Page 15 of Crash
Ash glanced at me and I swallowed hard, turning my stare onto my hands.
“Linc’s got a thing with his shoulder,” he explained. “He’s helping out for a while.”
I nodded. “Cool.”
Ash shifted in my peripheral vision and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Ren’ll be along in a minute. If you need anything, just gimme a yell, okay?”
“Okay.” It came out a squeak, and I flinched as the two men left me in the office.
Sighing, I rolled my eyes. Nope, Lincoln would definitely want someone with a pulse in his bed. That counted me out.
Left on my own, I snooped around the office, poking around in the filing cabinet. There were forms and receipts inside that didn’t mean much to me just yet, so I closed it and stood at the window that overlooked the gym downstairs. There was another window to my right that had a nice view of the rooftops and street, but it was inside where my gaze was enraptured. I watched Ash lead Lincoln through the gym, showing him around and introducing him to the guys that were working out on the weights. They must be the fighters that were trying for the AUFC this year.
I only gave them a brief glance before I fixed back onto Lincoln. Remembering what he was like as a teenager, I wondered what it would’ve been like if I’d had the guts to approach him. Would I be different now? Would the same thing still have happened to me? It was hard to say in hindsight. Raising my fingers to my lips, I wondered if I would ever be able to kiss a man again. There was a twinge in my heart, and I pulled myself away from the window with a scowl. Clearly, I was still crushing hard on Lincoln Hayes.
The office door opened, and I jumped as Ren bounded in, wearing short shorts and a Pulse hoodie.
“Sup, Violet,” she declared with a bright smile.
Thankful for the familiarity of Ren, I smiled and pulled up the chair at the computer. “Hey,” I replied as she sat in the chair beside me.
“How do you like the place? You settling in okay?”
“It’s really great,” I said.Because it was.“I haven’t been here long enough to settle.”
“You will. It’ll be like your home away from home before long.”
“Yeah.” I sighed, my mind wandering to the hot beefcake downstairs.
“Ready to get cracking?” she asked, flexing her fingers.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
She brought the computer to life and began clicking. “Now, I’m no genius when it comes to this stuff, so don’t laugh.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” I picked up the pen and notebook, ready to take notes.
“You’re too kind,” she said with a laugh. “I make it up as I go along.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”
“Okay. Here we’ve got inventory for the kitchen,” Ren said, pointing to an open tab in the program she’d clicked on. “We’ve got two guys, so far, that are trying for pro later this year and a couple of clients who are into bodybuilding. There’s a meal plan we help them out with, along with supplements and shakes and all of that. Bobby is the nutritionist and takes care of all that stuff.”
I nodded, trying to take in yet another new name. My world had tripled overnight, and I wasn’t sure how I’d remember them all.
“We’ve got a book with all thestockist’sinfo and a folder on the computer with all the order forms. They like them emailed.” She opened the drawer on the desk and pulled out a folder. “Did you cover payroll in your course?”
“Yeah, a little.”
She grabbed the mouse and scrolled through another screen and explained what she’d been doing to make sure all the guys got paid on time. It seemed simple enough, and we wrote out a checklist I could print and stick to the wall. Then we went through the info for the fitness classes and MMA lessons and ended up at the advertising and graphic design that Ash was setting up.
“It’s a lot to learn,” Ren said. “If you ever have any questions, you can always call me, but I’ll be around with you for a while until you get the hang. You let me know when to fuck off.”
I smiled, feeling a little better about having forgotten most of her info dump. “Right.”
“Did Ash tell you that Lincoln is working here for a couple of months?”
I squirmed in my chair, trying not to flush but totally failing. “Yes.”
