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Chelsea threw her purse in her bottom left drawer as she had done for the past two years and slammed the drawer shut with her foot. She glared at the beignet and hot coffee sitting next to her keyboard. No! They were not going to do this!
It was fun, but it was not going to continue. He was her boss. He sat four doors down in a posh office and held her whole future in his hands, good or bad.
Pushing the coffee and beignet to the side, she booted up her computer and opened her day-planner today’s busy schedule. Some people liked their computer calendar, but she enjoyed the feel of the paper under her fingers. Her little handwritten notes along the side of each meeting and book title told her everything she needed to know for her day.
As her email screen opened up, she groaned to herself. The first one of the day was from him. She had known it would be. What the heck time had he crawled out of bed? Clicking on the message, Chelsea let out a heavy sigh.
Chelsea, the last few days have been magnificent. And all thanks to a late-night beignet and coffee. Perhaps we can start a new tradition. Morning beignets and coffee together...maybe even in bed. It was nice waking up with you there. Have a wonderful day. I’ll see you tonight for dinner.
Dinner? Oh, she needed to put an end to this immediately. She could not be in a relationship with the boss.
“Hey! Where have you been? And more importantly, who have you been with?” Maggie asked as shuffled papers from the corner of Chelsea’s desk to sit on the edge.
Chelsea promptly closed the email on her desktop and turned to Maggie. “Nowhere. Why?”
Maggie giggled as she glanced suspiciously at her friend. “You’re lying to me. You look like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, Chelsea! Oh my god! I’m right.” Maggie stood and took the chair in front of Chelsea’s desk, sitting down but leaning in close. “I want details!”
“About what?” Chelsea asked, but her mind was attempting to formulate a believable story as she spoke.
“About you and Mr. Teresi. We go to Girls’ Night. You dance all night with him. Then the next day, you both seem to conveniently be missing from work. I asked Susan and she said you had called in sick. I went by your place after work. Your car was there, but you weren’t. Then when Mr. Teresi comes back to work, you are suddenly back as well. Come on, it doesn’t take a detective. Where were you?”
“I was sick. I went to my mother’s house for a couple of days,” Chelsea lied.
“Without your car?” Maggie wasn’t buying it. She knew Chelsea better than that. If Chelsea went to her mother’s, she took her car. She refused to take public transportation if she didn’t have to. There were far too many germs for her liking.
Chelsea toyed with her keyboard as she searched her mind for a viable story. She just couldn’t come up with one. Damn Maggie and her gossip-mongering brain!
“We’ll chat at lunch. I just want to dig into my work. I’m behind on some projects.”
Maggie winked at her and stood, leaning over the desk to whisper to her. “I want all the juicy details, Chels. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Maggie stepped out of the office, closing the door behind her. Chelsea slumped in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair with a sigh. Sitting back up straight and determined, she pulled up her email program and her fingers flew over her keyboard.
We need to chat. Immediately!
It didn’t take long before a notification popped up telling her that she had a new email. Marcus’s name stared back at her from the screen. Clicking on the email, she opened it and read it with some apprehension.
Good morning, gorgeous. Glad to see you made it in okay. I told my driver to wait for you as long as it took. Did you enjoy your breakfast when you got in? I stopped by Joe’s for you.
Growling to herself, she placed her head on the desk. She wasn’t going to get any work done today at this rate.
Marcus, we need to talk. We can’t do this anymore. It was amazing, but you are my boss. I cannot date my boss. It’s over.
This time, the message came back almost immediately. It was highlighted in yellow so that she wouldn’t miss it.
What if I wasn’t your boss anymore?
Her mouth opened in shock. Surely, he wasn’t suggesting...
Are you firing me?!
Within seconds, the door to her office opened and slammed shut quickly. Marcus stood in the doorway. Every ounce of her being wanted to climb over her desk and throw herself at him. He had left his hair down and it flowed down softly to just above his shoulders in soft waves. Her fingers ached as they remembered just how soft. She wanted desperately to tangle them in those light brown strands. The black pants and white button-down shirt that was open just enough at the collar and rolled up at the sleeves showed off his olive complexion perfectly. His chocolate eyes were focused intently on her and she felt them drilling into her.
“Firing you? Of course, I’m not firing you!” he chuckled. “Why would I fire you?”
“Then how exactly do you propose that we do this? I work here. You own the company. I work for you. If you don’t fire me, you’re my boss. How else does this work?” she asked sarcastically.
