Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (6 page)

In the end, despite her aversions
to Sean, she did care what he thought. Obviously he was doing something right
in his professional career to be where he was. Logically, she should listen to
his every word so some of his success might rub off.

In truth, though, she wanted to
stand out. She wanted to prove she was better than the sleaze-buckets he took
home. That she was worth something, that she was more than just tits and ass.
She wanted respect, damn it. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

I’m dumb.

When she was finished, she paused
in her fifth rendition of Aretha Franklin’s song. To help Sean, or not to help
Sean. The power was in her hands.

Who was she kidding? Sometimes she
was bitchy, but overall she wasn’t a bitch. Or spiteful.

Hi Sean,

Per your request, here is a copy of
my presentation. It was sent to Mr. Montgomery earlier today. I would
appreciate it if you didn’t mention that I sent it to you directly—he gets
touchy about that sort of thing.

Any feedback you could give would
be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Krista

Faster than a flash, she received
back:

Dear Krista,

Understood.

-Sean

She stared at the screen for a
minute, looked away, and then looked back at the email just in case she missed
part of the message.

No, she was right the first
time--it was a pretty simple message.

It was the simplicity that was
misleading. Did he understand she was going out on a limb for him? If so, where
was the gratitude? What did he think about it being her first presentation? Did
that worry him? Did he have confidence in her? There was so much more going on
than “understood” could portray.

Could he have at least given her a
sentence so that she could read into it a bit more? Cripes, she had nothing
else to do, dissecting his code like she was in high school would have at least
passed the hours.

And while she was on the “I hate
Sean” bandwagon, why bother with the Dear Krista shenanigans? And why sign his
name? The email said who the sender was; she didn’t need him to double up the
info.

She sighed, loudly, and leaned back
in her chair. Then she went for coffee. Her friend Peet was always willing to
lend an ear while selling his wares.

The next day there was an email
waiting in her inbox. Thankfully it was from Sean. Thankfully because she had
slept horribly worried that he would accidently, or not accidentally, tell Mr.
Montgomery that she sent it directly to him. She would get in serious trouble
if her boss found out.

Krista—

Fantastic work! You get a gold star
for this. And thanks for breaking protocol sending it ahead of time—your secret
is safe with me. Any problems and don’t hesitate to say I strong-armed you.

I have noted some minor changes
that would help on a macro level. As soon as James sends me his version (which
I doubt will have any changes), I will send these changes to him so we are all
on the same page. I will not mention you already received these notes.

I also have some art mock-ups. If
you wanted to pop by my office I could briefly show you what we are looking at
in terms of overall feel. It would help you to know how you fit into the
overall layout. Please let me know if you have time for this.

J
Thanks again on such a
thorough job. I knew I would be in safe hands.

-Sean

Well, now, that’s more like it!

Krista smiled to herself. Her worry
had been stupid. Of course Sean would understand! Thank God!

She got to work right away on his
notes, which were both insightful and easy to change, then got her mug and
headed down to meet him with a bounce in her step. It wasn’t until she stepped
out of the elevator that she paused. That she realized where she was going.
Alone.

Her stomach filled with butterflies
and her fist tightened on her lucky mug.

“This is not a big deal,” she
whispered to herself.

Taking a big breath, stepping out
of the line of fire into a fake, bushy plant, which was only weird if she got
caught, she took stock of her situation. She was here for business. She was not
here to meet him in some kind of intimate tryst. He was funny and nice to talk
to, but so were a million people. His handsome face and freaking god-like body
just meant he was bad news to boot. No mystery there. She’d already catalogued
that fact.

So why the hell was that open door
beckoning her closer, the pull of the charismatic salesman moving her feet as
if she was in a lovesick daze. It was so freaking unfair.

With a big sigh, face a stern mask
of determination, she stepped out from behind the bushy plant, then apologized
profusely to the passing woman who jumped and screeched at the Research girl
materializing out of thin air.

