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The genuine confusion on his face sent me one clear signal—this wasn’t the guy who’d dropped off a raspberry chocolate at my desk.

“Not for me,” Steve said. “I’m allergic.”

The idea he might be the admirer deflated like a saggy balloon.

I wrinkled my nose. “Can we forget I said words ever?”

Steve let out a laugh, shaking his head. “Sure, Raspberry Boy.”

“That’s going to be a thing, isn’t it?” I groaned.

He winked and returned to the girls from marketing. I tipped my head back and stared at the ceiling. Right.

I snagged my sandwich from the fridge, trudged over my friends, and plopped into the empty seat next to Jacob and across from Declan. The two of them were half-finished their lunches, while I’d been making an ass of myself.

“You okay there?” Jacob nudged me in the side with his elbow.

I rested my forehead on the cool surface of the table and let out a huff. “Just ruining any social standing I have here, that’s all.”

“Well, that’s not news,” Declan deadpanned.

I lifted my middle finger. “Just because you’re honed in the fires of Brannon family roasting doesn’t mean you need to dole the sass out to the rest of us.” Jacob and I had gone to a Brannon family barbecue last year, and the get-together had been terrifying. A house crammed with a bunch of loud Irish folks bickering with each other. Considering how anti-people Declan tended to be, it was shocking he was able to deal with the chaos.

I heaved another sigh. “Steve isn’t the admirer.”

“Are you upset about it?” Jacob rested his hand on my back, and the weight of it made me want to moan. Clearly, I was in touch starved and desperate mode.

I didn’t respond to Jacob, still processing that Steve was eliminated from my small pool of potentials. “Truthfully, no? Steve’s great and all, but I think we’re too alike.”

Chances were, he was probably a bottom like me, and then we’d be in the Oops, All Bottoms club. On top of that, though, apart from going out, I wasn’t sure what else we had in common. He and I hadn’t clicked on a deeper level like I had with Jacob and Declan.

“Guess I need to find a way to approach the other two.” I still hadn’t lifted my head off the table, but Jacob hadn’t moved his hand off my back either, and I wanted to soak in the touch a little longer. My one-bedroom apartment was lonely as fuck, and while hooking up took the sexual edge off, no one wanted to stick around and cuddle. Which, honestly, was a missed opportunity for them because I was a fantastic cuddler.

“Might want to work on eating lunch before our break’s over.” Jacob gave my back a pat and raised his hand.

I groaned and pushed up from my slump over the table. “Fine, but I won’t like it.”

“Is it because you made a ham and rye sandwich again?” Declan asked, not bothering to glance up from whatever he worked on.

“Okay, Spice Girl, calm the fuck down,” I shot back and bit into my shitty ham and rye sandwich.

Back to the drawing board on my mystery admirer.

The end of the workday hit, and I was no closer to figuring out who had been leaving me chocolates and notes.

I’d even tried sniffing around the cubicles to catch a whiff of chocolate, but all I realized was that most of the employees in chemical engineering needed to take a few more showers.

“See you tomorrow.” I pushed up from my desk. Jacob and Declan were wrapping up, but I didn’t have the time to wait around. I wanted to peek into the accounting department to see if Greg was still there. The embarrassment from lunch lingered too much to go to the marketing department for Denzel and risk running into Steve again.

“Good luck on ManQuest,” Declan said.

“Is that like MapQuest for finding men?” Jacob said.

“Pretty sure that’s called Grindr, babes.” I shook my head and snorted as I headed out for the day. My messenger bag slapped against my thigh. I wasn’t as tall and swarthy as I wanted to be. Whatever, though. I had a cute ass, red hair thick enough to grip, and dimples. Also wildly fluctuating self-esteem, but I cataloged reminders on my good days.

I walked down the hall, which was quieter than normal this time of day. Greg might’ve already left, so this might be a strikeout. However, it couldn’t hurt to peek.

My footsteps echoed through the corridor, which made this place feel like a ghost town. I forgot most of the departments let out earlier than ours did. Plus, the lot of us tended to get so wrapped up in projects that we ended up working overtime. Maybe I should turn around and go home. Yet the note in my pocket begged me to solve the mystery of who’d sent it.

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