Page 93 of Last Night Was Fun

He looked like he had trouble swallowing his bite before he licked his lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed again, and she felt his eyes hungrily outlining her glasses.

Payback, she mouthed as the rest of their team filed in the door.

Gabe chewed away, his grin stretching his lips as he flicked a brow at her.

They were used to challenging each other at work, but this was a new kind of competition. One Emmy knew she had the upper hand in because all she had to do was look at him. And, apparently, wear glasses.

Soon Alice stood at the front of the room going over an update on the trade prospect analysis, and Emmy should have been listening. She should have been taking mental and physical notes, but even with her body swiveled forward, her eyes would not unglue from Gabe.

The arch of his cheekbones, the curve of his jaw. The hint of oranges and amber she could smell across the room, and the way she knew how it would flood through her like an elixir if she pressed her nose below his ear and inhaled. She wanted to graze her teeth on his stubble. She wanted to peel off his shirt and trace her fingertips over his chest. She wanted to remove every layer of his clothing and—

“Jameson?” Alice’s voice cut into her fantasy like a cymbal crash.

Emmy flinched. Her face burned, and she felt every eye in the room on her. Gabe’s were searing hot, and he wore a victorious grin on his lips. He cleared his throat to disguise a quiet laugh.

Goddamn it.Maybe she didn’t have the upper hand after all.

She took a breath and tried to focus. “Sorry, you were saying?” she asked Alice.

Alice gave her a suspicious look and paused for a few beats. “I said I want you as lead on this.” She nodded at the complicated chart projected on the screen behind her.

Emmy sat up straighter and pulled her head back into the game. “Of course.”

“Thank you. Now...” Alice continued talking, and Emmy forced herself to pay attention. Even in the moments when she could feel Gabe’s gaze traveling the terrain of her body like he too was undressing her with his eyes.

When the meeting ended a half hour later, Emmy and Gabe both lingered while Pedro and Silas slipped out the door. Alice remained at the other end of the room.

“After you,” Gabe said, and gestured for Emmy to go first.

She side-eyed him with a grin. “You’ve never waited for me to leave a room first.”

“Well, I’ve developed a taste for the view from behind,” he muttered.

Emmy’s face flamed again. She stifled a laugh. “Gabe,” she warned right as Alice called her name.

“Jameson? Got a minute?”

Emmy froze, feeling caught.

Gabe took the cue to pretend like nothing had happened and slipped out the door.

“Of course,” Emmy said to Alice and tried to keep her voice steady.

“Good. Walk with me,” Alice said with a nod. She gathered her laptop and tucked it under her arm. Emmy followed her into the hallway, jittery with nerves. Alice’s heels snapped off the concrete floor like little hammer strokes, each one pounding a nail in what Emmy was sure would be her career coffin. They were being way too obvious.

Once Alice deposited her laptop in her own office, she led Emmy down the hall and into an elevator that carried them up to the field level of the ballpark. All the while, Alice stayed quiet. Emmy was about to explode with anxiety when they crossed into the airy breezeway. She could see the field as a lime-green strip between the deck they stood on and the one above them. The maintenance crew milled around trimming every blade of grass and perfectly chalking the dirt.

“Thought we could use some fresh air,” Alice said with an encouraging smile.

Emmy still wasn’t sure what this impromptu walk-and-talk was about, so she simply smiled back.

They strolled past vendor booths being stocked for the game later that night: kegs on carts, trunks of ice, a towering trolley of hot dog buns. To their right, the empty stadium seats stretched down to the field like a sheet of shiny blue plastic.

“How was the wedding?” Alice asked in a calm, casual tone.

The tight knot in Emmy’s stomach loosened. “Oh!” she said, surprised at the topic, but of all her co-workers, Alice would be the one to ask. “It was really great. Kind of perfect, actually.” Her cheeks warmed as she thought back to the sand and sea, her sister’s smile. The warmth morphed into a full-on heat wave when she thought of Gabe in his suit. Gabe in his bathrobe. Gabe in nothing at all. “It was actually the best weekend of my life,” she quietly added.

Alice shot her a coy smile. “You’re not going to run off to Mexico on me, are you?”