Back on track, Krista marched down
the hallway, eyes trained on the battlefield, ready to keep her wits about her,
hands to herself, and not grab any crotches in an act of sexual starvation. As
she stepped up to the gaping door, hand in the act of knocking, she heard a
female voice float out into the hallway. Then laughter.

Her gut pinched in worry. She
really, really didn’t want to walk in on some sort of office sexual fantasy
being acted out by Sean and his squeeze of the day.

She poked her head in slowly, eyes
squinting just in case they had to close quickly, and saw a woman leaning
heavily over the desk, half her large chest spilling out of her top and onto
the wood. Sean’s green eyes seemed to glow in the bright, fluorescent light as
they glanced at the cle**age show, a slick, predator-like expression dominating
his face.

Her stomach seized up. Instead of
the hurt she feared, her determination hardened. This clown wasn’t worth her
emotional rollercoaster, and she was tired of him getting his way. Really, did
these women not have any self-respect?

Rolling her eyes, Krista continued
her knock, sighing when Sean’s head snapped up and his hungry expression turned
into a mask of guilt.

“Sorry to disturb you,” Krista said
coolly, irritation firing on all cylinders. “I just wanted to look at the art
mock-ups. Should I come back later?” She glanced at the busty girl who was
surprisingly not cute.

It was official. This guy would
literally screw anything. No offense Miss Boob-N-Plenty.

“Not at all, Krista. Please, come
in,” Sean answered cordially.

The girl, a member of Marketing,
gave Krista a look that said she should watch her back or her desk might catch
fire with her tied to it. “Okay, Sean, well I’ll chat with you tonight.”
Mt.
Bust
slowly crossed to the door,
then made a show of waiting for Krista to get out of her way.

“Ole,” Krista said without
thinking. She looked up at Sean with a “Don’t you dare comment” look. Wisely, he
caught it and erased his smile.

After Krista finally stepped into
the room, Sean said, “Sorry about that. She was just visiting.”

He looked like he needed Krista to
understand something. Male urges? Helplessness in the face of ni**les?
Unwilling participant in a love affair but unable to say no for fear of life?
Whatever it was, she wasn’t buying.

“No problem. Could I just see the
mock-ups?”

“Of course.” Sean smoothly exited
his chair, raising a hand to beckon her over.

Krista stayed right where she was.
She knew what happened to raw meat when it wandered into the lion’s den.

“They are on discs,” Sean explained
patiently, “so you have to view them from my computer.” His face was perfectly
blank.

Have you ever heard of a flash
drive?

Defeated but still rigid, Krista
crossed the space, taking the path on the far side of the desk to get to the
chair. It meant she had to awkwardly climb over a garbage can and recycling
bin, half leaning on the desk so as not to crawl through a plant, but she did
not have to pass within inches of an incredibly attractive, though exceedingly
sleazy, salesman.

As she sank into the overstuffed
leather chair it went
cush
.
“Oh holy hell, this is a nice chair. Sorry about the language.”

A smile flickering up his face,
Sean said, “Can’t complain.”

He took two slow steps to her side,
leaned over her, his solid bicep inches from her face, and worked the mouse,
bringing up the presentation. A buzzing filled Krista’s head as she tried to
ignore the heat radiating off that exquisite body. She took a deep breath, not
hearing whatever was drumming out of his muscular chest next to her ear. His
special elixir dizzied her, made her want to lean in, connecting her skin with
his.

“There you go.” That smooth
masculine tone tickled her ears and groin at the same time, making her break
out in a sweat and shiver.

“Hmmmm?”

Sean’s face angled down to hers,
wondering if she understood.

Oh, she understood alright. She was
about to go down the wrong road if he kept standing there, that’s what she
understood. She didn’t need to add sexual harassment to her list of accolades.

“Yup, all good here. No problem.
Please step away.”

With a confused chuckle, Sean did
exactly that, eating her alive with his intense gaze.

