Page 72 of Business Casual

Tre’s door opened and there he was looking fine as hell in his grey suit. “…and that’s why we have those protections in place,” he said, speaking into a headset. He gestured for me to come in and closed the door behind me. “The lawyers will review it…”

I didn’t want to intrude or interrupt his call, but I was so happy to see him. The polite thing to do would’ve been to leave and come back when he was done. But I meandered to the window and tried not to listen to his conversation. Instead, I stared out into the courtyard garden, admiring the beauty of the flowers and greenery.

A few minutes passed before I heard him say, “Get back to me when it’s done. Take care.” I turned around just as he removed the headset. “Imani Jones.”

“Tre Franklin,” I returned. “I heard you still worked here! It’s good to see you. You look well.”

He laughed, making his way over to me. “As do you. It’s been a long time.”

“How long has it been? Four, five weeks?”

“Stop playing! I saw you last week.”

“It’s been ten days since I last saw you,” I corrected.

“It’s been nine days,” he countered. “We saw each other in the elevator last Wednesday.”

I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t count if all we were able to say is hi.”

“You didn’t say the last time we talked. You said the last time we saw each other,” he pointed out.

I put my hands on my hips and pretended to be offended. “Did you ask me to come by so you can argue with me? Because we could’ve kept doing that over text.”

“It’s more fun to mess with you in person.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Sounds like you missed me.”

“I’m not denying that.”

The smile on my face grew bigger. “Oh really?”

He shook his head. “I’m not doing this with you.”

I reached over and poked his sides. “You missed me,” I teased in a singsong tone. “You missed me!”

He yelped a little. Bending to the side, he recoiled at my touch. “Stop playing.”

My eyes widened and I gasped. “Tre, are you ticklish?”

“No, I just—stop!”

“Youareticklish!”

“I just don’t want you to wrinkle my clothes.”

I nodded sarcastically. “Sure.”

He laughed, backing away from me. “Imani, I’m warning you.”

I took a step forward, still within arm’s reach of him. “I’m warningyou.”

He chuckled. “What are you warning me about?”

I started laughing with him. “I don’t know.”

“I needed this laugh,” he sighed. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad to be here.” Making a claw motion with my hands, I reached out to him. “Let’s hug it out.”

---