Page 64 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“Good morning, Perry.”

“Good morning, Mr… Stephen.”

My badge was suddenly there front and center as if it’d been messing with me. I pulled it out and held it up to the scanner. He did the same and we stepped through the lobby.

“How was the rest of your weekend?” he asked, and I quickly looked around, the weirdness setting in.Paranoid much?He’d said the ‘rest of my weekend’ as opposed to just ‘weekend,’ which implied he at least knew some of it. Well shit. It wasn’t some big secret that we were all at the Brewhouse Friday night and that he’d driven me home. Stephen and I were friends now.Friends. There was nothing wrong with what we were doing, and I had to start acting like it.

“Perry?”

“Oh, fine.”

“Does walking down the hall together make you uncomfortable?”

“No.” I shook my head. This was absurd. I wouldn’t feel this same way with anyone else, even Mr. Krismer. It didn’t matter that I was attracted to him, only the way I handled that attraction.

“Is something wrong with your car?”

“No, why?”

“You were dropped off this morning.”

“Oh, Dre is using it this week.” No need to flesh that out.

“Do you need any rides?”

“Rides?”

“Yes. It’d be no problem to either pick you up or take you home. Or both. Just let me know.”

“Ah.” Well, I wasn’t expectingthat. Christa couldn’t drive the rest of the week. I was planning on asking Kate or Adam, and there was always the bus as a last resort. “I think I’ll be okay, but thanks.”

“You’re welcome. If anything changes, let me know.”

“Okay.”

We walked into the room, him turning towards his office and me beelining for my station.Stephen offered to drive me? Why? Although, I suppose that’s what friends do—they help each other out.

“Morning, Perry,” Kate said when I got closer, then yanked me towards her. “Did you have fun Friday night?”

“You know I did. I was with you.”

“I meant after you left.” She gave a slight nod towards the office. “Did you two kiss and make up?”

“Oh my God, stop it. He gave me a ride home and that’s it.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

I just shook my head and began logging on to my computer while she laughed.

One: Why did everyone seem to disregard the fact that I had a boyfriend? Two: What about the non-dating policy? Considering his position in the company and mine, I wasn’t sure that even being friendly was a good idea.

I clicked open my applications for the day. No, I was being ridiculous. Would the company rather we be enemies? They had gatherings all the time. They wanted people to get along.

Adam Zepecki: Did you have fun this weekend ;) ;)

God, him too? I bet he couldn’t wait for me to bring up chat this morning to start up on me.

Perry Sommers: Your two winks should be forty. All I did was take a bunch of naps in a row.

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