Page 3 of When Glitter Meets Gold

“Fine,” she says, huffing as her gaze travels behind me. “Looks like Drew’s staying late tonight too, at least you have some eye candy.” She wiggles her eyebrows.

“He has a girlfriend, don’t be gross.” My eyes wander behind the clear glass of one of the boardrooms where Drew Dawson is stretching his muscular arms above his head. “But yeah, I guess he’s very pretty to look at.”

“That’s the spirit,” Amber chirps before calling over her shoulder as she moves away from my desk. “Don’t stay too late.”

I nod, even though I’m planning to stay at least another few hours. Bringing up my breakup is a sure way of keeping me out of my apartment so I’m not alone and thinking about Mark again.

Mark.His name whispers around me.

A sigh huffs out of me, because five on a Friday is not when I should be casting up memories of my old relationship.

But they flood in anyway.

Mark made people laugh, and all I’d hear from my friends was how funny they thought he was. Naturally I was drawn in by this because laughter tells your heart that everything is okay, and nobody hates the funny, handsome guy, right? It wasn’t until I realized that belittling comments and jokes at my expense were nothing more than shitty behaviour dressed up as humour. I thought patronizing comments were just his attempt to make me laugh, I didn’t realize he got a weird kick out of making me feel bad.

I’d been tricked by empty words and promises that hedidn’t mean to sound like an asshole. And at the end of the day, he’d always tell me that he loved me.

I scrape my nails through my hair.

A hollow part of me commends my efforts of rejecting any advances whatsoever so that piecing every broken part of myself back together was a task I’d never be subjected to again. It’s not that I miss Mark. He was a prick. I miss the person I thought he was when we met, the person I believed he was for a short period of time. For the majority of our relationship, I was in love with the brief glimpse of someone who never really existed. Getting my head around that was the hardest part.

Yeah, this was going to be a long night.

A little before seven, the solitude and monotony of the evening has me drumming my nails to the beat of the ticking clock on the desk next to mine. While I reach to grab it and stuff it in the nearest drawer, several pop-up reminders have appeared on my screen. Adverts to hide somewhere in the app. One is for a Save the Bees charity, and the other is for the Narrow Valley Wilderness Hike in Maine.

Both sound unbearable.

I promptly send them to a folder marked low priority before deciding the ratio of caffeine to blood in my veins isn’t enough to see me through the rest of the night.

I spring from my chair to seek out the break room.

Only my body collides with something solid and rocklike. My hands fly out to stop my limbs from collapsing and dig into the ridges of a torso stacked with layer upon layer of slab like muscle. Large hands catch my waist, gripping me firmly to stop me from tumbling back.

I look up into the piercing brown eyes of the most beautiful man in the office, and perhaps on the entire planet.

“I’m so sorry,” I say, steadying myself. Even though I wear a generous helping of makeup, I’m almost certain a flush of pink has broken through the peach layers on my cheeks.

Drew Dawson looks down at me.

Drew.Finance manager extraordinaire, office hottie, gift from the heavens, body of a Norse god, Drew.

He’s the perfect secret crush. Off limits because he’s taken and operates on a level of gorgeous that prevents normal conversations from occurring without developing speech impediments or armpit sweating.

Amber and I estimate him to be around six two, but since he’s probably half Viking, I think he’s probably taller. And now he’s touching me for the first time, grinning down at me like it’s no big deal, eventually letting go of my waist when he’s sure I’m not going to face-plant.

“Sorry,” I whisper another apology.

“Hey, no worries, Sara.” His smile takes over his entire face.

I shrug, trying to force away the goofy grin I know erupted across my dithering face the second I heard my name leave his perfect lips.

We fall into stride as we head for the break room, every part of me captivated by the delicious spicy notes of his aftershave. He smells like a sexy bubble of Tom Ford’s finest Private Blends. Devine.

“Late nights, huh?” He nudges me.Another touch. My heart races. “We should be out in the world, not stuck in the same concrete walls we’ve looked at all day, right?”

I smile…and smile some more before I realize he ended on a question. “Yes, right.” I clear my throat. “I didn’t know you were still here. You’re usually the first to leave.”

He nods, gesturing for me to go first as we head into the break room.

---