“Okay. Please let me know if I can do anything.”
“Thank you, Miss Clarke. That won’t be necessary.” His cordial voice was back. He was shutting me out again. I should be glad, but it was almost as if he’d slammed a door in my face.
“You’re . . . you’re welcome, Mr. Blaine.” He hung up the phone and went back to work.
Questions swirled through my head and made it hard to think. What had the phone call been about? Was it personal? He hadn’t mentioned anything about his personal life, other than his nieces and brothers. He’d never spoken of his parents.
And that opened up other questions. I had his résumé, so I knew where he went to school and when he graduated, but what had it been like? Did he have a lot of friends, or was he a loner? Had he liked school? What did he do in his spare time, other than singing?
And why did he ask me to call him Lucah on Saturday night?
The questions weighed heavily on me and made me tired. I locked the screen on my computer and walked down the hall to Dad’s office. I’d seen him this morning already and told him all about my illness, which was easier than I thought it would be, and that made me feel even worse than I already did.
I knocked on the door and waited. He was on the phone, but he hung up and told me to come in.
“Rory, what are you doing down this end of the hallway? Not that I’m not pleased to see my girl.” He got up from his desk and gave me a hug. I must have looked like I needed it.
I definitely did.
“Why so blue?”
“Oh, I think I’m still worn down from the food poisoning. Nothing a few good nights of sleep couldn’t cure. Or maybe some more coffee. Lots of coffee.” I breathed in his aftershave and cologne. It was a special blend Mom had made for him every Christmas, and I’d smelled it since childhood. It was home. And safety.
“So since I didn’t get to interrogate you at dinner, tell me how your outing with Fin went,” he said, leading me to a chair and handing me a glass of water. I took it, if only to have something to do with my hands.
I gave him the sanitized version and told him that despite having a lovely conversation with him, and him being very good-looking, it wasn’t going to be producing love or babies anytime soon.
“Ah, I thought so, but your mother was convinced. And there isn’t another special young man in your life?” I shook my head, probably a little too vigorously.
“Nope. I’m married to the job right now. When the right one comes along, I’ll know.” God, I sounded like a Disney character. I should be twirling around in a field and singing while woodland creatures cleaned my house.
“Well, I don’t want you to turn around forty years from now and regret that you missed out on something. The job will always be here for you when you want it. People say I’m a nepotist, and I am. There will always be jobs for those I care about. Why would I hire anyone else?” He gave me another hug.
“Dad? Don’t tell anyone that I was in here. I have to keep my persona intact.” He laughed.
“I won’t breathe a word. Come talk to me anytime, Rory.” With one last kiss on my head, I left, feeling a little bit better, but no less confused.
I made it through the day, and Lucas left a few minutes before me, so I didn’t have to ride the elevator down with him.
The next morning he brought my breakfast again, and he was deep in work when I got there. It was almost an exact repeat of the day before.
The next day was the same. And the next.
A whole week went by with his cordial words and emotionless looks and I felt myself getting more and more bogged down with work and stress. I’d wanted this. I’d demanded it, and now that I had it, I just wanted to go back to the time when he’d come up behind me in the break room and whisper something dirty in my ear, or when I could feel him ogling my ass as I walked away, or even when he’d smile and I knew he was happy. He didn’t seem happy, and then it was time for his three-week evaluation. It was my job to do this one, but all other evaluations would be done by the head of Human Resources.
If he lasted that long.
I picked up the phone and dialed his extension. He picked up without looking up at me.
“Would you please come into my office and close the door, Mr. Blaine?”
“Of course, Miss Clarke.” We hung up and he straightened his desk and locked his computer before walking around his desk and into my office, shutting the door softly behind him.
“Please, sit down.” We hadn’t been alone like this and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. My body reacted to his. That’s just the way it was. He flipped a switch in me whenever he was around.
“As you know, you’ve been with us three weeks now and so it’s time to evaluate your progress. So, how do you think you’re doing?” I folded my hands on my desk and thanked whoever had written a sheet of questions for me to ask so I had something to look at other than his face.
“I enjoy my job. It is challenging and exciting; I feel like I get along with everyone here and I think I’m contributing.” Well said, but with about zero emotion.
This wasn’t him.
I cleared my throat.
“Well, I agree with you on all of those points. You’re a hard worker. You’re on time and you finish everything you start and—” I was interrupted by him using his hand to smother a laugh. That caught me completely off guard.
I looked up from my paper and saw that his face was red and he was still trying not to laugh and failing.
“I’m sorry. Go on.” He coughed and tried to put his serious face back on.
“As I was saying, you finish everything you start and—“
Cue laugher. This time he couldn’t stop, and I caught it.
“Oh, you are such a perv.” I grabbed a pen and threw it at him. “Of course you would take something as simple as an evaluation and make it dirty. Typical guy.” Yup, any semblance of professionalism went out the window.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, you just looked so serious when you said it.”
I looked up from his evaluation form. “Hey, I’m not the one who’s had serious face on all week.”
“Yeah, well your bitch face has been getting quite a workout. Every time I check you’ve got it on. I mean, it’s just as sexy as your not-bitch face. If you were trying to not be sexy, it didn’t work.”
“Yeah, ditto.”
He leaned back and his face relaxed and mine did too.