Page 16 of Unexpectedly Wanted
“The two of you might get more accomplished if you stopped trying to have a pissing match.”
Reed didn’t often talk like that, so it threw me for a loop. All I could do was blink at him.
“I… I don’t know what to say to that,” I said. “If you think I’m not doing a good enough job, then I will leave.”
“That’s not what I want.”
“It would be a lot better for me if you just said what you wanted. You know I’m not good when people beat around the bush. Not only is it hard for me to grasp what they really want, but it’s also stupid. And it ends up wasting a lot of time.”
He sighed, making me wonder if I’d disappointed him somehow.
“I think you two should talk more,” he said pointedly. “And I mean sit down, talk like normal adults. I think you’d find that the two of you would make a great team. If you leaned on him a little more, maybe it would make things run a little more smoothly around here.”
“I wasn’t aware that things weren’t running smoothly.”
“Milo,” he said, foot dropping off of the opposite knee and hitting the floor too loudly for my already frazzled nerves to handle. He leaned forward, and I gave him my full attention. “It’s not youorhim.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The team doesn’t need youorhim. We need both of you. If you think that your job is in question because Remy is able tohelpyou, let me assure you that’s not the case.” He kept emphasizing words in a different tone and raising his brow as he spoke them. “I want both of you here as long asyoustill want tobehere.”
“I do,” I quickly assured him.
Maybe I didn’t exactly fit in here, since it wasn’t like I’d tried to make friends with the team, but that didn’t mean that I felt useless. I felt important most of the time. I felt like I was a part of something, even if I was off working in my own little bubble. I liked it here. I wanted to be here.
“I believe you. So can you try?” he asked.
“Try what?” Ugh, this was frustrating.
“Try being nice to Remy. Stop feeling so threatened by him because he is not going to take your place here. He never could. You are just as important as him. The team needs you both. If there’s something that’s happened, feel free to tell me. I’d like to help any way that I can.”
“Nothing’s happened. I just… I don’t know. We don’t get along, okay? I didn’t realize it was so bad that it was affecting the rest of the office.”
“It feels like it’s gotten worse over the last year,” he said. “People tend to clear the room if the two of you are in it. While I could work around that if I had to, I’d prefer if we could all somewhat get along.”
“He’s my boyfriend,” I blurted out like an idiot. I must have still been rattled from everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
Reed’s mouth opened, and he blinked at me for a long time. I needed to correct that statement, but I couldn’t get the words out.
“I did not see that coming,” he finally said.
“Not like that. Not for real.” And because Reed was so easygoing and a great Boss Man, I rattled off what had happened. Starting with the weird lunch with my parents.
“Do you need some time off?” he asked, and his eyes seemed almost like they were begging me to say that I did.
“No. I need to work. I can’t deal with… all of that. When I’m here, I’m comfortable. I know what is going on. What I need to do. And that is what I have to hold on to.”
“But still, you haven’t really taken time off since you accepted a place on the team.”
“I don’t want it. I don’t even know what I’d do if I didn’t have this place to come to.”
He nodded, letting those words sink in, I assumed.
“Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing,” he said, a wicked smile playing on his lips. Well, maybe it wasn’t that wicked. Reed was a nice guy, he didn’t do wicked. But still, it felt that way to me. Like there was some kind of plan going on in his head that he couldn’t wait to see play out. And that made me feel uneasy. “Just try to get along, please.”
“Fine,” I said flatly as I turned my attention to booting up my computer and logging in.
“Fill me in on what you’ve got going on.”
