“Okay.” He rose from the chair and pushed it back into place at the desk next to her. He seemed disappointed, and for a moment she regretted turning him down.
“Thanks for the coffee. And the biscotti.”
“You’re welcome,” he said as he returned to his desk on the other side of the work pod.
The biscotti, she reminded herself, had probably been given to him by some adoring coffee shop worker whom he’d effortlessly charmed. She pulled her attention back to her work, determined to treat Giles like any other of her colleagues.
When Giles had been assigned to her project, she’d thought it best for him to finish Neil’s tasks, while she completed Oscar’s work. She was reviewing one of Oscar’s programs when an uneasy feeling began to grow in her. The uneasiness mounted as she checked more programs and ran through her own suite of tests. By the time she was finished, her insides were knotted and her hands were cold and unsteady.
This could not be happening! The last time she’d felt so nauseous was at university when she’d rocked up for an exam only to discover she’d studied the wrong subject. Back then, she’d only been in danger of dropping her grade point average. This was far worse.
Frustration welled up in her, and she knew she was ready to explode. She wanted to yell and punch her keyboard and hurl her stress balls at the wall. Instead, she pushed to her feet and hurried to a nearby stationery closet, a tiny, windowless room.
As soon as the door clicked shut and she was alone, the bottled up yell tore from her throat. She stomped around the tiny closet, fisting and unfisting her hands, while her mind raced, trying to outpace the panic that threatened to drown her.
What had Oscar been thinking? Why had he done it? Neil, yes, she could envisage him doing something sneaky like this. But not Oscar. Why had he left so many bugs in his programs and tried to cover them up with phony tests? She’d liked Oscar. She’d been happy for him when he finally found a girlfriend, despite thinking the woman was a little dippy. Anna had wished him well on his journey of love to India, though he’d left so abruptly.
Now, he’d gone, and dropped her in the proverbial crap. She’d have to comb through all the programs he’d written and re-test and debug them. And that was on top of the other work she had to complete. And everything had to be finished by the end of this week. No ifs, no buts, Lionel had warned her.
She couldn’t go running to her boss and tell him about Oscar. Not yet, anyway. If she did, it would look like she was making excuses for not meeting her deadline. And that she wasn’t capable of managing her subordinates. No, she couldn’t let that happen, not on her first project as manager.
The door opened, and Giles stepped into the closet. “Anna?”
She instantly stiffened. “Yes?” What the hell was he doing here?
He stood by the door, looking strangely diffident, almost concerned. “I saw you come rushing in here, and you looked rather discombobulated. Is anything the matter?”
A weak laugh escaped her. “Discombobulated? Me?” Her lungs didn’t seem to be working. Omigod, was this a panic attack?
Giles took two steps forward and halted right in front of her. Strong hands grasped her shoulders. Calm blue eyes focused on her. “Breathe, Anna. Just breathe.”
His unflappable attitude steadied her. She sucked in air, released it, inhaled again.
“Thanks.” She stepped back, causing his hands to fall away from her. His grip had calmed her, but it wasn’t a good idea to let him touch her.
“Are you going to tell me what’s happened?”
“Nothing’s happened,” she said, automatically defensive.
Giles pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants, his demeanour saying he wasn’t going to be fobbed off by her. “For the past half hour you’ve been clicking your pen, twisting your hair around your finger, bashing on your keyboard, and muttering under your breath. That means something’s happened. Something that seriously bothers you.”
She gaped at him. “You noticed all that?”
Giles sighed. “I notice a lot about you, Anna.”
Her heart did a strange flip-flop, but she pushed the sensation away. Now was not the time to let herself go gaga over Giles. But she was touched at his perception, and in her moment of weakness his concern broke through her usual barriers.
“What I’m about to tell you is strictly confidential,” she said. He nodded as he straightened to attention. “I just found out that Oscar’s work has some serious flaws which he’s attempted to cover up. They would have come out during user acceptance testing and been a serious embarrassment to me. I need to go through every single one of Oscar’s programs and re-test them. It’s going to take some time. A lot of time.” An unwelcome thought hit her. “Have you noticed anything suspicious in Neil’s programs?”
