“No problem. Ask anytime. I love talking about Mr. Mysterious Boss.” Linda gave me another grin and waggled her eyebrows, then rolled back to her side of the partition.
The only real question I had, the only thought that dominated my mind since I started working at Adstringo was: Why did he avoid me? I couldn’t help but think it was because he realized the mistake he made. He got to know me outside of the business world, and maybe he didn’t like what he saw. Maybe he’s reconsidering everything, and regrets signing those contracts.
I’m afraid he thinks I’m a silly girl who texts dirty messages for fun, and that I don’t belong at a company like Adstringo. Or, worse, he thinks I’m a liability, and might tell people about our relationship. I would never betray his trust like that, but I could understand that fear.
Before I fell into a total meltdown tailspin, an email popped into my Inbox. It was an invitation to a meeting from Janice. Curious, I opened it.
It read, Tomorrow, 9am, Mr. Green’s office. That was it, no explanation, nothing. I hit accept, and let it send the automatic reply message. I leaned back in my chair, excitement flowing back into me. I was finally getting a chance to see him again. Even if it was just a business meeting, I’d get to see the way his body moves, the ripple of his muscles as he reaches across a table, maybe brush our fingertips together by mistake. My mind wandered back to the dirty things he said, like how he wanted to push his face between my legs and breathe me, lick me until I couldn’t stand anymore.
I shook my head to snap out of it again. I couldn’t let myself have these fantasies, not when he made it clear what our relationship would be. I sat up straight and forced myself to get back to work, but my mind kept wandering back to memories of his intense gaze.
10.
The next morning couldn’t come fast enough. I obsessed over what I’d wear for hours, and finally settled on a navy blue blouse, a tight, three-quarter length sleeve cardigan, and the tight grey skirt that makes my ass look fantastic. Heels, plus a light jacket for traveling, finished off the outfit.
During the commute to the office, my mind was racing. Would we talk about what happened again, or are we going to be strictly professional? I thought he would want to move on, but I couldn’t be sure. I should have still been a little hurt that he had lied to me, but I realized that I wasn’t upset about it at all. If anything, I was jealous that he might be back on the dating app, pretending to be someone he wasn’t, and flirting with regular girls like me. I had checked the app the day after our meeting, but his profile was gone. He could have deleted it and started fresh, for all I knew.
Lately, I felt like I was forgetting where I came from. Shane Green, billionaire and genius, didn’t want a relationship with me. And why would he? I was a nobody. The only good thing I’d ever done was write a decent app, and even that needed help from someone like him to make it into the big time. I was just another normal girl trying to get through the day.
I got into the office early and waited with nervous excitement until nine. When it was time, I carried my bag with my laptop and a few notes down a series of halls and into the area where Shane’s office was. Janice sat outside of his door at her desk.
“Good morning, Janice,” I said.
“Good morning Amy. He’s expecting you.” She picked up a phone and waited a few moments. She said something quietly into the receiver, waited a second, then hung it up. “He said to come right in.”
I smiled, thanked her, and pushed the door to his office open.
Shane Green was sitting behind his desk, his nose lost in the screen of his laptop. I walked in a few paces before stopping.
“Hello Mr. Green, you asked to see me?”
He looked up. “Hi Amy. Take a seat over there and set up, I’ll be with you in a second.”
He gestured toward a table on the left side of his office, next to a wall of glass windows. The room was simple: one desk on the wall opposite the door, a couch against the right wall, and a table with four chairs against the left. There was some art hung up, and books lining the shelves, plus a few filing cabinets, but for the most part is lacked anything personal. I was surprised at how simple it was, actually. It was still the largest office in the building, but it wasn’t huge or lavish by any means. It felt almost Spartan in comparison to what I imagined it would be like. It only deepened the mystery that was Shane Green. Nothing about it gave anything away.
I could feel his presence as I set up at the table and started pulling up my recent work. Even though he wasn’t paying attention to me, he still seemed to control the room. It was hard not to stare over at him. We were twenty feet apart at most, and I could hear his breathing in the otherwise silent space. I had to remind myself to keep looking at my laptop.