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Iris had received word that the tests on the concrete samples were complete and all was good, so a week after her first visit to East Markham Hospital, the steel construction started.
A few days after that, she was at the office, getting ready to head to site to see how things were going. She was not looking forward to this. She had lots of things to do at the office, and the last thing she needed was to see Alex Kwong again.
“I really don’t want to go,” she muttered.
Emma looked up from her computer. “Why not?”
“I have lots of drawings I need to go over this afternoon, and...”
Emma got up and walked the short distance between their desks. “Are you having a problem with any of the people on the project?”
Iris hesitated.
“Is it Alex?” Emma asked. “I only met him a couple times, and he was always nice to me, but of course, that doesn’t mean...” She looked away.
Iris knew exactly what her co-worker was thinking about.
Earlier that year, Emma had confided in Iris that Dave, one of the other engineers at Lowry, had been harassing her for months. Emma had told him repeatedly to stop, to no effect, and she was thinking of finding a new job. She’d been reluctant to tell their boss, Scott Lowry, but Iris had convinced her to do so before she started sending out resumes. Scott had believed every word Emma had said—the texts and Facebook messages probably helped—and fired Dave. The next day, Scott had called everyone in the office into the meeting room and emphasized that such behavior was not to be tolerated and if there were any problems, he wanted to know, whether it pertained to one of his employees or someone else they had to work with.
At least her employer seemed to have their backs. That wasn’t as common in the workplace as it should be. Iris had heard many awful stories of human resources refusing to do anything.
She considered herself fortunate. Even though she had an older white man as her boss, which was fairly common in engineering companies, she didn’t feel like she had to work harder to prove herself because she was a woman. Scott had never treated her inappropriately, and he wanted to do everything possible to make sure she didn’t face harassment in the workplace. He was hardly what one would call friendly, but he’d always treated her fairly.
“Alex isn’t harassing me,” Iris said to Emma. “It’s just...” She lowered her voice. “We, um, slept together. Before we knew we’d be working together—we met at a bar. It’s a little awkward, that’s all.”
Emma’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t say anything.
“I can handle it,” Iris said.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s fine. It’s only once every week or two. Don’t worry, it’s not affecting my ability to do my job.”
She could have done without some of his comments, though. Like his complaints about her leaving before he woke up. If he did that again, she would tell him to stop, and she suspected he would listen.
But as it turned out, she didn’t have to say anything.
She went to East Markham Hospital and met Alex by the trailer. He walked around with her as she looked at the progress to date, and everything he said was related to the project, aside from some small talk about the weather. He did say “steel erection,” but with absolutely no innuendo, and it was a perfectly reasonable thing to talk about given the subcontractor was, in fact, erecting steel.
She was almost disappointed.
He walked her back to her car afterward. “I want to talk to you.”
Her heart rate kicked up a notch at that.
Alex was handsome—she hadn’t changed her opinion there. He’d look better without a hardhat, but that was true of pretty much everyone.
“I apologize for my behavior last time,” he said, “and I promise I won’t bring up that night again or make any more inappropriate comments. You don’t have to worry about that. I also told Carlos not to tell anyone. I’m not sure whether he listened, but he’s the rebar guy, and I doubt you’ll have to see him again. I will have no problems working with you, and if I do anything to make you uncomfortable, please let me know.”
She nodded at him. “Thank you.” She appreciated that they could be professional about the whole thing, and she respected him for admitting the error in his ways.
Still, she wouldn’t have minded a little teasing, just at the end.
* * *
It was another week before Iris returned to site. She was signing in at the trailer when Alex walked over to her, and her skin heated as he approached. He was wearing a blue shirt under his safety vest today, and dammit, she wanted to see him without all the construction gear. The corners of his lips turned up slightly when he saw her, but it barely qualified as a smile.
“Hello, Iris.”
“Alex.”
They walked around and she made sure everything was as it should be. They were on schedule so far, but there would inevitably be delays at some point. There always were.
“Just one thing that needs to be changed,” she said, stopping at the south side of the building under construction. “The mechanical layout has been adjusted, so some adjustments were made to the structure, too...”
She and Alex talked about it for a few minutes. Satisfied, she started back to her car, and Alex hurried to catch up to her.
“You don’t have to walk me to my car,” she said. “It’s broad daylight, and I’m quite capable of walking fifty meters by myself.”
“I know I don’t have to,” he said, “but I want to. However, if you don’t like it, tell me right now, and I won’t do it again.”
She stopped and looked at him. They were a few paces from her car. His eyebrows were drawn together slightly; she didn’t want him to look quite so serious when he was with her.
“I like it,” she said at last.
Something flickered in his eyes. “Good.”
