“Nope.”
Morgan looked up at me, his gaze focused on mine. “Why not?”
“Because it’s my treat.” I smiled. “Because you work so hard, and you deserve to be treated.”
“You don’t know if I work hard or not. For all you know, I could be goofing off right now,” Morgan said as he pointed toward the papers he’d just been looking over. “You have no idea what I’ve been up to since this morning.”
Curious, I reached for a few papers that were near the top of the stack. When I brought them within reading view, I immediately recognized that they were Kimmie and Dirk’s wedding menu, complete with their initials printed down the side in intricate lettering.
“This is gorgeous,” I commented as I turned the menu over in my hand. “Did you design this?”
Morgan shook his head. “Avery does most of the design work. I wish I could take credit for it, though.”
“Does this mean that you’re meeting with Kimmie and Dirk today?”
“Yes,” Morgan answered before he looked down at his watch. “In about five minutes.”
“Wait. You’re meeting with my sister and her fiancé in about five minutes? And you didn’t think to mention that before I sat down?”
“They’re usually late,” Morgan replied, offering me a smile. “I thought we might have a few minutes to catch up.”
“Catch up after seeing each other last night?”
“Did you have a good morning?” Morgan’s question seemed earnest.
I felt something flutter inside of me, all too happy to have Morgan’s undivided attention. Judging from the amount of work on Morgan’s desk, I knew that having Morgan’s full attention was a rarity for people who came into his office, whether they were a client or not.
But before I was able to answer Morgan’s question, I heard knocking at his office door.
“Sorry for being late!” Dirk apologized, stepping into the office. “We were just coming back from the dress alterations place and hit a bit of traffic—” Dirk stopped, mid-sentence as he looked over at me. “Harrison? What are you doing here?”
“I’m just here for the meeting,” I lied, wondering if Dirk was going to buy my cover story.
“Oh.” Dirk nodded in understanding. “Right. I think Kimmie might have mentioned something about you being at this one.”
“What did you just say? Were you guys talking about me?” Kimmie asked as she walked into the office, seemingly out of breath. “Sorry, I just ran up, like, three flights of steps to get here on time.”
“You could’ve just used the elevator,” I suggested.
“I’m not allowed to use elevators anymore,” Kimmie explained. “Starting from today, I’m doing the new bride diet thing. All I do is eat vegetables and take every opportunity to exercise that I see.”
“That sounds awful,” I replied.
“What an astounding observation, big brother.” Kimmie panted with a look of annoyance on her face. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“Honey, I think you said that your brother was going to be at this one,” Dirk answered for me.
Kimmie looked over at him for a moment before she turned her attention back to where I was sitting. “That’s probably true. Sorry. It’s hard to keep everything straight when I keep daydreaming about cake.”
“Speaking of daydreaming about cake…” Morgan joined the conversation as he pulled a tray out from behind his desk.
The tray featured several plates, which were all filled with various foods and cheeses, some even holding bowls of salad or soup.
“Is that our menu?” Kimmie’s face brightened.
“It’s your menu.” Morgan smiled, pulling a knife and fork away from the tray. “Did you want to be the first to sample it?”
“Do you have any desserts ready to sample?” Kimmie asked, her tone a little desperate.
“As a matter of fact…” Morgan started as he rose up from his desk. He walked over to a small fridge on the other side of his office, pulling out a tray of frozen chocolate-covered strawberries and different kinds of colorful cake.
When he came back to his desk, he carefully set down the tray. “Sorry if the desserts are a little cold. I don’t like to keep recipes like this sitting at room temperature for too long. Ruins their integrity.”
“Right, integrity, sure,” Kimmie said as she took a plate of cake into her hand. She lifted the cake towards her mouth using only her palm as she shamelessly bit into the dessert.
“Can I try one of the strawberries?” I asked, pointing to the dessert tray.
Morgan nodded as he picked up a strawberry. He held the strawberry out toward me, and without a second thought, I took the strawberry between my lips, biting into it as it slid onto my tongue.
As Morgan watched me, his eyes went wide.
And mine went wide soon after as I realized how badly I’d just fucked up.
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Kimmie and Dirk didn’t know about Morgan and me. No one did. Why the hell did I just do something so stupid? It had to be obvious to them both that there was something going on with Morgan and me now, the strawberry acting like a smoking gun.
“Oh, God. This cake is amazing,” my sister whined. “And everything else looks amazing, Morgan.”
“You should sample a few bites. See if you like how it tastes—” Morgan started.
But Kimmie held up her hand in protest. “No! No. I can’t have another bite of anything. I trust you. I know you’re going to make sure our menu is amazing.”
“Right, but you should really still sample the options—”
“Dirk, I’ll meet you in the car,” Kimmie interrupted Morgan again. “I can’t be here right now.”
And with that, Kimmie was out of the room, the pace of her footsteps down the hall sounding like she was running away from Morgan’s office.
“Thank you for putting the samples together, Morgan,” Dirk said as he headed for the door, too. “Harrison, are you coming with? Don’t want to accidentally leave you behind like last time.”
“Yeah, I’m coming with,” I replied as I rose up from my seat. “I’ll, uh, see you around Morgan.”
“I’ll see you around, Harrison.” Morgan smiled.
I didn’t get two steps down the hallway before Dirk had me body-checked against the wall. I was surprised by the act of aggression, never having expected Dirk to be capable of anything like it.
When I recovered from my moment of shock, I looked down at Dirk and asked, “What’s going on with you today, man? Are you feeling okay?”
“What the hell are you doing?” Dirk’s question came out through gritted teeth.
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you in there with Morgan,” Dirk went on. “Are you two sleeping together or something?”
“No,” I lied.
“Bullshit! If you’re not sleeping together, you’re doing something that’s a hell of a lot like it.”
“I have no idea where any of this is coming from, Dirk. Is everything all right?”