Page 30 of Harbor Me

Tommy shows up at the office near closing wearing the face he uses when he wants something.

"What did you break?"

"Rude. Nothing's broken." He shuffles in. Diesel opens one eye, confirms it's only Tommy, closes it again. "Friday's my birthday."

"Happy early birthday."

"I’m turning twenty-five. Marcus says my warranty's expiring." He picks a stapler up off my desk, puts it down in the wrong spot. "Anyway, everybody's going to the bar. Whole crew, Carol's coming, Walt shows up if the mood takes him and leaves when he runs out of stories, so basically never. You in?"

"You're inviting me?"

"You made muffins. You're family now. That's how the system works."

Oh. That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all month, and I’m desperately afraid I’m going to burst into tears.

"Of course I’ll be there."

The words have barely left my mouth when there’s a gruff "No,” from the doorway. Aiden coming in with a rag in one hand and a rejection in the other, and Tommy gets very interested in the parts shelf.

"Excuse me?" I say.

"Whitmore's boat comes out of the water first thing Saturday. Biggest haul of the month, guest dock's a disaster, I need this office open early and I need whoever's in it upright."

"It's Friday drinks, not a bachelor party. What exactly do you think I’m going to do?"

"It's my whole crew, three deep at the only bar in town, the night before a job I can't afford to butcher."

"The office will be open. I will be upright. I've survived corporate Christmas parties with an open bar and a karaoke machine. Tommy's birthday isn't going to end me."

He sets the rag on my desk and crosses his arms, boots planted wide, filling half my office. The immovability is what does it. Twice my size, dug in over a birthday party, so sure he's winning, and being this furious at him has done nothing, nothing, to stop what's happening behind this desk.

My pussy gone open and slick and pulsing, wetness seeping into my underwear with every stubborn second he stands there. Keeping still in this chair is turning into a full-time job, heels pressed hard into the floor so I don't squirm against the seat right in front of him.

In my head I'm bouncing the tape dispenser off his thick skull. In my head he's also rounding this desk, hauling me up out of the chair, sitting me on my own paperwork with my knees bracketing his hips, finishing his argument against my mouth, growling every infuriating word into the kiss while his hand drags up my thigh and takes my hem with it. Furious and wet. That's what he's turned me into, standing there with his arms crossed like he even gets to tell me no.

"You're still on trial," he says brusquely.

Wow. Okay. He went there.

"Yes, I am." I get to my feet on trembling legs, and my hip catches the desk drawer on the way up, loud, the whole desk jumping. Smooth, Vanessa, very commanding. I keep going anyway. "And next week you can fire me if you want to. If the filing's out of order or the coffee's bad or you find whatever it is you keep looking for when you glare at me. But you’d best remember that you only get to decide what I do during office hours, Aiden. Not in my free time. If I want to go out, get blind drunk and dance topless on the bar counter, that’s none of your business."

Diesel gets up, turns a circle, and lies back down in the middle of the floor between us.

Tommy appears to be trying to become one with the parts shelf and his eyes are wide as saucers. Hopefully he doesn’t actually expect me to offer free entertainment at his birthday party, because I’ve never danced on top of anything, with or without my top on.

Aiden looks at me a long moment. Nothing moving in his face at all.

"Then I guess you’ll do as you please and we’ll see if you still have a job to come back to. Enjoy the party."

He snatches up his rag and leaves, screen door banging behind him.

Tommy peels himself off the shelf. "So... that's a yes though, right? You're coming?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

"Sick." He points finger-guns at me on his way out, because he's twenty-four and there's no saving him.

Then it's just me and the dog and the sting of him threatening to fire me for socializing with the crew.