Page 35 of Reconciling With the Rival

“You’re a fucking jerk,” Ella says. “Let me go, Zimmerman. Now.”

I tilt my head at her, a challenge in my features.

“Why don’t you make me, Williams?”

And then, she spits on me.

Pride laces her features as she looks up at me, thinking she won this round.

“Open that mouth, darling. It’s my turn.”

I feel her pulse start to quicken, and just when I think she’s going to back down, she does the last thing I expect and opens her mouth. My eyes won’t leave hers, her pupils so dilated, I can barely see her brown eyes underneath them. It’s like we’re locked in some sort of trance as we stand here, chest to chest.

I wonder what she’s thinking about as she stares at my mouth, waiting with bated breath to see if I’m actually going to follow through with what I said.

If I was, I don’t know if anything could make me stop. I don’t know if I could simply touch her lips without needing more from her.

Woah. Absolutely the fuck not.

Needing to get the fuck out of this room that suddenly feels too small, I leg it to the kitchen to get some breakfast, and I manage to avoid Ella for the rest of the day.

The Next Day

I’m in the officeearly today so I can see the look on Ella’s face when she walks in. Yesterday, she beat me. She got the best of me, and I can admit that.

It only took me a half an hour to get all the sticky notes off, but today’s prank might take Ella slightly longer than that.

She started this, after all. I’m playing into her hands if this is how she wants to do shit around here. Ella normally gets here before I do, but today, I arrived extra early, even skipping my workout so I could pull this off. About an hour passes before I hear her and Rae talking in her office. I can tell Ella is here because it just got a few degrees colder.

I hear her shut Rae’s door, and I see her body float across my window before the light goes on in her office.

Show time.

I can hear her gasp before I fully open my door.

“What? Is there something wrong with your present?” I ask as I lean against my door frame, a smile bursting from my face. I have to admit, it’s way better being on this side of things.

“What the hell did you do?” Ella asks as she lifts her stapler—which is wrapped in Holiday paper. Her entire office is gift wrapped.

It took me all fucking morning, but seeing the look on her face made it worth it.

“You gave me a present, so I thought I’d return the favor. Merry fucking Christmas, Ella.” I smile at her again, and by the look on her face, I can tell she’s thinking about how many ways she can slap it right off my face.

“It’s September. You’re a few months early, jackass.”

“Oh, come on. It’s just a prank, and I can help you unwrap it all,” I give her the same words she said to me yesterday morning.

Ella only continues to glare at me before she looks back at her stapler. I bet she’s thinking about throwing it at me, but that wouldn't work out in her favor, and she knows it.

Plus, we’re at work, and both of us have done stupid shit like this. If either of us went to HR, it would only cause a bunch of mindless paperwork.

“Ready to concede?” I ask her, and all she does is shake her head at me.

“No. Are you?” she asks as she walks toward me, her chin jutting out in front of her. Ella Williams, always the confident and self-assured woman—in public.

“Nope,” I say, my jaw tensing.

She leans closer to me, her hands flat on the lapels of my jacket as she smooths them out, even though I ironed this last night.

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