I froze to the spot, not even wiping the coffee off my hand as it dripped to the floor. The blood rushed to my ears.No way. It’s not possible. A lot of men have deep voices.But notthatvoice. I slid my eyes up and met the steely gaze of Mr. Asshole. What was the chance of that? This day was quickly turning out to be one of my worst ones.
Exasperated, I grabbed a stack of napkins off the counter and tried in vain to salvage my new blouse. “Protocol is that you stand a few feet away from the person ahead of you in line. You don’t stand on top of them. You made me ruin my blouse.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Imade you? I’d say your awkwardness is the culprit.” Blowing out an exaggerated sigh, I threw my cup of coffee in the trash can. “Let me buy you another one.”
“No. I have to go.” I ran my eyes over his navy-blue suit and didn’t see any remnants of my coffee. I shook my head and turned to leave when he caught me by the elbow. A tingle shot through my arm. What was it with him? The few times we’d inadvertently touched, my body did weird stuff. Okay, he was good-looking, and the way his gray eyes resembled storms gathering over the Pacific was totally sexy, but this was Mr. Asshole. And I had to keep reminding myself of that.
“You’re pretty cute when you’re mad. I noticed it last night.”
“And you’re still a jerk. I guess some things never change.” I pulled away from him and rushed over to catch the elevator before it closed. Staring at my refection in the gold-toned door, I looked a mess. The dark stain covered most of the front and sleeve of my blouse.This is going to be a long day.
“Don’t ask,” I said as I made my way to my office, Sofie following me in. Even the awesome view of the bay—I totally lucked out in getting this office—didn’t do squat to alleviate my mood.
Pointing to my ruined top, she said, “Isn’t that the overpriced blouse you just bought a few days ago?” I groaned and nodded. “Wow, what happened?”
“A jerk happened. He was standing so close to me that when I turned to leave, I slammed into him. Who stands that close?”
“Was he at least cute? Remember Maya in Accounting? That’s how she met her husband last year. She bumped into him at Brewing Cup.”
“Believe me, there’s no way I’d ever hook up with this guy. He’s a total womanizer, and he’s so full of himself. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women. And the smartass look on his face is infuriating.”
“You got all that just from bumping into him? He must’ve been drool-worthy.”
“It’s a long story,” I said as I rummaged through my desk, trying to find a file.
“I wish I had an extra blouse I could loan you.”
“It’ll be all right. I don’t have any meetings today.”
Before Sofie could reply, our senior vice president, Mr. Barnaby’s, voice crackled over the intercom. “All department heads please come to the conference room on the forty-second floor.”
My stomach sank and the throbbing headache I’d had since I woke up pounded relentlessly against my temples. With the whole coffee incident, I forgot that the new CEO took the helm today, and I was going to meet him with coffee covering my blouse.Can this day get any worse?
I rode the elevator up the three flights and went into the conference room. It was full, so I leaned against the windowsill and glanced down at the ropes of cars and people on California Street.
“I’m not an expert in many of the aspects of Velocity, so I hope you will be open to me when I ask questions….”
That voice again. It can’t be. No.I averted my gaze from the street scene to the front of the room, where Mr. Jerkface stood tall and confident in his navy-blue suit that didn’t show a drop of coffee. I slinked down, hoping he wouldn’t see me amid the sea of people, but he did. His eyes locked on me and I felt pulled into their depths. For less than a second, the room was quiet, and then he continued with his speech.
My cheeks burned and I folded my arms over my chest.
My new boss was Trace Prescott, the man I chewed out the night before and spilled coffee on that morning.
The day definitely got a whole lot worse.
