Page 22 of Lucy Loves Him Not
If Adam had any jitters from working with me, he hid them well. He greeted me casually when I walked in and waved me over to the chairs in front of his desk as he finished typing something on his phone.
I tapped my foot impatiently. My gaze lingered on his tie, which hung looser than I’d imagined. The walls in his office were light blue, his desk a cherry wood that matched the bookshelves lining the wall to the left of us. I wondered if the books were hisown or if they belonged to City Management. My eyes went to the window behind him. Trees rustling in the breeze vibrantly green.
He tossed his phone aside, putting his sights on me and I hated that it gave me a rush. He briskly began our meeting, putting a paper copy of the agenda he’d emailed me earlier in my hands. No small talk, straight to business.
Around half an hour into the meeting and a couple of bullet points down the agenda, Adam noticed me rubbing my arms in the chilly air. “Is it too cold for you?” he asked, concerned.
I shook my head, but he squinted at the goosebumps on my arms. “You can admit to being cold. I might, I don’t know, try to help.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine.”
He popped out of his office for a beat then came back. “I changed the air; it should warm up here in a bit.” Then he threw me a sweatshirt. “And I grabbed this for you.”
It was an oversized Sweet River City Hall sweatshirt. He probably grabbed it from a stash in some supply closet.
I slipped it on and it immediately smelled like fresh laundry, bergamot, and—I took another sniff—a hint of peppermint. The scent was so good and so strong. Someone had obviously worn this before.
I swallowed. Was thishissweatshirt?He does love peppermint lattes.I would never have put this on if I had known. I tried to actively not like the scent. My body wanted to burrow deeper into the coziness and the aroma, but I sat up straight and went back to discussing how to properly label files and a bunch of other new rules the festival needed to abide by to “keep on top of things” as Adam kept saying.
“I liked the old way we kept files for the record,” I murmured as I played with the wristband of the sweatshirt.
“Are you sure this isn’t your pride? You needing to have it your way because you only trust your way?” Adam asked from behind his desk.
“My pride?What do you know about my pride after two encounters with me?” I lifted my brows.
“Four, if you count your romantic evening with Victor and when you gave me the green light on Love Local. And I definitely count that green light.” He clicked something with his mouse.
“That green light was from my sisters. That wasn’t me. They took my phone,” I said in some attempt to retain my dignity.
His face immediately fell. Something like disappointment flashed across his face. But, within seconds, he was talking about spreadsheets again.
I was paying attention to the spreadsheets…but I was also thinking how I could easily figure out if this sweatshirt was Adam’s. I would just need to smell him. And there he sat a mere few feet from me. Waiting to be sniffed. I attempted leaning in toward his desk while we spoke, but it wasn’t close enough.
At one point he opened a photo on his desktop when we made it to the layout of the festival bullet point of the agenda, so I decided to take this opportunity to get closer to him.
I walked over behind his desk, acting like I needed to see the photo better.
“Oh, hello there,” he said as I scooted in beside him, shoulder to shoulder.
“Let me take a peek,” I said, squinting my eyes at the screen.
“Okay,” he said slowly, leaning away from me so I could get a better view of the screen.
“Interesting,” I murmured, turning toward him so I could get a better whiff, but it was difficult since he was pulling away.
“Yes?” he said as I leaned in toward him, trying to seem casual.
“What are your thoughts?” I attempted to play it off as if I was leaning in so we could discuss it.
“That you’re being weird?” He pinned me down with his gaze.
“What are your thoughts about this photo?” I pointed at the screen, ignoring his comments because I was already in this deep.
“My thoughts are that it’s a nice aerial view of the space…” he said, scooting in closer to the screen so he could look at it as he spoke.
Victory. We were shoulder to shoulder again. I took a subtle sniff. But it was kind of hard to tell with the sweatshirt.Was I smelling him or was the sweatshirt mingling with his scent?
Maybe I should’ve given up at this point. But I needed to know if I could savor this sweatshirt or if I would be reveling in Annoying Adam. I was committed.
