“Actually, Cammie will be with me,” Grayson spoke up, cutting Beatrice off as she continued reading from the list.
Whispers broke out immediately and my face flamed. What the hell was he doing?
“Um, but you don’t usually…” Beatrice began to dispute his outburst, but Grayson held up his hand.
“It’s done. Eli is working on the Whitaker Street project and I can’t afford any more delays.”
My bullshit meter was reading red hot.
Grayson, you dirty dog.
After all of the names were called, there was another twenty minutes of humdrum information, which I completely ignored in favor of breaking down Grayson’s motives for taking over Eli’s role as my mentor. (I couldn’t come up with a single one that wasn’t part of a freaky fantasy.)
Finally, Grayson announced the end of the meeting. Everyone trailed out, begrudgingly heading back to their work stations. A few pairs of mentor-mentee pairs stopped for a moment to meet formally. Alan didn’t even blink in Hannah’s direction as he stomped back over to his desk.
“Wow. How did I get lucky enough to land that asshole?” Hannah whispered as we headed out of the conference room.
“Yeah, I was crossing my fingers that neither one of us would get him.”
She peered over at me from beneath her lashes. “Well it must’ve worked, because you ended up with the best option of them all.”
We both turned to watch Grayson head back into his office. As I watched him move in his suit, I decided that every man over the age of twenty-one should have to wear tailored pants. The fabric worked wonders for his already rockin’ physique.
“Seriously, I can’t believe he’s your mentor,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m not sure how that happened,” I admitted, still staring at his closed door.
“Who cares? Figure out if he’s single for me. I saw him eating lunch with some girl, but that could have been anything,” Hannah said, tilting her head to get a better look at him. “I think he dates around a lot, and he’s really only a few years older than me.”
I bit down hard on the inside of my mouth to keep from telling her to back off. I wanted to hate her for taking an interest in him, but it’s not like I could blame her. Any woman with eyes would do the same.
“That probably won’t come up during our training,” I pointed out, just as Hannah’s table-mates called out for her to join them.
“Whatever. Just ask him. You can mention that you’re asking for a friend or something if you’re too nervous.”
A friend. Were we friends? We were roommates, so I guess that made us friends by default?
“Oh, and let’s order some takeout later. Nothing like wonton soup to christen our new apartment!” she said, waggling her eyebrows playfully as she backed up toward her desk.
I nodded, letting my gaze slide back to Grayson’s door. If I wanted to know why he’d stepped in to be my mentor, why couldn’t I just ask him? Beatrice wasn’t back at her post yet. He was in his office alone and he’d left the door ajar. Everyone was too busy getting back to their desks to notice me, and even if they did see us talking, they’d just assume it was about him being my mentor, which, technically, it was.
With that thought, I walked directly to Grayson’s office, trying to contain my private smile. When I approached his door, I saw him sitting behind his desk, bent over his work and completely unaware of my presence. I tapped my knuckles on the open door, twice. It was a friendly kind of greeting, but when his steely gaze shifted from his work up to me, he didn’t appear to want a friendly conversation. No, he clearly would have preferred no conversation whatsoever. I ignored the warning signs and proceeded as planned.
“Looks like you’ll be my mentor then,” I said with a smile as I took a step into his office. He was never going to invite me in, so either I had to take the initiative or I’d just be stuck in the doorway wishing I was brave enough to enter the dragon’s lair.
He adjusted his tie and slid his hand down the material before finally speaking. “We’ll start tomorrow. There’s a job site I’d like you to see and it’s just a few blocks away from here.”
Well that was certainly faster than I’d expected.
“Sounds good,” I said, trying to think of something else to say that would keep me in his office longer. “Brooklyn told me you were coming to dinner with us.”
His left brow perked up. “Did she?”
I nodded and took another hesitant step toward his desk. His eyes shifted down to my feet; he knew what I was doing.
“Yes. She said she had to coerce you.”