The Design(17)

However, as soon as we arrived back at our seats, my optimism was squashed.

“First rule, Candy,” Alan began, “when you get up and make yourself a cup of coffee, you bring me back a cup as well.”

Peter coughed under his breath and I tried to fight back the urge to dump my coffee out onto Alan’s hideous green shirt.

Dump it on him. Do it. Do it.

I sighed and shoved down my inner devil. There’d be plenty of time to dump coffee on Alan.

“Right. Okay. I’ll get right on that.”

And I did. I made him a cup of coffee with grounds I found in the trash, spit in it, and then gave it back to him with the sweetest smile I could muster. I might have to endure him for the next few months, but I would not take his bullshit lying down.

…



Alan kept me busy with mundane tasks until lunchtime arrived, at which point he shoved back from his desk and announced he’d be back in twenty minutes. We were expected to be back at our desks when he returned.

“I guess that rules out going somewhere for lunch,” I said, glancing toward Peter.

He frowned. “Ah, yeah. I’ve learned to just bring my lunch. I guess you’ll know for tomorrow. Do you want to share mine?”

I smiled and shook my head. “Nah, you go eat. I’m going to try and find my friend.”

I tried to find Hannah to see if she needed something to eat as well, but she’d headed out with the rest of her table-mates. Apparently, their senior associate liked to get to know his new team members by treating everyone to lunch on the first day. How was that for fair?

Cursing my luck, I ran down to the bottom floor of the building, trying to recall whether or not there was a cafe. When I arrived, I found a room full of vending machines. Awesome. I unzipped my coin purse and retrieved enough change to purchase a bag of Cheez-Its and a Nature Valley bar. That’d keep me full for all of… thirty minutes.

By the time I made it back up to the office, my lunch break was already half way over. I was prepared to just eat at my desk, but then I noticed that for the first time all day, Grayson’s door was open.

I paused a few feet from my desk and leaned back to peer through the slim opening. Grayson was standing in front of his desk talking to a woman. I narrowed my eyes, studying the back of her slender frame, which she’d stuffed into a barely-there bandage dress. She wasn’t someone I recognized from our tour through the office, but I couldn’t see her face so there was no way to be sure.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked from his desk, clearly confused about my snooping.

I shook my head clear of jealous thoughts and turned to my desk to eat.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine, just finding my way around,” I said, dropping my vending machine snacks onto my desk. I wasn’t sure if Peter was the type to question my interest in Grayson, so I tried to seem uninterested in my new discovery as I tore through my Cheez-Its.

Who the hell is that woman?

I lasted all of two seconds eating at my desk before my curiosity won out. I had to know who the mystery woman was and I knew exactly how I could find out: Beatrice. She was flipping through a magazine at her desk, quietly taking bites of a salad. Beatrice was the answer. She’d know who the woman in his office was, and she’d know to keep quiet about my snooping. It was girl code 101.

I dropped my snacks and stood so I could casually stroll over to her desk.

“Hi Beatrice, how’s your day going?” I asked with a wide smile.

She glanced up at me with a touch of curiosity.

“Pretty good. What about you?” she asked, flipping past another page of her magazine, this time landing on the “Look at celebrities… they’re just like us” section. I caught a glimpse of Brooklyn and Jason taking up nearly half of the page with a picture of them walking on a hike and bike trail. He was pulling a leaf out of her hair, which was apparently newsworthy.

Who was I kidding? I needed to cut to the chase.

“Is Grayson in a meeting right now? I was going to ask him something.”

“No, actually,” Beatrice replied. “He’s with a lunch date.”

My hand instinctively tightened on the edge of her desk. A date? During a workday? Who does that? As if on cue, I heard a giggle from the inside of Grayson’s office. I glanced over to see his shadow loom in the doorway and then his figure cut into view. His mouth tipped into a frown when he saw me standing there but he made no attempt to talk to me. Our eyes met as he reached for the door handle and it wasn’t until he slammed it in my face that I forced myself to look away.

“Does he do that often?” I asked, trying to get the image of how incredibly hot he’d just looked out of my head. Newsflash: he’s not looking hot for you. He’s on a DATE!