“Hi,” she said. “Where is my guy?”
“He’s meeting with the contractors down the hall with Chase. It’s been a while. Not sure if there’s a problem, so I hope they’re done soon.”
Just then, the two Parker boys came walking up together. Gage went straight to his pretty blonde girlfriend, picking her up in a bear hug.
Chase was busy on his phone, sending an email or something. Very preoccupied.
“Come inside for a minute, Chase and I have to discuss one more thing,” Gage said as he pulled her into his office with him.
As they all disappeared into the office, I heard a text come through on my phone.
Garrett: Want to go out again soon
Maybe this was the distraction I needed. To get my mind off a certain someone. The fact that he wanted to see me after going to a work function was a good sign. And I loved that this time he was initiating it.
Me: Hey, I’d love that, what did you have in mind
Garrett: Dinner or a movie Friday night?
Me: Sounds great, we can figure it out
Gage’s door opened. I was never comfortable using my phone during work time. But it was too late, Gage saw me.
“I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again,” I told him as I placed my phone in my desk drawer.
Gage stared at me in disbelief as the others walked out behind him.
“Two things are wrong with that statement,” he said and smirked at me. “The first one, you know better. I’m not him. The second, are you saying you think I’d be mad at you for being on your phone?”
Chase was at his side, invested in our conversation.
“Wait, who’s ‘him’?” Chase asked.
Gage turned toward his brother. “Dad used to have Maryellen call him ‘sir,’ she’s still having a hard time breaking the habit.”
Chase frowned at his brother’s words.
“Back to your phone, Maryellen. Do I really make you feel like you can’t be on it while you’re here? I hope not,” Gage said.
“Seriously,” Harper chimed in. “That would be tyrannical. You better not be like that with your employees, Gage.”
Gage’s hands went up in self-defense. “Hey, I’m not, I swear. At least I didn’t think I ever gave her that impression.” His worried look, complete with furrowed brow, bounced between Harper and me.
I felt bad for him.
Then all six eyes were on me. I didn’t care for that. My thoughts jumbled inside my head, knowing I had to say something, but what? I couldn’t tell them the real reason I was the way I was. The reason I stuck to the rules in almost every aspect of my life.
So, I stuck with my good ole standby.
“Oh, no, of course not, Gage. It’s habit. Your dad was quite old school, you know that, and I’m just a rule follower.”
I found myself fiddling with a loose string hanging from the bottom of my sweater and became consumed with wanting to fix it. All I wanted was for everyone to leave so I could take my mini sewing kit from my drawer and repair my sweater to make it perfect again.
Harper came to my rescue.
“Jeez, guys, we need to cut Maryellen some slack. It must be hard for her to be bounced around the Parker guys the way she has.” She made eye contact with me and offered a soft smile. “As long as this guy is treating you right.” She pulled on Gage’s arm as she said it and pulled him back toward his office.
That left Chase.
