Page 13 of Love Off the Rocks
“Very cool.” I envision some senior exec, divorced, with kids, who’s happy for the attention she and her double-D breasts give him. Dishing out the dirt on the company right before it’s announced publicly. Making her feel special and still not breaking any major rules.
Or maybe he’s not divorced, and she’s his piece on the side. In either case, I may take it to human resources if she gets this promotion. It’s impossible that she’s more qualified than me.
Despite myself, I look around the room for Dev. It’s only natural that as she prattles on about her guy, I look for the one that used to be mine. Not that I still have feelings for him. I don’t even want to be looking for him. It’s just something to do. A way to pass the time until this meeting starts at five minutes past schedule already, according to my calculations. I hate when there’s an agenda, and it’s not followed.
I check and double check my supplies. I have a fresh pad of paper, two highlighters, and three new pencils, each sharpened to precision. Mostly because I hate writing with a dull lead. I don’t like how wide and sloppy the letters start without a sharp point. I know I could use an automatic pencil and have a constant sharp lead, but I don’t like the way they feel in my hand. And I don’t like clicking to get a new lead, whether on the eraser or the little clip thing. And don’t even get me started on the clip thing. A pencil should not have a clip thing. It should be yellow, made of wood, and have six even sides. Clip things are for ball-point pens only. Pencils are to be stuck behind your ears or in your—
“There he is now.” Brittni bounces in her seat, the motion causing me to bump into her each time her ass returns to the cushion.
I look up to check out her mystery man. But all I see is Devlin. I laugh to myself. Because no way would he ever be interested in someone like her. She’s too annoying. Too flighty, bubbly, booby, and—
“I want to thank everyone for making the trip out here today,” Devlin begins. “For taking the time out of your lives and away from your friends and family to devote to the company. We are appreciative.”
“Isn’t he great?” Brittni squeals into my ear.
“Dev is your guy?” I hiss.
“His friends call him Devlin,” she says, leaning into me.
Dev?
And Brittni?
My jaw clenches, my teeth grinding together near the back. Something my dentist has warned me about, or I’ll need to sleep with a mouth guard every night. I’m already stuck with retainers and glasses. Add in a mouth guard and even if I had a dating life, I’d never get a guy to sleep with me. Not with all that sexiness going on. Because the last thing I need is something more to inhibit my sex life or dating scene.
Fuck it.
I keep grinding.
7
Dev
I look around the room as I’m welcoming everyone here, meeting each person’s eyes as I go. As much as I don’t want to admit it to myself, I’m looking for Mags. I’m still amazed that she’s here, that we work for the same company. And that I didn’t know this before today.
I find her in the crowd, sitting next to Brittni, her jaw clenched and eyes hard. I pause on her to see if she’ll soften at seeing me.
Nope.
No softening there.
More like a powder keg about to blow.
“Just as a reminder,” I tell them, “Nancy is coming around to collect all cellular devices, including tablets—”
A collective groan moves through the room. “I know,” I continue, “but we want to make this a technology-free weekend.”
Brittni jumps from her seat. “You can have mine, Devlin.” She grabs my hand in hers, holding it a bit too long before placing her phone in it. Then trailing her fingers along my forearm before winking at me and sashaying back to her seat.
“But we’re a technology company.” A voice from the back of the room carries forward. Most people, including myself, laugh at that.
“See what we did there?” I ask. “Irony.”
A few people chuckle, but most are still just upset over losing their devices.
“Hopefully, tonight’s pizza making and beer tasting happy hour will make up for it.”
I make a bit of a production of unplugging the router and giving it to Nancy to tuck away somewhere. She has a list of team building and trust exercises that we’ll be doing starting tomorrow. But for tonight, we’ve just got a small ice breaker before happy hour.
