Mallory entered the break room, drawing my attention away from the fridge. I turned in time to notice that she was walking extra carefully and the heels she typically wore to work had been exchanged for flats.
The shift in her walk was barely perceivable. I only noticed because I was looking for it. The concern that was making my stomach tight eased when her eyes came up to mine and I watched as she failed to subdue an automatic smile. She was clearly sore, but not hurt. She wouldn’t be smiling so brightly otherwise.
Which meant I was free to smirk in response. My male pride swelled even more when she blushed.
“Good morning,” I said softly as she stepped up beside me to place her lunch in the fridge. “Did you have a nice weekend, Miss Jones?”
“Incredible,” she said softly. “And yours?”
I took a step toward her, all too aware of the many people who were walking around preparing for work. Once I was sure nobody was paying attention to the two of us, I whispered, “Best weekend of my life.”
Mallory’s head ducked down shyly as her blushed deepened. The endearing move made me want to run my hands through her hair and kiss her until we were both breathless. Her head tipped back to look at me and I could instinctively tell that she was thinking the same thing.
I swallowed roughly. I was in so fucking deep it wasn’t even funny.
The chilly air coming from the refrigerator brought me back to the moment and I stepped aside to shut the door. It put me closer to Mallory and I couldn’t deny that I’d done it on purpose.
“Brian...” she whispered, trailing off just before a loud noise outside the room startled us both.
“Shit!” Jeremy cursed as he rounded the corner, rubbing his elbow. “Well I’m definitely awake now.”
Mallory cleared her throat and softly mumbled an excuse to leave. She paused in the door to shoot me one last little smile before disappearing out of sight. Jeremy was still rubbing his elbow, muttering about a bruise.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “How about you? Have a good weekend?”
“It was fine,” I said dismissively. I poured myself a cup of coffee and tried to ignore the feeling of his eyes glaring holes into the back of my head. “I’ll catch you later.”
He said nothing as I left, so I assumed I was in the clear. I entered my office and let out a long sigh, placing the coffee on my desk as I started to pull off my suit jacket. I was due for a long morning of phone calls so I figured I may as well be comfortable.
The feeling didn’t last long. Just as I was draping the jacket over the back of my chair, my office door burst open. I frowned as Jeremy pushed the door by and stalked in. He stopped in front of my desk and spread his arms out.
“Reporting for duty.”
I didn’t know what game he was playing, but there was a hard edge to his eyes that unnerved me.
“Janice has your assignments today. Check in with her.”
I hesitated at the back of my chair, waiting for him to turn around and leave. When he merely stood there and stared at me with a sneer of disgust, my irritation rose.
“What?” I snapped.
“You know, I believed you when you said your interest in Mal was just to be sure there wouldn’t be trouble in the office. You really had me going, man.”
I bristled. “Excuse me?”
“Come off it, Uncle B. You know, I flirted with her a bit those first few days. So when she came in all dolled up, I thought it was for me. But it wasn’t, was it?” he let out an incredulous laugh and stuck out his finger. “It was for you. Fuck. No wonder you got so bent out of shape that day in the hall.”
The last person I expected to put it together right away was Jeremy and he was the worst damn person to be the first to know. I was hoping to find a delicate way to bring it up with Janice and some of the other higher-ups at the company before going public.
This was not the plan. So I did the first thing that came to mind.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied. “I warned you about harassing—”
“I never had Mal pegged as a girl with Daddy issues. Makes sense, though.”
He was baiting me. It was so fucking obvious and yet I couldn’t stop the instinctive urge to defend her.
“You don’t know shit about her so stop pretending like you do,” I hissed. “Now get the hell out of my office.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” he said as he stepped around the chair and slid into it. My eye twitched when he propped his feet on my desk. “I think I’ll stay right here.”
“This isn’t high school, you little shit. I’m not going to call your mother and tell her about your behavior. Do you want to get fired?”