Five
Sorcha stood in her new office with her hands on her hips. It was so…
Plain. Icky?
Hard to tolerate?
Definitely.
Four boring beige walls. A white erase board with the word “asshole” written in permanent red ink. An awful green metal desk the likes of which she had never seen outside of old movies. A cheap rolling chair and two tan, metal filing cabinets that held enough rust on them that she was sure she’d get tetanus just from opening a drawer.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Someone knocked on her door.
Depressed over the nightmare that would be this office, she went to open her door only to find a sexy Luke on the other side, holding some kind of green potted plant and a cup of coffee. He flashed that gorgeous grin at her. “Morning, new partner.”
“Thought you weren’t a morning person.”
“Oh, I am not. Don’t let this act fool you. I’m pretending to be human for your sensibilities ’cause I don’t want to scare you off on your second day.” He looked past her to the whiteboard. “Oh, I forgot about that.”
Luke walked into her office so that he could put the plant and coffee on her desk. He snapped his fingers and the word “asshole” vanished.
“Should I ask?”
Again, that adorable grin. “About the word or the snapping?”
“Both.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Rob was a douche. Couldn’t stand the bastard. Asshole was a step up from what I normally called him—and is a body part that wouldn’t offend Reyes’s more delicate sensibilities and force her to get an HR department. I had no idea that when the word scribbled itself across the board one night while he was working late that it would mentally break him. Had I known that, I’d have done it a lot sooner.” He laughed. “You should have seen him running through the yard, screaming he was being stalked and haunted.”
“By you?”
“Who knows? Like I said, he was a paranoid douche who made me sick to my stomach. I can’t stand a…” He grinned as he caught whatever profane insult he’d almost said.
She watched as the words “good morning, beautiful” drew themselves on the board. “That’s better.”
Yes, it was.
The plant floated over to the filing cabinets, then set itself down.
Luke screwed up his face. “It is shit in here, isn’t it?”
“I’ve worked in worse.”
“Really?” Running his thumb along his bottom lip, he shook his head. “Want to peek into my office? Get some decorating ideas?”
“Sure.” She’d see it sooner or later. Might as well stick her head into the devil’s den and get it over with.
He led her to the office next door to hers. The first thing she noticed was that he didn’t need a key. He simply waved his hand over the doorknob, and it opened. How she wished she had those evil mind powers, especially given how many times she locked herself out of her house.
One time, she’d even managed to do it while holding her keys in her hand. She still hadn’t figured out why the lock had broken, but it’d taken her hours to get back inside.
Locks hated her.
As Luke walked in and turned the light on, she laughed.
“Isn’t this just a little on the nose?” His office was a haunting thing to behold, and she just couldn’t believe it looked like this. “And seriously, how did you get all this stuff in here?”
