He laughed. “The day they moved me to supervisor. Don’t tell me you miss it.”
“I kind of do. It was fun.”
“It was demeaning. There are better ways to motivate people, like individual compliments and encouragement. I just think sometimes small gestures mean more, you know?”
His blue eyes stared into hers and all she could do was nod. Was Allen her mystery man? He was a few years older than her, but not bad-looking. The line moved up, and she quickly ordered her usual. While Allen was ordering his sandwich, she checked his left hand for a ring, but there wasn’t one.
“So, how is typesetting?” he asked.
“It’s a slower pace. The day definitely feels longer when you’re not fielding calls for eight hours.”
“Here, let me get yours too. For old times’ sake.” He pulled out his credit card and paid for both their lunches. They walked back to the AutoBest building together and Allen nudged her shoulder. “I’d love to sit and eat with you, but I have to get inside for a lunch meeting. We should really catch up sometime though.”
“Thanks for lunch.” She waved goodbye and claimed an empty bench under a mesquite tree. She was soon joined by Rex and Paulo, friends of Dean who worked with him in billing. Hardly anyone used the dingy breakrooms inside unless the summer temperatures drove them to it.
Rex leaned over, quickly chewing his bite of burger. “You should have come with us last night, Ashley. Dean asked you, right?”
Paulo elbowed him, looking embarrassed. “Leave her be.”
“What?” Rex asked. “We all meet as friends. Dean said that right? That it’s just a group of friends?”
“Yeah, I think he said that.” She’d never understood why Paulo and Rex were such good friends. They were so different. Paulo, cautious and serious, and Rex, spouting off whatever came to mind.
Either of them could be her secret admirer, though if she had to guess, Paulo was more likely to take the subtle approach. She asked Paulo about his teriyaki bowl, just to have something to say to him.
He gave a shrug. “It’s okay. A little pricey for what you get. My girlfriend raves about the place.”
So not Paulo. Ashley adjusted the bread trying to slide off her sandwich and berated herself for worrying about the secret admirer thing so much. She’d never even given Paulo a second look before.
“My last girlfriend wouldn’t eat fast food.” Rex waved his restaurant paper bag at them. “Not Burger King or Wendy’s or any of them. It was the hardest three weeks of my life. After we broke up, I drove straight to Taco Bell and ordered a Mexican Pizza.”
Paulo patted him on the shoulder. “That’s rough, man.” He threw Ashley an amused glance and she had to look away so she wouldn’t laugh.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Rex asked her, crumpling up his empty burger wrapper. “I’m not asking for anyone specifically, I was just wondering. Like, are you serious with someone right now?”
Paulo gave Rex a shove. “Stop it. She’s trying to eat her lunch.”
“What?” Rex held up his hands in innocence. “I’m just making conversation. You should try it sometime.”
Ashley hid a smile. “Nope. No boyfriend.” She took a last bite of her sandwich and threw it in a nearby trash before Rex could interrogate her further. “See you guys later.”
Yolanda linked arms with her as they were about to enter the building at the same time. “Why were you eating with Rex? You know he talks about you all the time. It’s embarrassing how much. It started up after Geneva quit. His ginormous crush on her transferred over to you.”
“I’m not sure whether to be flattered or offended by that.”
Yolanda shook her head. “Forget about him. Did you see Chase today? I had no idea he had that kind of hotness potential under all that nerd.”
Normally, she found Yolanda’s gossip amusing, but hearing her talk about Chase brought out Ashley’s protective side. Chase was not a nerd, just a guy too busy to care about what he looked like. She would not be revealing her role in helping him overcome that. Although, the haircut must have happened later.
They passed his desk, and Yolanda let out a low whistle, making him immediately flush red. He caught Ashley’s eye and shook his head, clearly not sure what to do with the extra attention he was attracting.
Chase had more than potential. He was straight up gorgeous. And the fact that he was totally unaware of it only added to it. She reminded herself that he had a girlfriend, and she had a secret admirer. That’s right, maybe he’d left something at her desk again. Wow, was she pathetic to be this excited about it.
She and Yolanda parted ways, and Ashley began her mental list of possible secret admirers again, adding Dean, Rex, and Allen to it, and taking off Paulo. When she got back to her desk, there was an answer under her plea for a name.No, love.
***
Flynn was supposed to be helping Chase come up with another article, but instead, he was keeping both of them from working on anything else.
