pained smile and grabbed the lapel of my jacket. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Now that you’re here, no one’s going to say anything.”
I forced myself to calm down. I didn’t want to be like my father, causing the people around him to live in fear.
“The only thing I’m concerned about,” I told her, “is that your rabbit is loose in my apartment.”
“He chews if you lock him up. He’s a free spirit,” she said.
The train ride to work was, thankfully, short, though my brothers were already texting me, wondering where I was.
“I’m seriously jealous,” Avery complained as we walked into the office. “No changing trains; we only traveled only a few stops. All the people on the route are well dressed. No one had a python in their hoodie.”
The morning chatter in the office trailed off as Avery and I walked in together.
“I’ll have water and coffee brought into your morning meeting, Mr. Svensson,” Avery said loudly and hurried in front of me to her desk.
“People are going to find out sooner or later,” I muttered to her when I caught up to her.
“I guess.”
What was it? Was she ashamed people were going to think she had manipulated me into falling in love with her? I supposed that was the cliché, but there would be no mercy. Avery would need to get over her hurt feelings. I had a contract to win and a watch to add to my collection.
Greg was at the head of the conference table when I walked in. I strode over, pulled the drone out of my bag, and slammed it onto the table in front of him. My older half brother didn’t even flinch.
“It’s a bit early for the dramatics,” he drawled.
“You—one of you or all of you—are trying to spy on me,” I said, glaring around the table at my brothers.
Weston’s face was unreadable. Was he still mad about my text message from last night? That was why I preferred to do things in person: less opportunity for misunderstanding.