Shaking her head, reaching for
control, she reached for the mouse as she cleared her throat. “Do you have a
pen and notepaper? I’d like to take some notes. Me memory no so good.”

Sean chuckled. “Sure.”

“Jeez, you get all the nice office
stuff,” Krista noticed through a foggy head. “I get crappy plastic pens with no
grip, a crappy mouse, a used, dirty keyboard—well, until it was replaced…”

“Replaced?”

“Oh, yeah. I guess the main-cheese
in IT thought he’d do me a favor. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Jacob?”

“The one and only. I think Research
freaks him out, though. He hasn’t come back, thank God. I only need so much
leering in my lifetime.”

Sean chuckled again. “It’s who you
know, though sometimes the cost isn’t worth the end result.”

He had that right.

He paused for a minute before he
moved to the visitor chairs facing the desk. “Are you wearing a new scent?”

“What?”

“Your perfume. New?”

“Oh, yeah. My friend Kate gave it
to me. Well, not true. She left it at my house and I failed to return it.”

“Finders keepers.”

She laughed. “Exactly.”

When the slide show came up she had
a good look. The art portion wasn’t all that exciting, but looked way different
than her presentation. The colors, for starters, clashed with her colors. They
looked like two different presentations altogether. If what she was looking at
was set in stone, she needed to redo her whole design format.

That would mean she wasted a ton of
time on this! It was short-sighted on Sean’s part to wait this long before
letting her know.

“Is this what you’re going with?
Final, final?” she asked, irritation seeping back into her voice.

Sean sat in the visitor chair, eyes
glued to her face. “Yes. There might be one or two changes, but they would be
minimal.”

“Just a curiosity, has Mr.
Montgomery seen this?”

Sean’s head tilted. “No. Why would
he?”

“To check it against my stuff?”

He shook his head, clearly not
understanding what she was rambling about. It seemed like no one in the company
cared about efficiency. Everyone worked independently of each other, thus
making the project roll around in circles. It affronted Krista’s organized
nature.

She shrugged and let it go. She was
too new to raise those kinds of questions to the top salesman. She also doubted
Mr. Montgomery would care about the work of other departments. His personality
clashed, why shouldn’t his colors?

“Okay, got it.” She leaned forward
with the intent to get up, but her butt had fallen in love with soft, supple
leather. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning back, instead.

Sean, still watching her
intently—here’s another word, staring—took her cue and settled a little more
firmly in his own, much less comfortable, chair.

“Sorry.” She sighed, wiggling her
butt. “It’s just… this freaking chair has a hold on me and doesn’t want to let
go.”

“Then I’m jealous of the chair,”
Sean whispered.

The words wound their way through
the air like silk, curling under her skin, stroking her in all the right
places. He sounded so sincere. As a woman listening to a man she found
startlingly attractive, she wanted to believe.

Like Theresa believed. Like the
Boob Market from a moment ago believed.

Krista was out of the chair as if
on springs, climbing over the garbage can like an explorer running from a
raging elephant. She didn’t even care about the gossip end of it anymore. She
was more concerned with not falling for that old bullshit. She was better than
that. She deserved better.

“Krista…” Sean stood quickly,
partially blocking her way.

“Excusez-moi.” She didn’t meet his
eyes. Instead she drank in the sight of his large expanse of shoulder. The air
was stuffed with unsaid words as he slowly stepped aside.

“Your mug,” he said softly. He
sounded forlorn. He sounded like he had been unfairly tried; guilty until
proven innocent.

Yeah right, dude. You own the world
but you’re oppressed? Such a douche.

Her mug, though, was serious
business. In a twirl of locomotion, she snatched her mug off the desk, but
didn’t account for her shaky grip. It jumped ship and fell toward the floor.

“Oh God no! I am such a complete
moron!”

She dove head first after it,
already having bruised half her face, and now not caring if the other side
matched or not. She could not break another lucky mug. Not two in the same job.
It would be doomsday for sure.