Page 10 of Under Control
“Hey, Olivia,” he said, and the click of her heels stopped as she turned back. “I’ll walk out with you, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all.” She waited until he was next to her and then resumed walking. “I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you, anyway.”
“Really?” He stepped forward to open the frosted glass door for her.
“I never thanked you for keeping me company in the elevator. I was so behind schedule that day that I just rushed off without saying a proper goodbye. Or a proper thank-you.”
He chuckled. “It was my pleasure to keep you company, even if I didn’t really have a say in the matter.”
He didn’t miss the way her cheeks blushed a little at the wordsmy pleasure. “You didn’t have a say in being in the elevator with me, but you went out of your way to be good company. I probably would have panicked if you weren’t there to keep me calm.”
It was kind of his job, but he stopped himself from pointing that out. It would be a conversational dead end. “I enjoyed it, actually. It wouldn’t have broken my heart any if it had taken a little longer for the guys to get the door open.”
She gave him a sideways look, the corner of her mouth curved into a playful smile. “And here we are, about to tempt fate again.”
For a moment, he was confused, until he realized they were at the elevator. “Feeling lucky?”
“Either way, it’s a win.”
Derek wasn’t great at flirting, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out she wouldn’t mind being stuck in the elevator with him again and that wasdefinitelya win.
Once they were in the elevator and the doors had slid closed, though, she looked nervous. She leaned against the back wall with her leather journal clutched to her chest. Her face was a little flushed and the deep breath she took was a little shaky.
“So what did you think of the Village Hearts crowd?” he asked, hoping to distract her in case she was having any kind of anxiety issues about being in elevators after getting stuck in one. He knew it happened.
“They all seem nice and they’re enthusiastic. I’m looking forward to working with everybody.”
“George can be a little tough to deal with at times, but he means well. I’m sorry about the football thing.”
“I probably should have just told him I’m not from Boston.”
“No shit? Sorry. I mean, really? You don’t have much of an accent. Where are you from?”
“Virginia, but I went to college here and decided to stay. That’s probably where I learned to match the team names with the sports.” She shrugged as the elevator came to a stop and the door opened. “And you don’t have to apologize for swearing. It doesn’t bother me.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” He followed her into the main lobby of the building, aware that with every step they took, his window of opportunity was closing.
But he was second-guessing himself now. One, it didn’t seem right to hit on her the first time she showed up to help out with a charity that meant a lot to him. She’d already shown she had a lot to offer them and he didn’t want to scare her off. And secondly, while it might look like she was flirting, it was still hard for him to believe a woman like her would be interested in dating a guy like him.
“It’s probably stupid,” she said, “but I didn’t want him to know I wasn’t from Boston. I’m already new to the committee and I didn’t want to be an outsider, too. Not that it matters, really, but he seems like the kind of guy who’d hold it against me for no good reason.”
“I’d like to say you’re wrong because I’ve known George for years, but he can be a jerk sometimes. And he was kind of rude to you.”
“Thank you for jumping in.” She smiled, and the warmth in her eyes made him wish she’d smile all the time. “I wasn’t really sure what to say because I didn’t want to make a big thing out of it, but I also didn’t want to apologize for not being a sports fan.”
Derek couldn’t imagine not having sports in his life, but he damn well wouldn’t expect Olivia to be sorry about it.
“Ignore him when he’s like that. He’ll warm up to you.”
Once they’d walked out of the chill of the climate-controlled lobby into the steamy evening air, he saw by the way she turned that they’d parked in different directions. But she paused and looked at him. “My car’s this way.”
“I’m the other way, but I can walk you.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I can actually see it from here. I’ll be fine. I should give you my card, though, so you can contact me.” She opened her notebook and he saw a pocket with a small stack of business cards, but she pulled one from a separate pocket. She handed it to him and he saw that she’d handwritten a telephone number on it. “That’s my cell phone. I should warn you up front that I rarely answer calls, but I’ll respond to voicemail messages as soon as I can. The same with text messages if I’m with a client.”
He pulled out his wallet and tucked the card away. Later he’d put her number into his phone so he wouldn’t lose it. “If I’m on a call, the same warning applies to me, I guess.”
She laughed. “I don’t imagine answering a text is a high priority if you’re fighting a fire.”
