Page 24 of One Good Reason

“Let’s pray it’s not.”

Placing my bags down on the table, I held the tray out to him. From where I was standing, I was able to get a full look at him and he looked nice. This was the first time I had witnessed him out of his business clothes. The grey Nike tech suit clung to his body like a second skin. For an old man, Law was extremely handsome. I had noticed that the first time I saw him.

“What’s this?” he asked, looking down at the tray.

“I brought you some coffee. If you don’t drink it, that’s fine. I’ll just have two.” I was so busy eyeballing him that I hadn’t realized he was waiting on me to say something.

“What is it?”

“Caramel macchiato. I got you the same thing I get.”

Taking the cup out of the holder he took a sip out of it. “Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

“You brought a laptop, or do I need to set you up on one of mine?”

“I got my own. If you would share the Wi-Fi password, I think I can do the rest.”

“No password.” Doing a double take, Law stopped what he was doing and gazed at me.

“What?” I queried. The awkward stare down was making me nervous.

“You look–” he paused mid-sentence. Scratching at the back of his neck he mumbled, “Absolutely breathtaking.”

If blue tights, a white under shirt, and a long wool grey cardigan was breathtaking, then I guess I looked like a plain jane in my business clothes. This was an all-day thing, and we weren’t in the office, so I saw no need to throw on anything special. Hell, I had even slicked my hair back in a low bun and tossed on a grey Chanel cap to match the sneakers I wore. Finding my voice, I finally retorted, “I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or be offended.”

“Why would you be offended?”

“You’re my boss,” I explained.

“I’m also a man,” he shared. “Take it for what it was… A compliment.”

Feeling naked under his glare, I cleared my throat and whispered, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I guess that means I should tell you that you look nice as well.”

“You don’t have to, but it’s well appreciated.” He smirked.

Was he? Nawl… He couldn’t possibly be. Or could he? The way his eyes never left mine, I couldn’t tell if he was flirting or not. I would hope like hell he wasn’t though.

“Class starts in fifteen minutes. I’ve ordered lunch that’ll be delivered at noon. Is that okay with you?”

“It is.”

“Bet. I’m going to step out and make a call. You can go ahead and set your stuff up.”

Pulling my MacBook out of my bag, I powered it on and connected it to the Wi-Fi. I had combed over the papers in the manilla envelope with a fine-tooth comb, so I placed them on Law’s side of the table. With my notebook on a blank page, I sat my pen on top of it and went to my email so I could pull up the link. I planned on taking notes while sitting here listening to this seminar. I needed to gather all the information I could so I could fill out this application and pray that it got approved on the first try.

Law swaggered through the door right before it was time for the seminar to start. The minute he sat down, he picked up the envelope. Holding it up he asked, “This have anything good in it?”

“It has a lot of good shit in it. He gave us the applications of people who have been approved.”

“That’s why he said if it got out, he would deny it.”

“Yep. Let’s just say we have our work cut out for us. Not only do we have to find and secure a building, but it actually has to be set up. If we submit the application and it goes to the next step, the board will then come out and do a tour.”

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