Page 79 of Resting Grump Face
I try to think this scenario through and then to find the right words. They seem so adamant that I am worried they will go ahead with this poorly thought-out plan either way.What is it with seniors losing all common sense at some point?
“It might be the fastest, and certainly the most reckless way, but it is not the only one.” I try to give them a valid alternative. “How about this: first we talk to the lawyers. If that doesn’t help, we try to find more dirt on him we can use for blackmail.”
The bobbleheads slowly shake from side to side.
“I am not done yet. I know it didn’t work the last time, which is why we also convince that potential buyer not to buy the property.”
The bobbleheads are still not convinced.
“And if all that fails, we can kidnap the son of a bitch.”
Hesitantly, the heads start bobbing again.
“But until then, none of you do anything.” I get up and gather my clothes. “You have to promise.”
“Couldn’t if we wanted to,” Earnest says and swipes over his phone. “He’s out of town for the next ten days.”
Thank god,I think. “Okay, until then I will keep going to work so we have money to pay our lawyers, who will totally take care of this issue! So no one will have to go to jail! Because that’s where kidnappers go. Especially kidnappers of freaking billionaires.”
It’s like there comes a time in a person’s life where the self-preservation instinct just goes out the window entirely.
At work, I don’t run into Ryker who is out, taking care of whatever he needs to take care of, but I do share the exceedingly empty office on the third floor with Barbara, who has taken a seat at Ryker’s desk. I tell her about what’s going on at Haven, without going into too much detail, and it seems like she is more and more warming up to me. She tells me about her dogs; I tell her about the Chairman. She tells me about her non-existent family; I tell her about my late grandma. She tells me about how much she enjoys working here; I remember that I actually also have some work to do.
Ryker might have hired me for a different reason, but now more than ever, I am determined to do a good job. After all, if I might have been wrong about him, everyone else might have been wrong as well. He isn’t the person that constantly gets portrayed in the news and on social media, and I want people to see that. So after Barb is already gone, I stay late and keep working on a strategy to improve his image. It includes numerous campaigns through different channels that all aim to do one thing: show the real Ryker Grayson. Because the real Ryker Grayson is kind, thoughtful, empathetic, he cares about the people around him, and also he is fantastic in bed, though that probably doesn’t have to be part of any campaign.
I finish up around 9 PM and, on my way home, try to call Ryker, who doesn’t pick up. After I make it home, and settle onto my couch with the Chairman in my lap, there’s a knock on my door. With my cat in hand, I open up.
It’s Ryker who is leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed behind his back, his cheeks bright red, his eyes closed and his lips already pursed, waiting for a kiss. Naturally, I lift the Chairman and boop their faces together.
“You’re an even better kisser than I remember, Sienna de la Vega,” Ryker says with a cheeky smile on his face. He tousles the Chairman’s fur who snuggles against his hand in response. “Here, I brought you flowers. Well, a flower.” Ryker reveals his other hand.
In it is the cutest flower I’ve ever seen. It’s a pot with eyes and a smile, and out of it grows a single rose. Except that it’s not really growing because it’s not real. It’s made of yarn.
“You knitted me a rose?”
“Your dead cactus made me sad, so, yes, but that’s not all.” Ryker hiccups. “I also wrote you a poem to go with the flower. You wanna hear?”
I let my cat glide to the floor and jump into My Mr. Grayson’s arms. He is sloshed and I am thoroughly entertained. Ryker carries me inside as the door flies shut behind us.
“Let’s hear it then,” I say just before his lips meet my forehead.
“Roses are red,” he places a kiss on my neck, “violets are blue,” another on my collarbone, “I couldn’t care less about stupid flowers,” and one on my lips that takes my breath away, “all I want is you.”
And that’s what he gets. Me. All of me. The more time I spend with him, the more I realize how wrong I have been. How he’s not at all what I expected, what I thought he was. I judged him by a single thing he did, or rather I thought he had done, whenthere is so, so much more to him. So many things that make my heart melt over and over again.
We spend the next three hours intertwined. Him on top of me, me on top of him, him inside me, me pulling him close. I try to absorb every little molecule of Ryker Really Great At Fucking Grayson.
The night is kind of a blur, but I am pretty sure even sleep can’t keep our bodies apart from each other. When I wake up, Ryker is wrapped around me like a spider monkey who is afraid of heights. I try to slip out, so I can go to the bathroom, but it’s of no use. When his grip won’t let up, I whisper a quiet‘babe’which only intensifies his hold around me.
“You know, I never liked that word,” Ryker eventually grumbles behind me. “But it’s my favorite sound when it comes from your lips.”
I smile and nibble on his biceps. “And I love saying it, babe. But, unless you’re into watersports, you really need to let me go to the bathroom right now.”
The next morning, we get ready for work together and Ryker tells me about his evening with the Knitwits. I also notice that the bottle of gin is missing from my bar, as are a few other things, such as a photograph, a painting, and some scrunchies. I wonder what Robyn would need those things for. Once ready, we head to the office.
The next couple of days transpire in similar ways. We work during the day. I am in close contact with his lawyers, and if we’re not busy with work, we spend every second glued to each other. We go to his house where we do a lot of things that I am not sure his grandparents would entirely approve of, I show him how to score donuts for free shortly before closing, and he takesme to places where a glass of water costs more than my food budget for the month.
We don’t flaunt our… whatever this thing between us is, but we don’t hide it either. Once at a restaurant, I think I recognize some employees from the office and instinctually push Ryker away so people won’t know that we’re together. It’s not that I’d care if people knew, it’s more that I worry about the possible repercussions for his image. That evening, it takes quite a few‘babes’to get him to forgive me.
