Nerd Girl(36)

Ryan looked momentarily distracted and creased his eyebrows together. “Well, I can’t believe you’ve been carrying that around for the last three weeks. It looks sort of sad and pathetic. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Wouldn’t that be an abuse of executive power?” I said, smirking back at him and arching one of my eyebrows.

“No, it wouldn’t,” he answered with the utmost sincerity.

Hmm … maybe he was serious.

“I’ll tell your manager about the car accident and she can cross charge it to my IO.”

“Oh, okay … thanks,” I said appreciatively, somewhat surprised at how quickly and easily I just got a new laptop. It must be nice having your own corporate IO. An IO is basically an internal purchase order you can charge to like a credit card. Without knowing what else to say, I decided to change the subject. “What did you end up doing last night?” I asked.

“Nothing much—I stayed in and read.”

“What are you reading?”

“Outliers. It’s a book by Malcolm Gladwell.”

“That sounds like very executive material, Mr. McGraw.” My voice was teasing, but I tried to keep a straight and serious face.

He furrowed his brows at me again. “You’re not very comfortable with my role at Megasoft, I can tell.” He didn’t say it as a question.

Gosh, was I that easy to read? “Why do you say that?” I asked uncomfortably.

“You’re always referring to it and I think you’re using sarcasm to hide your discomfort.” He gazed at me with a smug look on his face, asking me without explicitly saying so to prove him wrong.

I squirmed a little in my seat and looked down before I replied. “Well, okay, Dr. Freud. You’re, um … Y-you’re a VP, for God’s sake,” I said incredulously. “And it’s certainly a first for me.”

“What’s a first?” he asked directly, genuinely curious and confused about where my mind was going.

Oh great. I felt my eyebrows rise. I was going to have to explain this to him. “Well, you know,” I felt the blush creeping up my face, “I’m not used to socializing with MS executives, and having them scrutinize me in a … um …” I struggled for the right words. “In a non-work related setting.”

He threw his head back and laughed loudly. He thought I was being funny! My face had to be full-on pink right now. I was actually getting a little irritated that he was making me so uncomfortable and seemed to be enjoying it so much.

I looked at him pointedly. “So, why are you helping me, anyways?” I demanded.

He looked surprised and taken back by my question. Right back at you, Mr. McGraw.

“Because you asked me to help,” he said, still smiling.

I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “No. You offered,” I corrected. Then I kept silent. I learned once from an MS training class that sometimes if you remained silent in the middle of a negotiation, people got nervous and they’d end up giving up more on their end.

He paused for what seemed like a long time, no longer smiling. “Because I wanted to see you again,” he answered honestly. “Because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

Holy shit. I think my heart just stopped. I won the negotiation, but he completely disarmed me in the process. “Me too,” I whispered.

The air was palpable. I was unable to look him in the eyes. There was a long silence as we both considered the impact of our words. I finally looked up at him shyly. His blue eyes, the color of a stormy ocean, were gazing at me with smoldering intensity.

He cleared his throat and I saw him swallow. He then slowly spoke. “So … now that that’s all cleared up … Do you want to get started?”

What? Oh yes, he was talking about our so-called work “session.” I sighed more loudly than I intended. I felt self-conscious under his gaze, so I gave him a nervous smile. “Uh, yeah. Let’s get started.”

He chuckled and then leaned forward in his seat, looking at the screen on my laptop. How he was able to transition from smoldering hot, sexy mood to business professional beat me. I was still reeling from our admissions.

“All right.” He was all business now. “Why don’t you tell me what it is you need to do.”

I was always a person who learned and thought through things best when I could visualize them. So I stood back up and went to the whiteboard, glad I was wearing my ass-flattering jeans. I peered over my shoulder; he seemed to have noticed them, too. I turned back to the whiteboard, grinning. In my head, I did a double back flip somersault.

Considering that I was with a VP of a major Fortune 100 Corporation, I was surprisingly calm as I started drawing up my ideas and focusing on the whiteboard. I knew he was spot on about me being uncomfortable with his position at the company. It was the thought of him in this visible leadership role that made me nervous, not actually being with him. Being with him in person and talking to him was fine. I was more than fine. In fact, I was downright comfortable at the moment and relieved that I could be myself with him. I felt the same way that night at Betty’s. It was reassuring to know that my feelings hadn’t changed since the last time I saw him. The only thing that changed was my knowledge of his role at MS. He was right. If I had known who he was out of the gate, we never would’ve gotten this far.