How would he get his way?
“Stop giggling.” Brenda reached in her drawer of menus. “Do you want food?”
“Read my mind. What are you ordering?”
“Hunter wants Japanese.”
I leaned against the desk, incredulous. “He asked you to order him food?”
Brenda frowned as she glanced up. “He always does.”
“I just asked him if he wanted me to order something for him.”
Brenda went back to her drawer, shifting through the takeout menus. “He probably knows you’d get the order wrong.”
I didn’t think that was it, but Brenda was right. I probably would. He had quirky tastes with some things, and I always felt bad with the overbearing and exacting orders, so I missed an item or two.
I looked back at the message. I stupidly wished he’d asked me, though. Or just…kept talking to me. It was a fun game to shut him down, but it also meant I didn’t get to chat or touch him. I missed him.
“This lovesick issue is kind of annoying,” I announced, pulling my report back up.
“Can’t back out now. He’ll win.” Brenda held up the menu. “Want something?”
“It’s irritating how well you know him.”
“Uh oh. Sounds like this game has lost its appeal. Or were you apologizing for yourself earlier?”
I scowled at her, making her laugh, before going back to my report. “And no, thanks. He knows Japanese is my favorite. This has to be a no situation.”
“Were these rules of yours pre-planned?”
“Nope, and I am starting to realize that my lack of planning is biting me on the butt.”
“Yup.” Brenda picked up the phone to order.
A new email came into my inbox. It was from Bruce. “Crap.” I opened it immediately and looked over the contents.
“What?” Brenda loved to be in on all the action.
“We got a bug report from the geeks that tried out our game. What the hell…” I scanned the pages of problems. “How could all this have been wrong?”
“That’s the thing with geeks. They’re too smart for their own good. Now you know what it’s like working with you.”
“Hilarious,” I said in a dry voice. “Can you order me some Indian, Brenda? I want to look at some of these.”
“Sure. Are you going to escape to the conference room?”
“Yeah. Call this my lunch break.”
“Got it.”
Heaving a sigh, because I knew tonight would be a mess of frustration with this game, I heaved myself out of my chair and headed away from my desk. Games with Hunter would just have to wait.
Chapter Fourteen
“Incoming.”
I looked up with bleary eyes before glancing at the clock. It was almost six o’clock. Brenda was buttoning up her coat and facing the elevator.
I saved the report I was finishing up. My mind strayed to the problems I still wanted to go over with Bruce’s stuff. I’d knocked out half the list already. The issues were just tiny things, and some were already known quantities that Bruce was working on. Still, I was tired. Doing two jobs, for two tough bosses, was hard work.
A man walked toward us carrying a huge bouquet of sunflowers. Under his arm he held a big red box in the shape of a heart on top of a clipboard.
“Did I fall asleep and wake up on Valentine’s Day?” Brenda asked as the guy came to stand in front of her desk.
The man set the flowers down on Brenda’s desk and grabbed the red box and clipboard. “Uhhm…” He put the box down and ran a finger down the page on his clipboard. “Olivia Jonston.” He looked up at Brenda.
Brenda pointed at me with a scowl on her face. Her gaze was accusatory. “Who’s this from?”
The excitement of getting flowers and candies delivered was tarnished in that stare. “You didn’t order them?”
“No.” She moved closer to me as the man put the flowers and chocolates on my desk.
“Okay.” The man raised his eyebrows and pushed out his lips, apparently asking if I was all set.
“Thanks,” I said.
He nodded and walked away.
I grabbed the card among the sunflowers as a small bit of worry trickled into me. Unless my dad was back from the dead, the only person I could think of that both knew my favorite flower, and would actually send them, was Jonathan. Hunter would not like that development at all.
I opened the white cardboard. Inside was typed:
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. (Sonnet 116).