She leaves me at my office, and I'm exhausted even though it's only ten A.M. I decide that I need some coffee, and thanks to the tour, I know where the break room is. There's a group of women in the break room when I step inside, and there's a momentary hush as everyone looks me over. I give a little wave. "Hi."
One of them quickly steps forward. "You're the new girl, right? The writer?"
"That's me."
She holds out a hand. "Hi. I'm Emily."
"Caroline."
They all introduce themselves to me. Helen, Eileen, Darcy, Lila.
"Coffee is over here and Eileen brought in doughnuts on a whim," Emily says.
"Thank God for that," Lila says, and everyone laughs.
I pour myself a cup of coffee and pick up a donut with a napkin to take back to my desk.
"We've all been waiting to see who would get hired for that position. They've been talking about it forever. How did they find you?"
I laugh nervously. "I honestly don't know. I have a blog about my dating experiences-good and bad-and yesterday morning I got an email from Mr. Montgomery offering me the job. It's all been really fast."
The girls giggle when they hear me mention Chance's name. "You interviewed with him?" Darcy asks.
"I wouldn't call it an interview," I say. "He'd already decided he wanted to hire me. If I'd said yes he would have had me sign the papers as soon as I came in. Does he not normally do the interviews?"
"No," Emily says. "Almost never. Mr. Montgomery is always nice, but he rarely mingles with the staff. He's really … busy."
Eileen nearly chokes on her coffee. "If by busy you mean hot." She looks at me. "Did you notice?"
I hesitate, not sure if I should be gossiping about the boss, but I can't pretend like I didn't see him. "It's hard not to," I say.
"He has a strict no dating employees policy," Emily says, pouting. "Unfortunately for every woman who works here. But that doesn't mean that there aren't rumors."
I can't help myself, my curiosity is out of control. "Rumors?"
"About his … package." Emily says.
Eileen leans closer to me conspiratorially. "That he's huge."
I blush immediately. I already have an obscene amount of dirty images of Chance in my mind, and this isn't going to make it better. Oh God.
"Like, almost too big to fuck huge." Darcy says.
Lila smiles. "And that he's pierced."
"Prince Albert. God, what I wouldn't give to see that," Lila says with a dreamy look on her face.
"Where do these rumors come from if he doesn't date anyone he works with?"
Emily smirks. "He still dates other people. And being the young, hot, single CEO of a groundbreaking dating company gets him plenty of press. The rumors come from the tabloids. We all assume that they've talked to the girls he's actually slept with."
"Wow." I'm fighting the urge to picture what he would look like naked in all his glory, because I'm not sure that I would survive it. But a part of me is relieved. Even if he is brilliantly perfect, if he's made himself off-limits to employees that makes it that much easier to make sure I don't screw this up by screwing him. Not that he even wants to, but it's nice to know that I won't have to worry about it.
"Good morning, ladies." As if appearing straight out of my thoughts, Chance is in the doorway of the break room, and a hush falls. His eyes land straight on me. "Caroline, can you meet me in my office to finalize the contract and talk about some things?"
"Sure."
He gives a quick nod to the other girls in the room and steps out. All of their heads swivel to look at me at once.
"What contract?" Emily asks.
"Non-compete," I say. "While I'm employed here I can't write for anybody else aside from my own personal blog."
They all nod, but the rest are still too stunned by Chance's sudden appearance to say anything. I give them a little shrug. "Don't want to keep him waiting," I say, stepping out and heading back to my office to drop off the coffee and doughnut and grab the signed contract. I have a feeling that after that little interaction-innocent as it was-there's going to be some entirely different rumors floating around, possibly involving me.
Marcy waves me straight into the office when I approach, so I don't bother knocking. I hold up the folder. "I signed it."
He smiles at me, coming to take it from my hands. "Excellent." He lingers for a second, almost like he's unsure of what to do, and then heads back to his desk. "To start, I thought we might knock off some of the simpler ideas quickly, like an article per day, so that we create a backlog of content to post for when you're taking more time with the more in-depth topics." He gives a long look again, like he's forgetting himself. Then he shakes his head a little. "Does that sound good?"
"Yeah," I say. "That sounds fine."
"For today, there's a pitch in the documents about having a good first date. Let's do that one." He's looking away from me now, like he's avoiding my eyes.
"Is everything okay?" I ask, suddenly nervous. "Was the article okay? I know it may need work. I'm not used to doing multiple drafts but I'm willing to do whatever work you think it needs."
He turns back to me and smiles softly. "Your article was fine. I thought it was really good. I loved it, actually. The tone is exactly what I was looking for."
Sweet relief runs through me, and I didn't even realize how panicked I was about losing this job before I even had it until I started rambling about the article. I step forward out of instinct, and before my mind can catch up, I'm hugging Chance. I see him move to stop me, but it's not fast enough, and my arms are wrapped around him.
This is … totally inappropriate. And – oh my God – it feels so good. I should pull away, but Chance suddenly relaxes and his arms fall around my shoulders like it's the most natural thing in the world. And then, he pulls me closer. For a second, I think that I imagine it, but he holds me a little tighter.
I pull away quickly. "I'm so sorry-I was just really happy that you liked it-"
The words fall out of my mouth because I'm looking up into Chance's face and the look there is one of pure lust. It's there and gone in an instant, and then he's completely professional once again. But it was there, and the same lust that I've been feeling since I set eyes on him flares in response. Shit. This is bad. This is really, really bad.
I clear my throat. "I'll get started on that article for you, and check in at the end of the day."
"I look forward to it," he says, and there's no mistaking the lust in his tone. It sets my heart racing and I can't help but look back at him as I leave his office. He's following me with his eyes and – oh fuck – I am so screwed.
Six
"First dates are always hard. It can be amazing, it can be terrifying, it can be exhilarating or disastrous. But there are a few things you can do to keep all of those adjectives on the positive side, starting with your expectations. Going on a first date is just a little bit like playing the lottery. You're picking numbers at random hoping to win that one-in-a-million prize. In this case, the prize is love. But just like the lottery, while you should be hopeful, you should also be realistic."
-Tips for a Good First Date, Heartmakers.com
I grab my phone off my desk as soon as I make it back to my office. In fact, I almost knock over my coffee because I'm in such a hurry. I text Alice a quick summary of what just happened. She texts back a stream of expletives and exclamation points and emojis. Then, words.
Are you sure?
Pretty damn sure. And I know I shouldn't be, but I'm so into him. I told myself this morning that I couldn't do this, that I couldn't mess this up. And some other girls told me he that he doesn't sleep with co-workers so I thought that everything was fine. But now there's this! This is bad, isn't it?
You've had this job for one day. And it's the first job I can remember you ever having that you've liked. I know he's hot but don't throw it away for him.
You're right. I know you're right.
I am right. Love you!
I put the phone down on the desk. Get yourself together girl. It's flattering that he has the same instinctual reaction to me that I'm having to him, but we can't do this. It's not a good idea. I take a sip of the coffee and I try the doughnut. Caffeine and sugar. Just what I need.
I can't write this article if I'm constantly thinking about him and all the stuff we could do together. Pulling up the document from yesterday, I find the article pitch about first dates. It's pretty simple, just a piece offering suggestions about avoiding the most obvious pitfalls of first dates. I can do that. I haven't had a whole lot of really good first dates myself, as my blog can easily show. But I'll give it my best shot.