Page 14 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

Cory dances close to me but maintains some space between us. A part of me is grateful because we don’t know each other, but I also wish he would show a little more interest.

But do I even want his interest? Once again, my mind wanders to Dr. Blake. He’s the one I want to be dancing with right now. Cory is hot, sure, and we have some interests in common, but I don’t feel a spark with him. We don’t have the same chemistry I had with Dr. Blake upon first meeting him. I suppose that could build with Cory. Maybe he and I are meant to be together…

I glance up and meet his eyes. There’s attraction there, but that’s it.

No, Cory and I aren’t meant to be together.

We chat and dance for a couple of hours until Nicole comes over to find me.

“Hey, we’re heading out.”

I check the time. It’s almost ten now. I have to be up at six for work, and I’m a big fan of sleep.

“I should probably get going, too,” I say. I turn my attention to Cory. “I had a lot of fun! Thanks for dancing with me.”

“My pleasure. Can I get your number?”

I rattle it off so he can put it into his phone. We hug, and I leave with Nicole and the rest of our coworkers. Nicole bites her tongue on the walk to the subway, but I know she’s dying to ask me about Cory.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what I’d say.

Yeah, he’s cute and nice. But the entire time I danced with him, I was thinking about Dr. Blake.

That says a lot about the state of my mind right now.

5

AJ

I recognize the look on Briana’s face. She’s pissed at me.

The convention ended an hour ago, but there were still people mulling around for a while. The last few guests only just now made their way off the sales floor.

Briana and I can finally start closing up shop. One of my other employees, Carter, is here to help. He and Briana are working shifts throughout the day. Carter takes the morning, and Briana takes the afternoon, but they work together on setup and takedown. Not that we have to completely break down our booth tonight. There are still two more days of the convention. Saturday night is going to suck, though, because that’s when we actually clear out.

“Just say what you want to say,” I blurt out. Briana has been shooting daggers at me since Amber left our booth. I’m sick of it at this point.

“I’ve already said it.”

“Well, you clearly want to say it again.”

“I just don’t get why you’re risking this entire company for that girl.”

I roll my eyes. “Come on, Briana. Be real. Amber signed the proper forms. It’s not like I gave it to her and said, ‘Go have fun.’ She’ll come to my office and go through the traditional routine for a trial.”

“Except we don’t just pick random people at a convention for trials, Dr. Blake. There’s a process that we go through. And with this product…I thought you were just going to play around with it, not give it to some stranger.”

“You’re making this into a much bigger deal than it needs to be.”

“What are you talking about?” Carter asks.

Briana grimaces. “Dr. Blake is thinking with his dick again.”

“Briana!”

“Don’t pretend it’s not true. Some girl with curves for days showed up at our booth and picked up AJB-9. Just as I was trying to take it away, Dr. Blake here shows up. Not only does he let her test it, but he offers for her to take it home and use it regularly!”

“What the hell?!? Why was it even on the table, Bri?”

Carter doesn’t know the extent of why Briana doesn’t want Amber using AJB-9, but he’s familiar with our policies when it comes to testing products.

“I took it out to look for something and forgot to put it away.”

“The way I see it, this is partly your fault. I don’t see why we even had AJB-9 with us in the first place.”

“I wanted to be able to test it during lulls,” I explain to Carter. “I didn’t expect it would end up on our display, but it happened. It’s too late to take any of this back.”

Briana shakes her head. “It’s not too late. You just don’t want to take it back.”

“You know, I pay your checks. You shouldn’t be backtalking me.”

“You pay me to talk back to you.”

She has a point. Beyond being the best salesperson I’ve ever met, Briana acts as a sounding board for me. She has helped me out of a lot of scrapes in the past. Maybe I should’ve listened to her this time, too.

“I think this will be good. Did you hear what Amber said? She was in a tanning booth once a week for four years. Sometimes twice a week! Add that to her time on the beach every summer, and there’s got to be cellular damage. AJB-9 may help, and this is the perfect test.”

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