Page 66 of The Boss Upstairs
I exhale a long breath. I can’t tell her anything. It’s a clause in the agreement, and is strictly forbidden, but she’s no dummy. She obviously already knows. “Okay… somethingisup,” I finally confess.
“I knew it!”
I shake my head and inch closer. “He can’t know that you know,” I whisper. “It’s supposed to be a secret.”
Her smile is naughty. “My lips are sealed,” she says. “On one condition.”
“What condition?” I ask, a little scared.
“As long as you give me all the juicy details, I’ll pretend I don’t know a thing.”
I laugh. “You’re too funny.”
There’s no way I’m going to tell her the details. We both know she’s joking.
Well, Ihopeshe’s joking.
* * *
“I thinkthese might be last week’s cookies,” I tell Samuel. “They seem to get more stale every week.”
He smiles. “There’s always leftovers. They probably stuff them back in the boxes, and take them out again the next week.”
I abandon my cookie. “That’s disgusting. And unhygienic.”
“I’m bringing homemade cookies next week,” Bernadette chimes in. “I make fantastic ginger molasses cookies.”
“Yes… please,” I beg. “Anything but these.”
Samuel and I both reach for a coffee stir stick, and his hand brushes against mine accidentally, on purpose, I’m not sure. “So last Friday,” he says. “That was nice. We should do it again.”
I nod nervously. It’s the way he says it, like he has other plans in mind. I thought I was very clear about not being ready for a new relationship. “Uh… sure,” I say, at a loss for words.
“I know a great Italian restaurant not far from here,” he tells me. “I do their security.”
I blow on my hot coffee. “Really? Is that what you do for a living?”
He shrugs. “Yep… it pays the bills. I install security systems for businesses and high-end homes.”
“You help keep the monsters at bay,” I joke.
He laughs. “Yep, I protect people from guys like me.”
I stand straighter, confused. “What do you mean?”
He laughs. “I was a bad seed when I was younger. Me and my buddies used to break in expensive homes and loot them, a bunch of delinquent modern-day pirates. It was so easy. Now I know how criminal minds work.”
“Oh… interesting,” I say, not quite believing his words. He seems like such a sweet guy.
“So anyway, this Italian place is fantastic. They make a great veal parm. I took a date there last Saturday… she loved it.”
“Oooh,” I coo. “A date… how did it go?”
He smiles proudly. “Pretty good. Her name is Melissa, and she’s a registered nurse. She’s pretty too.”
I nod, happy to see him moving on. Maybe I’ve been imagining his attraction to me. I should really get over myself.
“So how about it?” he says. “Next Friday?”
I really enjoy his company, and a night out is definitely not a bad thing for me. “Sure… sounds like a plan.”
An excited smile stretches across his face. “Fantastic.”
