Submerged(Bound Together Book 1)(18)

 

“I’ll take a strawberry margarita,” Tara says with a flirty smile.

 

“And I’ll take a Bud Light bottle, please,” I add before pulling Natalia’s juice cup out of the diaper bag.

 

“What’s with that smile?” I ask as our waiter retreats.

 

“What? If you flirt a little, then you’ll get better service,” she says with a casual shrug of her shoulder.

 

“I’ll take your word for it. It’s been so long since I’ve flirted that don’t think I know how anymore,” I say, waving a teething gel ring within Natalia’s grasp. “Which reminds me, thanks for talking to your brother about me.” The look I give her tells her that I’m not happy with her at this moment. Tara has the decency to look sheepish as she offers me an apologetic smile.

 

“Yeah, sorry. It wasn’t my intention to talk about you behind your back, but I was just making sure that my meathead big brother was being good to you. And yeah, I’m worried about you sometimes. You don’t do anything fun anymore. How are you supposed to meet someone if you don’t go out?”

 

“I don’t have time to meet someone, Tara. I have a baby to care for,” I add, absently stroking my daughter’s fuzzy head.

 

“I know you do, but it seems like you haven’t really gone out since that night you spent with her father.” And that’s true. I haven’t dated or been with anyone since Blake.

 

“I’m just not ready yet, Tara. When I’m ready, I’ll go out. Promise. I’m not going to be that woman who lives alone with her sixteen cats. Don’t write me off yet,” I tell her as the waiter returns to our table with our drinks and to take our dinner orders.

 

“Baked cod with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes,” I tell our waiter before giving each of us one more glance and heading off to place our order.

 

“How is my brother treating you?” she asks as she absently stirs her drink.

 

“Very well, as you already know. He treats me like a queen. Last week, he yelled at me for misplacing a file right before a meeting. We tore apart the entire office–his desk and mine–and couldn’t find it. I distinctly remember putting it with the figures for the meeting, but he swore it wasn’t there. After about thirty minutes, I finally went over and checked his briefcase, and there it was. Right there with the figures that he swore he hadn’t put in his briefcase yet. Talk about eating crow,” I told her with a smile.

 

“Ha ha. I love it when my brother is wrong. It hardly ever happens and he never apologizes.”

 

“That’s the thing. He was so embarrassed when he left for the meeting that he didn’t even talk to me. I came back in the next morning to the biggest bouquet of fresh plum orchids imaginable. The card just said, ‘You know why.’ That was it.”

 

“Oh, Reid. It’s like he’s afraid of being struck by lightning if he were to actually apologize for an error. I’ve told him so many times that we’re all human and make them. It’s like he’s afraid to actually look mortal or something.”

 

“Yeah. He was sweet as pie for about two days,” I add with a smile.

 

That’s how our work relationship is. Before I was transferred from legal grunt work to his office, he went through personal assistants like most people went through underwear. A few months, then they were gone. Reid is very focused and driven. He wants precision and excellence from everyone who works for him, including his assistant, and he won’t accept anything less.

 

“I’m just glad he finally wised up and stopped hiring those hussies who just wanted in his pants and his bank account,” Tara says as she dives into her salad greens that our waiter just delivered.

 

“I think when the women realized they actually had to work and not just flirt in hopes of getting a dinner invitation, they ran for the hills. He’s tough, don’t get me wrong. There are days I want to reach over his desk and throttle him good. But, he’s a great boss. He’s actually very caring and we make a great team,” I say as I give Natalia a bite of tomato.

 

“I won’t tell him you think he’s caring. You know how he is; like he has a hard ass reputation to uphold,” Tara says with a smile.

 

“Oh, he definitely upholds it. You should see the looks on some of the faces that come out of his office. Like they’ve just been chewed up one side and down another. Your brother is ruthless in business.”

 

“Oh, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” she adds with a laugh as our waiter takes his sweet ol’ time delivering our meals. He dotes on Tara like she was dropped from the heavens just for him before finally turning, reluctantly, to leave.