He nods in comprehension. “Okay, got it. Well, they weren’t your employee at the time so you’re all cool there…but am I right in thinking you want to go there again?”
“More than I want to win the sevens tournament this year,” I admit.
His mouth falls open in utter disbelief. “Jesus Christ. Okay, well I can tell you that consensual sex with your employee isn’t the worst thing in the world, but you’re you so obviously that’s not going to hold much water…” he looks away for a moment, rubbing at his beard again. “I guess the best thing for you to do is just avoid them until it passes.”
So far this week, I’ve been able to take Sullivan’s advice and just avoid Will. I’ve been in my office before he arrives in the morning, I’ve left after he’s gone home, and I’ve communicated everything I need to him through email and text. All very professional and polite.
But of course it hasn’t stopped me from thinking about him. It hasn’t stopped me from staring at my phone like a twelve-year-old girl waiting for his quick reply of “no problem” every time I text him some instructions. It definitely hasn’t stopped me from finding him on Facebook and spending time when I should be working scouring his profile for every little tidbit of information I can gather.
“So here’s a question for you, what’s Fight Club doing sitting out front of your office?”
I jerk at the sound of Cole’s voice and glance up from my computer to see he’s barged into my office and is striding toward my desk. “Fucking hell, you scared the shit out of me.”
“I wouldn’t have if you’d checked your phone.” He nods to the cell sitting on my desk.
I pick up my phone and unlock it to see there’s indeed a text from Cole telling me he’s coming up to see me. I shake my head. “I don’t know why I thought it’d be a good idea to let you rent office space in this building. You’re always up here interrupting my work.”
“Mmhmm,” he says with a knowing smirk. Rounding my desk, he glances at my computer screen and I’m not nearly quick enough to hide what I’ve been looking at. “And leering at Fight Club’s Facebook page counts as important work, does it?”
“His name is Will and I’m just doing some due diligence.”
“By looking at photos of him in swim trunks?” he asks, brows raised. “Dude, you’re being creepy.”
“I can’t help it if those are the ones he has on here…”
Cole rolls his eyes. “Are you at least ready to admit you hooked up with the guy?”
I let out a heavy breath and fix Cole with an annoyed look. “I didn’t know who he was at the time. Em did the hiring.”
“Did he know who you were?”
I shake my head. “He says he didn’t, and I believe him.”
Cole’s eyes widen in surprise, and I don’t blame him. I’m not the kind of person who usually trusts easily, but for some reason I can’t seem to doubt Will’s good intentions.
“Hey, that’s Shay Kelly’s boyfriend,” Cole exclaims, pointing at a photo of Will with his arm slung around the shoulders of a much shorter man with a shock of spiky red hair and pale skin that contrasts dramatically next to Will’s tan.
I narrow my eyes at the photo as recognition dawns. “Damn it, I knew that guy looked familiar!”
Shay Kelly is the captain of a rugby sevens team here in the city that I guess you could consider our biggest rivals. He’s also borderline crazy. For the past six years he’s held an all-out vendetta against me simply because I scored the winning try that made my boys the champions and his team the losers in New York’s annual amateur rugby sevens tournament.
My mouth falls open in horror as a thought strikes me. “Do you think Will’s been sent here by Kelly in an attempt to undermine me? Like a really sexy Trojan horse?”
“I don’t think that’s at all likely,” Cole says, clearly amused.
Needing confirmation, I press the intercom buzzer on my desk and wait for Will to answer.
“Um…yes?” he says through the speaker, sounding adorably unsure of himself. I don’t really blame him, though—this is the first time I’ve ever contacted him this way.
“Can you come in here, please, Will?”
“Okay.”
A moment later, Will enters my office, walking toward my desk.
“Will, I’ve just learned something that concerns me.” From the corner of my vision I see Cole rolling his eyes, but I ignore him; my attention is focused on Will, who looks nervous. “Is it true you’re friends with Shay Kelly’s boyfriend?”
Will’s forehead creases in obvious confusion. “Jamie? Yeah. He’s one of my best friends.”
“I see. And are you aware that Shay Kelly is an adversary of mine?”
His brows shoot up. “Um…I know you guys play on different rugby teams.”
Narrowing my eyes, I ask, “Did Shay Kelly send you here to gather information for him? Learn of our weaknesses? Figure out how to defeat us?”
“Um…no?” he says, still looking completely baffled.
“See? He says no,” Cole proclaims.
“That’s exactly what a spy would say,” I point out. “Do we have any truth serum?”
“Uhh…” Will glances awkwardly between me and Cole.
“Jesus Christ,” Cole mutters under his breath. “Thanks kid, you can get back to work now.”
Will looks at me for confirmation and I wave my approval for him to return to his desk. Mainly because the longer he stands there in front of me wearing that adorably puzzled expression, the higher the chances of me jumping over my desk and attacking his face with my lips.
“Stop picturing him naked,” Cole chides once Will’s left the room.
“You stop picturing him naked,” is my oh-so-mature response.
“I wasn’t picturing him naked,” he says with a healthy dose of exasperation in his tone.
“Good. Don’t.” I’m unnerved by the amount of relief I feel at Cole’s lack of interest in Will. I shouldn’t care. Will’s my employee, that’s all. But I do care. I care to the point that if Cole had shown one inkling of interest just now, I doubt I’d have been able to stop myself from slamming my best friend into a wall.
“So, what are you doing here?” I ask, needing to get my thoughts away from Will.
“Well, I thought you might like to know—you’re no longer trending, and google searches are way down. Looks like this thing really has blown over.”
I let out a breath of relief, my head falling back against my chair. “Thank god. Thank you for handling it.”
He waves me away. “It’s fine. It was hardly the worst mess I’ve had to clean up.”
I let out a soft chuckle. I definitely don’t doubt that. Cole started his professional life as an entertainment lawyer before moving into crisis management. Even now a good half of his clients are Hollywood celebrities. My little scandal must pale in comparison to the shit he has to deal with from the really big names.
“I’ll let you get back to your…due diligence,” he says with a smirk. “But go easy on the kid about Shay. You might want to remember his team don’t really need to resort to drastic measures to beat us, considering they did it pretty soundly last year.”