One of the developers who worked with Jackie looked up from her computer and met my gaze. She smiled, and I returned it.
I happened to know she and the other developers had worked until eight o’clock the other night when an app update issue had cropped up.
I’d thanked them, but I suddenly felt the desire to do something more. Instead of sitting in my office, trying not to miss Grant, or flipping through every possible scenario for why he hadn’t come in yet, I could go get a little treat for my employees.
I discarded the idea of Dawson’s—seeing Jill wouldnothelp me at the moment—and decided to get cookies instead. Cookies were delicious. Everyone liked cookies. I could’ve ordered them to be delivered, but I needed the excursion.
I took the elevator down to the parking lot, and the doors opened to reveal Grant.
He stepped in, and I was so stunned that I didn’t register when the doors closed. We were on our way back up.
“I was supposed to get out at the parking lot,” I said, pressing the button for it.
“But you didn’t.”
“You took me by surprise.”
“I hope I always will.”
I looked at him, wondering where he’d been. “Most of my employees come in at 8 o’clock, not”—I glanced at my watch—“11:45.”
“I’m not one of your employees.”
The doors opened, and Jenna looked up from the reception desk.
Grant waved, then pressed the button to close the doors.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Coming with you.”
“You don’t even know where I’m going,” I argued.
“Surprise me.”
My eye caught on the buttons at the top of his shirt. The ones he always left undone. They’d always bothered me. For a while, I’d thought it was because it was sloppy. But I realized two things now.
The undone buttons weren’t sloppy; they were relaxed, confident, and uncontained. They were Grant.
The second thing was the shift that had taken place. When I’d first seen those free-range buttons, I’d wanted to do them up—match them to the others. Now, I wanted to unbutton the rest.
Grant had told me he’d been fighting his feelings for me—fighting for his job and his life, he’d said.
I was in that exact place now, and I was losing. This wasn’t a buzzer-beater game, either. It was shaping up to be a blowout.
Grant glanced down at his shirt as if to see what I was looking at. His eyes flicked to me followed by a lopsided grin. “My eyes are up here, Vivian.” He did up the buttons as the door opened and—because what other person in all of the building would possibly require the elevator at this precise moment?—the woman from the law firm appeared.
She clocked Grant’s eyes on me and the fact that he was doing up his buttons, and her brows rose slightly as she stepped into the elevator.
Grant fastened the last button and made room for the woman by shifting so he was beside me.
The woman stood with the toes of her heels almost touching the doors, while Grant and I were at the back.
There was plenty of space for all three of us, but Grant’s entire arm pressed against mine. I shifted away, and he shifted toward me.
A floor down, the doors opened, and the woman stepped out.
The doors closed again, and we continued our descent toward the parking levels. Grant stayed right next to me.