She felt a flutter in her stomach at that single word. “It would serve absolutely no purpose for us to talk about why I left so early that morning, but if you want to make comments about steel erection that aren’t entirely to do with construction... Well, I would be agreeable. As long as nobody else overhears us, of course.”
Although their banter had annoyed her the first time on site, she missed it now. She wanted to have a joking conversation about drilling and vibrations, and this completely serious, non-teasing version of Alex bothered her. It didn’t feel natural.
“Hmm.” He rocked back on his heels. “Have you...vibrated any concrete lately?”
She rolled her eyes. “That was terrible.”
“Have you...thought about me while vibrating your concrete?”
“You wish,” she said, opening her car door.
He smiled at her as she sat down behind the wheel, then waved as she backed out.
What was she doing?
* * *
It was the following Tuesday, and Iris was coming to site at the end of the day.
It wasn’t like Alex had been looking forward to this for days. He hadn’t been wondering what she’d be wearing underneath her safety vest, nor had he thought of a whole bunch of lame sexual construction jokes.
It wasn’t like that at all, of course.
Well, he’d thought of a few jokes, but they were horrible and he wouldn’t use them.
Iris was game for a bit of flirting, though. She’d made that clear to him last time, and he would be happy to oblige, though he was under no illusions it would lead anywhere.
She arrived at four o’clock. The steel subcontractor had just finished for the day, so there weren’t too many people on site.
“How was your weekend?” he asked her as she was signing in. “Did you drink any beer that tasted like juice?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” she said. “You know my friend Crystal, the woman who was with me at The Thirsty Lumberjack?”
He nodded. He hadn’t been introduced to Crystal, though he’d seen her talking to Iris.
“She’s dating Jared, the guy she met at the bar that night. He’s really into the craft beer scene, so I went to another craft beer bar with Crystal and Jared and a few of Jared’s friends on Saturday night. I got a flight of tasters, and my God, some of them were terrible. I almost spit out the first one on the guy across from me. But the last one was tasty. You would have considered it alcoholic juice. I thought of you as I drank it.”
“Did you, now? What, exactly, did you think about?”
She lifted a shoulder and smiled. “Time for me to get to work.”
She walked around and studied her drawings to make sure everything was going according to plan. She found a couple minor adjustments that needed to be made but nothing major.
He walked Iris to her car after she was finished.
“Looks like the steel erection is going just fine,” she said.
“I’m glad it meets your approval.”
“Mm. It does.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did you see any other steel erections on the weekend? Meet anyone at the bar?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” She winked at him.
He was pretty sure she was just playing with him. She hadn’t actually gone home with any of Jared’s lumberjack friends.
Or maybe she had. It was none of his business, and he had no claim on her. Still, he couldn’t help clenching his fists in frustration.
Iris looked at his hands pointedly. “It seems like you have a problem discussing steel erection, which is going to cause a bit of a problem as, unfortunately, the addition to the hospital is made of steel. Bet you’re now wishing it was masonry. Or concrete.”
“Of course,” he murmured. “Then I’d get to make jokes about concrete vibration.”
“Perhaps we should stop. We both seem to have the sense of humor of a teenage boy.”
“I don’t know why you bring out this side of me.”
“You do the same to me.”
He put a hand to his heart. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Alex didn’t think it was all that funny, but somehow, perhaps due to his deadpanned delivery, it was enough to make Iris bend over and laugh...which made him think of all the things he could do to her when she was bent over.
When she stood up straight again, she took a tiny step closer to him. It was like they were in a tightly-packed subway car, even though they were surrounded by lots of space. He couldn’t help but breathe in sharply at her closeness, and he inhaled her scent. Something floral. He wasn’t quite sure what, but he remembered it from the night they’d spent together. The next morning, he’d smelled it on her pillow.
But as tempting as it was, he wouldn’t kiss her now.
Even if they were both okay with making comments that were somewhat sexual in nature—and even though he’d already slept with her—they were working together.
Besides, although she was flirting with him, she’d left him early in the morning. He doubted she was interested in a repeat experience, even if she’d resisted the charms of Jared’s friends, who, in his mind, were all strapping men with big beards and ridiculous man buns.
It wasn’t like he wanted more than sex anyway. He’d never had any interest in a serious relationship; the idea of being that close to someone had never appealed to him. His mother had told him that he just hadn’t met the right woman yet, and one day, he would meet her, and everything would change. However, since his mother’s death, he’d had even more trouble imagining that happening. He felt even more detached from the world.
Except when...
He pushed that thought aside.
“Alex?” Iris said. “You okay? You seem a bit spaced out.”
“I’m good. Just thinking about...pipes and drilling. Yes, drilling.”
“You’re a nut. But don’t you dare try to work ‘nut’ into a dirty sentence.” She climbed into her car.
“See you next week.”
He didn’t say anything about how much he was looking forward to it.