“Nothing. He seems like a competent programmer.” Giles was frowning. “Why would Oscar do something like that? Did he have a grudge against you or the company?”
“I’m not sure why he did it.” Anna slid her fingers through her hair. “I always liked him. He seemed a nice, quiet guy, and I was genuinely happy for him when he decided to follow his girlfriend to India. Maybe I put too much pressure on him. Maybe he faked his test results, knowing he wouldn’t be around much longer, to get me off his back.” She bit her lip. “Maybe I’m a lousy project manager.”
Damn, why had that slipped out? She might have doubts, but she couldn’t afford to appear less than one hundred percent confident.
But when she glanced at Giles, he didn’t seem smug or condemning. “I don’t think you are.”
She drew in a deep breath as she realised that Giles’s opinion of her mattered more than she’d expected. This was getting crazy. “I don’t want my boss to find out. Not yet, anyway. I want everything ready for user acceptance testing by Friday, just like we planned.”
“But you don’t know how much extra work Oscar’s left you. It’s better to tell Lionel now.”
Anna shook her head stubbornly. “No way. I’ll get it done by Friday. Then I’ll tell Lionel. The last thing I need is people saying I can’t handle the pressure.”
“That’s not what they’ll say.”
“Wanna bet? You might be able to waltz in and have everyone falling at your feet, but I’ve had to work twice as hard to prove myself, and not everyone was happy about my promotion. I can’t afford to let anything go wrong.”
“Anna, this could happen to anyone. It isn’t your fault.”
“Maybe not, but this problem is my responsibility, and this is how I’m going to take care of it.” She tilted her chin at him, challenging him. “So. Are you going to tell Lionel anyway?”
Giles rested hands on hips and huffed out a breath. “Of course not. I’m on your side.”
Again, a wave of gratefulness hit her. She couldn’t understand how much Giles’ support meant to her.
“Thank you. I really appreciate that.” As she breathed out, she felt some of the pressure easing off her. If nothing else, talking about the problem had helped her.
Giles’s lips quirked in a brief smile, but it was enough to send a tremor through her.
“I’m glad you’re finally appreciating me.”
There was no way she could miss the glint in his eyes or the sudden awareness pulsing between them. It had always been there, she acknowledged, that arc of sexual consciousness sparking between her and Giles. She’d managed to ignore it, suppress it, until now.
“You have your uses,” she quickly replied, eager to return to their former footing before he’d followed her into the stationery closet.
His smile widened. “You must be feeling better, since you’re back to putting me down.”
Goodness, if she allowed herself, she could really melt under that mega-watt, roguish grin of his. Get a grip, Reynolds.
She cleared her throat. “We should go back to work.”
“Why, certainly.” He turned with a flourish and opened the door. At least, he tried to, but the door remained shut.
Anna groaned. “I just remembered. The lock needs to be pressed down otherwise the door doesn’t open from the inside. I forgot to do that when I ran in here.” Because she’d been in such a state. “We’re locked in.”
Giles banged on the door, but no one came. The stationery closet was tucked out of the way, and this side of the office was empty.
“No one’s going to hear us unless they’re coming to get stationery,” Anna said as Giles continued to hammer on the door. “Do you have a phone?”
He shook his head. “Left it on my desk. You?”
“Same.” She ran her hands over her face as she let out a deep groan of frustration. “This gets better and better, huh? I have God knows how many of Oscar’s programs to fix up, and I’m stuck in a bloody stationery closet!”
“It could be worse.”
“How?”
“You could be stuck here on your own.”
“If I was here on my own and you were out there, then you would hear me pounding on the door and let me out,” she pointed out.
“True.”
“I don’t suppose you’re the MacGyver type? You know, you could get us out of here by just using a paper clip and hole punch?”