Page 102 of Reconciling With the Rival

I take a second to gather myself, the weight of the worry and fear crashing down on me from the past few hours. I didn't want to break in front of them. I needed to be the calm, level-headed one, and I did just that. But for a few minutes, I need to cry silently in this hallway, because I was genuinely concerned we were going to show up here and Grant was going to be gone.

I’m thankful he’s alright, despite losing a kidney and having a broken leg. He seems to be in normal Grant spirits, but I know those two are going to need all the help they can get in the coming weeks.

I’ll be there, like I always am, because when one of us falls, the others are there to pick them up.

31

A Defense Mechanism

“I can’t believe thishas happened twice now,” I say to my coworker across the conference room table.

My coworker also being my roommate, fuck buddy, and possible man I’m having feelings for, more than the normal feelings of disgust, annoyance, and hatred. They’ve morphed into something else—something I can’t put my finger on.

It must be the sex clouding my brain. That’s the only thing I can think of. His dick is holding me hostage or something, and now, I’m having all these weird feelings surrounding him and the pact we made.

“Blame Brody, but you did volunteer for this,” Leo tells me, his chin resting in his hand as he reads something.

I slam my papers down. “I did not. Brody handed it off to me as if it wasn't his fault, and you happened to walk by.”

“I guess we’re both victims of the wrong place, wrong time.”

“I guess so.”

I’d much rather be at Hads’ apartment helping her take care of Grant like I promised I would, but instead, I’m stuck here, working late, because Brody dropped the ball and failed to delegate this shit to all of us.

Grant got released over the weekend, and instead of us having book club this week, we hung out at their place and watched movies all night.

Now, Leo and I are stuck here looking over a bunch of companies interested in working with us that Brody never went over to give to Imogen at the end of the week.

It’s Thursday. Tomorrow is the end of the week, and Brody is a fucking pain in my ass.

“How many good ones do you have so far?” I ask Leo.

“Out of the ten I’ve looked at,” he shuffles through his small stack of papers, “two.”

“I have three decent possibilities out of the fifteen I’ve looked at.”

He runs a hand through his hair, and I hate that I stare at his forearms for too long. “We still have a fuck ton of them to look through, so we should get some food.”

“Sushi?” I ask, my mouth already watering at the food we had last time we stayed late to work. “It’s still open, you know.”

He only smirks in my direction. “I’m already ordering.”

I go to smile, but I stop myself.Do Leo and I have a thing now?

My alarm bells are going off in my head, wanting to retreat from this situation that feels too much like Leo and I are a couple.We’re not, I remind myself. We’re coworkers who happen to work late together a bit too much. That’s all we are, and at the end of the night, we end up across the hall from one another like we sit all day at work—only a few feet separating us.

I slump down in my chair, and the two of us work silently until he has to grab the food. I think I got through five or six proposals before it got here, and my brain is pounding in my skull.

How is it I can read a five-hundred page romance novel in one sitting and not get a headache, but a few proposals at work have me down for the count?

He sets the food on the table and returns to the same spot as last time—right next to me. I know this time isn't going to end with sex in the office since we banned it, but that makes me feel more uneasy.

We could fight, or worse—we could actually have a nice talk.

Or better yet, we could eat in silence and not say a word, but knowing us, that won’t happen.

“How’s Grant doing?”

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