I was shivering when I stepped out of the bathroom, but the frustration remained. If Brian dragged this out much longer, I wasn’t going to survive.
14
Brian
Laura was in her office bright and early a few days later when I arrived. I walked down the empty hall and stopped outside her door. Her back was to me and she was looking out the window. “What’s going on with Jeremy?” she asked without turning around.
“What do you mean?”
She shook her head, still focused on whatever was outside her window. “Don’t play coy with me.”
I smirked, but quickly wiped the look off my face when she turned around. Apparently, I was the only one who was amused. “You’ll have to be more specific,” I amended.
“I guess you’re not here enough to notice, but Jeremy has been,” she searched for the word, then, “aggressive lately. He’s frustrated, and for once, Garret is on his best behavior.”
“So it must be me?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, you’re not. But it’s not me. It’s the rules.”
“What rules?” she asked with a heavy sigh, plopping down into the chair. “Is this that boy’s club thing?”
“How can you take something so exclusive and make it sound like a treehouse club with just one sentence?”
“You know how I feel about exclusive clubs.”
“They suck unless you’re in them?”
She smiled. “Yep. So, dish. What’s going on with you two? I thought the flowers were a peace offering.”
“A date invitation.”
She leaned forward. “So, did you seal the deal?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Not allowed to until after the third date is complete.”
“You haven’t gone on three dates yet?” Her mouth dropped open. “It’s been almost three weeks since he joined that club to get you to notice him.”
“You knew about that?”
“Alex thinks he’s smooth, but I knew why he was looking for a reference. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Look at him, Brian, he’s miserable. Are you taking him out tonight?”
“I can.”
“And can you fix his issue?”
I guffawed, clapping my hands over my mouth. “You have no couth,” I told her.
“I never said I did.”
I stepped forward and leaned on the window sill, careful not to push the vertical blinds. “What is he doing?”
“He’s been earning that cat’s trust for weeks now. Honestly, I think it’s been a couple months, but I don’t know when exactly it started.”
“So he just sits there on his breaks, talking to a cat?”
“It’s more than that. You would think a man like yourself would appreciate his dedication.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on, Brian. We both know what you’re trying to do. Jeremy challenged you, and you’re trying to break him just to prove him wrong.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. I see it in the way he looks at you. He’s doing everything in his power to earn your praise, and you’re toying with him.” She glared at me. “Do you want him? Yes or no.”
“Yes, of course. How could you ask me something like that?”
“Then why are you making him wait so long?”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. At some point, I’d forgotten the point behind our little games and I was bent on winning at all costs. But if I succeeded in showing Jeremy that he enjoyed being a submissive, wasn’t I also a winner?
“Look, I’m going on vacation. I’m leaving you two in charge of the office problem child, but here’s the thing. When I get back, I don’t want to deal with this crap, okay? Either cut him loose and work from home until you two can be in the same room together again, or you give that boy his third date and then you love him senseless until all this torture and delayed gratification is worth it.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. We all know what you’re into.”
“Fine. I’ll take him out tonight.”
“Don’t make him wait too long after that.”
“I won’t,” I promised.
“Good.” She motioned toward the picnic area again. “You see that? After weeks of gently drawing that feral cat out of its shell, it’s eating out of his hand. How can you not fall completely in love with a guy like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you don’t, someone else will. You’ve had the worst luck with men, but you know as well as I do that it’s your own fault.” Her words stung, but she wasn’t done. “You keep dating losers if you want, but don’t destroy Jeremy for the rest of us.”
“You sound more like his big sister than his boss,” I snapped, but she was unbothered.
“Because I am. Jeremy is like family, and so are you. Don’t make me choose, because if you hurt him, you’ll be making the choice for me.”
I stiffened at the obvious threat, but Laura was through with me. I walked out the door, angry at her, myself, Jeremy. And that damn cat. Why couldn’t things be easy for me when it came to matters of the heart? Yes, I’d been toying with Jeremy since day one, but it was the first time, and I was only protecting my heart from the pain I’d experienced so many times. What was wrong with that?
Everything, I realized. The one time I had a man that was worth loving and I treated him like dirt to prove a point. But letting him in meant letting him in. That was terrifying, but I wasn’t about to be upstaged by a damn cat. Ripping my phone out of my pocket, I sent Jeremy a text, watching him through the hall window.
He ignored the buzzing in his pocket, or he had the ringer off, but I was still fuming. He was still playing with the cat, oblivious to my anguish, and the volley of emotions swirling inside me. I’ll pick you up at your place, I said without giving the time. We were going to have our third date, which I was contractually obligated to provide whether this went any further or not. After that, we would decide where to go from there.
I watched him for a long time, and when he finally went to his car, he collected the cell phone from the front seat and I let out the angry breath I’d been holding. It was charging, I realized. Not even in his pocket. I’d gotten myself worked up over nothing. You’re jealous of a cat, the voice inside me teased, but I pushed it away. It wasn’t the cat. It was the tenderness that Jeremy put into their interactions that had me up in arms. I longed for that kind of attention. But Laura was right. As long as I was playing games with him, Jeremy wasn’t going to let his guard down with me the way he was with the cat.
He responded right away with a big smile emoji that matched the grin on his face as he was typing, his hip against his car. I can’t wait, he said.
Neither could I.
15
Jeremy
We finished our three dates and more than a week went by with nothing happening. Things were going great and I felt closer to Brian than ever, but there was something keeping him from taking that next step. I longed to talk it over with Laura, but she’d left on a vacation, reminding Brian to remember what they talked about as she left in a flurry of excitement. The office had been quiet, with only Garret’s constant bragging about his man to break up the overwhelming influx of work.