Page 8 of Secretary Crush
My brows lift. “Hide it?”
He nods. “I don’t believe in getting rid of pictures, but I don’t want to look at it either. Just toss it somewhere it won’t be seen.” Without another word, he turns and walks out of the office, leaving me alone.
I take a deep breath and set the framed photo onto the desk with the rest of the junk I have to go through. I grab my purse and make my way out of the garage toward my car. Being short on cash, I decide to just go home for lunch. It’s a short drive, and I have plenty to eat there. I park in my usual parking spot and head up, meeting Zoe in the elevator.
“Hey, you done with work already?”
“No, lunchtime. You?”
She nods. “Same. Hey, I have a frozen pizza I was planning on tossing in the oven. You want to share it with me?”
“Sure,” I agree.
The elevator doors open, and we both walk to her apartment. Inside, she starts the pizza, and the two of us sit at her table, sipping on our bottles of water and talking while the pizza cooks.
“How’s the first day going anyway?”
I nod and tell her about all the cleaning I’ve been doing and how I lost track of time because I’ve been kept so busy. There’s no way I’ll finish with the office anytime soon. It’s like I’m going through years of junk that needs to be sorted and tossed. Hopefully, I’ll be through most of it by the end of the week. Until then, I’ll just be thankful I even have a job.
6
HUDSON
Iwalk back into the garage, and the guys are already in their usual circle, talking and fucking around while eating their lunches. I don’t have much of an appetite right now, so I skip the circle and instead head back over to the bike I’m working on. Even though I’m not a part of their conversation, that doesn’t stop me from listening.
I hear the sound of the office door closing, and I assume that Ella is walking out for lunch. That’s when the guys start.
“Can you believe how hot she is?” one of them says.
“Boss always did have good taste in women, so I’m not surprised at all that he hired her. What surprises me is how he’s seemed to switch from the busty bleach blondes to the innocent girl-next-door type.”
They all laugh.
“That innocent type is hot as hell, though. I don’t care who you are. She totally gives out dirty librarian vibes. Shy and quiet at work, but freaky as hell between the sheets.”
Another round of laughter.
After each one of them talks, my anger only soars higher and higher. To my surprise, so does my jealousy. I’ve never considered myself to be the jealous type. It never bothered me to catch a guy looking at whoever I had on my arm. I always took it as a compliment, not to mention, you can’t expect much out of guys anyway. I am one. I know how we think and how we seem to check out a beautiful woman without even thinking about it. With Jo, I never cared when I heard the guys talking about her. So why am I suddenly feeling so protective over Ella?
Jo was used to it. She’d been raised around a bunch of drunk, horny men. But Ella? She seems innocent—like she doesn’t know what these men are capable of—and I want to protect her from that. I can see her falling hook, line, and sinker for the shit one of these guys might try selling her. I can always see it ending badly and trying to fix it all myself. I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to lose one of my guys, and I don’t want her to get hurt in any of this.
“You guys think we could get away with asking her out to the bar and grill after work for a pitcher and some wings?”
That’s when I drop my wrench and stand. “What did I tell you?”
They all look over at me.
I step around the bike I’m working on and start in their direction. “You’ve been warned.” I point at all of them. “If one of you deliberately ignores my warning and start something up with her and it ends badly, you will be fired. Got it?”
They all nod.
“Be friends. Treat her like you treat each other. But do not flirt with her. Do not take her out with the intention of anything happening between you. Do not put the moves on the office girl if you like your jobs. Got it?”
They all nod and mumble to agree.
I manage to get back to work, and somehow, I lose track of everything else. I don’t think about the girl in the office, what time of day it is, or the fact that I haven’t eaten since last night’s dinner. I zone in and tune out, and before I know it, I’ve managed to complete everything I wanted to finish today. I look at my watch and see that we still have a good hour before we close up, so I head into the office to see how Ella is doing and will volunteer to help in any way I can.
When I walk into the office, I find that the entire left side is clean. She’s managed to clean the bathroom, the desk, the filing cabinets, and she’s working on the coffee station now. “Wow, this looks amazing! How in the world have you gotten so much done?”