“You go to work for our sister company. Technically, I don’t own it. My business partner owns it,” he said with a smile.
“You’re so smug about all of this. I will not quit my job and work somewhere else. It’s over, Marcus,” she said, turning back to her computer. “Now, if you’ll kindly let me get back to work. I’m days behind on two manuscripts that for some bizarre reason are science fiction because someone thought it smart to give me books that I do not understand in the slightest.”
“Someone thought it smart to ask you to step outside of your very small box. It seems you might be incapable of doing that,” he argued before stepping out of her door and slamming it shut.
Chelsea threw her head back against her chair and grumbled. What had she done to deserve this? Her life had been perfect. She had a good job, a nice little house, a couple of good friends. She didn’t need a relationship mucking things up.
***
After three hours of staring at her screen and trying desperately to figure out what is the difference between perigee and perihelion, Chelsea shut down her computer. She had already fired off an email to Maggie and told her that she was ready for lunch and that she’d meet her at the cafe on the corner. She just needed to get out of this office!
Chelsea had just sat down with her drink when Maggie sauntered into the cafe. Maggie winked at her and went to order her food. When she finally reached their table, Maggie gave her a knowing smirk as she sat down.
“Okay Chels, spill the beans. I’ve been waiting all day for this,” Maggie exclaimed with more than a little excitement.
Chelsea sighed and took a long sip from her straw. “And I’ve been trying to forget about it all day.”
Maggie furrowed her eyebrows. “Why? What happened? Was he bad in bed?”
“Maggie! That is NOT what I’m talking about!” Chelsea rolled her eyes. She was saved from having to say anything further as their food arrived. She smiled politely at their server and thanked him. As she always did, Maggie put on her most gracious smile and thanked him in her most flirtatious tone.
As soon as he was gone, Maggie turned back to Chelsea. “Okay, if it wasn’t about the sex, what happened? I was right, wasn’t I? You went away somewhere with Marcus.”
Chelsea nodded. “Yes. He took me to Paris for beignets.”
“Paris?” Maggie had confusion written all over her face. “They make beignets in Paris?”
“I flew to Paris on the private jet of our very handsome new boss for one day and that’s all you can think to ask?” Chelsea asked in disbelief. “Yes, they make beignets in Paris. Especially if you are a baker from the United States.”
Maggie’s mouth opened in understanding before she nodded. “Ah, okay. So, you flew to Paris for beignets. That’s a what...eleven-hour trip each way?”
“Thirteen.”
“Okay,” Maggie said with a grin. “A thirteen-hour trip each way. What did you do for thirteen hours on a plane? Play Tiddlywinks?” Maggie couldn’t help herself and snickered at her own joke.
Chelsea sighed heavily at her friend. “We talked, we ate, we slept. Well, I slept mostly. He worked some.”
“And after beignets in Paris?” Maggie wanted the details. All of them!
“We walked around. He showed me Notre Dame. We talked some more. He took me shopping. He introduced me to his sister.”
Maggie’s eyes got big and a gigantic smile crossed her face. “Introduced you to his sister? He must really like you.”
Chelsea shook her head. “He’s known me for less than a week. He couldn’t possibly like me that much.”
“Maybe he just knows. Sometimes people just know these things,” Maggie said with a shrug as she took a bite of her food.
“He doesn’t just know any more than I do. It’s been less than a week.” Chelsea dug into her meal to avoid the conversation. This was getting ridiculous.
“You very well know, Chelsea. You like him. You like him a lot. It’s written all over your face,” Maggie scolded Chelsea. “Besides, you still haven’t told me. Did you sleep with him? And if you did, how was it?”
Chelsea growled at Maggie and rolled her eyes. “Do you ever think of anything other than sex?”
“When our new boss looks like that? No!” Maggie laughed.
Chelsea frowned to herself. “He was amazing.”
Maggie giggled to herself and then gave her friend a concerned glance. “I knew it! Then why do you look so upset?”
“I can’t date him, Maggie. He wants to, but I can’t. This is my career,” Chelsea murmured.
“Find a new career! Chelsea, you don’t find a man like this often. He likes you. He’s willing to fly you halfway across the world just for donuts. He’s gorgeous. He’s rich. Take a chance for a change.”
“I can’t.” Chelsea shook her head and focused on the meal before her. She just couldn’t think about this anymore.