Page 17 of Get It In Writing
Chapter Ten - Rebecca
It’s almost time for me to leave for work, and I pull up the email I have dedicated to my design business. I’ve promised myself that I’ll check it every day. Wouldn’t want to miss out on any new clients, and new clients are my bread and butter.
Nothing. I even check my spam filter. Nada. Zip.
Seems about right. I certainly have not been spending enough time on this. Not since I got that job working for Harper.
Not since some other things started happening with Harper.
I shut my laptop and grab my bag and keys from the kitchen table. Better keep trudging along at my dayjob. This side gig isn’t going to be taking off any time soon.
A short subway ride and a bagel with lox and cream cheese later and I’m at my desk, pulling up my work email.
Nothing interesting, and Harper isn’t in yet. That’s not like him, but I check his calendar and see that he has an appointment across town this morning.
“Have a good weekend?” Joanna tosses her coat on the back of her chair and gets her computer fired up. “Do anything interesting?”
I lie. I think sex with the boss counts as interesting. Or, at least it counts as interesting to me. It’s pretty much the only thing I’ve ever done that’s required courage.
“Nope. Nothing interesting. Marathoned a show. Watched cat videos. Just my normal weekend stuff,” I say.
Scrolling through my emails, they’re all standard stuff. Scheduling conference rooms, a few announcements from HR about the upcoming holiday party and the fact that one of the ladies’ rooms is going to be out of order for the next few days and telling us we need to go to another floor to use the restroom. That’s fine with me. I could use the extra walking.
There’s also an email from Harper. There’s no subject line, so I think I know what it’s about. I smile to myself, even though I’m fairly certain that he could get in trouble with HR for sending it, despite the fact that he owns the company.
I thought about you all weekend. I jerked off thinking of you three times, and I said your name when I came. I couldn’t help it. Let me take you to my country house. You’d love it. You don’t have to respond to this email if you’re not comfortable. Tell me your answer in person when I have my tongue between your legs.
A wave of heat overtakes me as I hit the X in the corner of the window to close the email. I have a job to do here, and I need to set up the conference room for the ten o’clock meeting Harper has with some city contractors for a big bid he just won. He wouldn’t want the conference room to not be ready. Let him wait for my answer. Even though I already know I’ll say yes. But why not wait until he’s doing that dirty thing to me?
“There’s a meeting in about an hour,” I say, getting up and leaving Joanna to man the reception desk. “I’m going to run the copies for the presentation and make some coffee. You want anything while I’m in the kitchen?”
She snaps her head up from her computer and looks at me with a big smile.
“Nope,” she says. “I’m great.”
I don’t know if she’s had too much caffeine this morning or if weekend was as good as mine and she just happens to be in a good mood because of that, but I leave her alone with a funny feeling in my gut. She’s too excited. Too enthusiastic.
Toosomething.
I leave her alone at our desk and go to the kitchen to make the coffee for the meeting. It’s mindless, boring, and repetitive, and as I look at the bag the coffee comes in I’m imagining how I can redesign the logo to make it more eye-catching.
After the coffee is made and I’ve poured milk into the fancy white bone china server, I put everything on a big tray and bring it into the conference room. Joanna’s got a strange look on her face as I come out and pass by our desk again. The sun’s shining and it’s a bright, temperate winter day, but I guess whatever great freaking mood she was in a few minutes ago has vanished. She’s got a near-scowl painted on her face as she answers the phone and takes a message.
She’s not going to spoil my mood. I go into the copy room and run off the packets Harper needs for the meeting, but when I turn around Joanna is standing right behind me.
“You scared me!” I gasp, a little jolt of shock in my heart. “What’s going on? You want to help?” I start to hand her some of the packets, but she just stands there with her arms crossed and that lovely scowl on her face.
“Help?” she says, a little smirk replacing her scowl. “Help you? Why would I help you right now?”
What a pleasant girl to work with.
“Um, you don’t have to,” I say, trying to get around her. “I just thought since you were in here. Doesn’t look like you’re too busy. It’s not like we don’t have the same job.”
I push past her, but she bumps my shoulder with hers, sending the packet of papers sliding out of my arms and landing with a thud on the carpeted floor.
“Sorry!” I shout, bending down to pick everything up as people started to peek up from their cubicles. “Sorry if I startled anyone.”
“You think you and I have the same job?” Joanna says, her high black heels in front of my face. She makes no attempt whatsoever to try to help me. I should bring this up in my annual review. They always drone on about teamwork here. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
