The Design(54)

I peered over at Alan from beneath my lashes and slyly lowered the receiver volume a few notches.

“Oh hello, Mr. Duncan,” I spoke on a whim. Mr. Duncan? I didn’t know a single person with the last name Duncan.

Brooklyn laughed.

“Cough once if you want me to kill him. Cough twice if you want me to get Jason to kill him.”

“I'm not sure about either of those options, Mr. Duncan,” I droned, peering over again to see if Alan could hear her.

“Sorry, those are your only choices. Oh, wait, hold on.” I heard Jason mumbling in the background and then Brooklyn dropped the phone into a box of tin foil—or so I assumed since it felt like my ears were were going to fall off from the loud scraping sounds.

“What are you doing? Jeez, that’s so loud.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m doing the dishes. Jason wanted me to ask you about going to get a drink tonight. Could you come after work?”

I glanced down at my pile of work and sighed. The work would be waiting for me tomorrow. I deserved a night of fun and I hadn’t seen Brooklyn in a few days.

“Yeah, just send me the details.”

I hung up the phone as inconspicuously as possible. Alan cleared this throat.

“Was that a personal call, Cammie?” he asked with a shrewd glance.

I had a brief moment of panic before composing myself. “Yes. It was my gynecologist. He wanted to discuss my latest pap smear. Do you want to know how the cells on my cervix are doing?”

Alan visibly blanched, as most guys tend to do at the mention of the dreaded pap.

“No. That’s all right. Just get back to work.”

“Okay, but I can’t stay late tonight. I have another pap smear after work.”

He grumbled and nodded, scooting a half inch away from me.

Well that was easy.

How many pap smears could one person conceivably get in one month? Fifteen, twenty? "Dammit, inconclusive again! Well Alan, it looks like it's just pap smears through June."

…



Later that afternoon, I asked Beatrice if Grayson was available. His office door was closed and he was probably deep into his design work, but I hadn’t seen him all day. I just needed a few minutes, just to assure myself that whatever was happening between us wasn’t over yet. A vision of our lunch the day before flashed through my mind and I blushed.

“Oh, let me see,” she answered, picking up her phone and buzzing through to him.

“Mr. Cole do you have a moment?”

I couldn’t hear what he asked on the other end, but she looked up at me and replied, “Cammie.”

I twisted my hands together, knowing I wouldn’t handle his rejection well, but then Beatrice hung up and waved me forward.

“Go on back,” she said with a smile before turning back to her work.

I stepped forward and turned the knob, aware of my pulse thumping wildly as I pushed the door open. Grayson was behind his desk, encased in the light streaming through the window behind him. His lips were twisted into a smirk that did nothing but pull me in closer.

I made sure the door was secured behind me, twisting the lock so that the audible click punctuated Grayson’s steps toward me.

“I was just about to ask you to come in,” Grayson said as he approached me. One hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer, and the other tilted my head so that he could dip down to steal a quick kiss.

Was he going to touch me in his office, where anyone could hear us?

His confidence took me by surprise, but I let him pull me closer until our hips met and I could wrap my hands around his neck.

“I haven’t seen you all day and I wasn’t sure how busy you were,” I spoke as our eyes met.

He smiled and bent to kiss me again before replying, “Very busy.”

I hummed against his chest and inhaled the scent I’d come to love. His suit was softer than I expected and I could feel his toned arms beneath, keeping me pinned against him.

“I’m busy too. The CEO here is a real tyrant,” I said with a cheeky smile.

He chuckled and let me go, taking a step back to lean against his desk. His eyes slid down my body and I felt far too exposed in my fitted pants and jacket.

“I’m going to get drinks with Brooklyn and Jason tonight,” I blurted out. I wanted him to come, but we were in that gray area that accompanies situations like ours. I couldn’t just come out and tell him that I wanted to see him later because that’d be too obvious. I had to make it seem casual so that I could try to hold my cards close for as long as possible.

He nodded and crossed his arms. “What time?”

“Six.”

Ask if you can join. Ask if you can join.

“Should be fun. Jason’s a good guy.”

He wasn’t going to make this easy.