Braden was leaning against a building, cool and confident. Adam stood beside him, smirking of course. And there on Adam’s left, stood Mark, with that sexy smile of his that made him look like he had just been caught doing something naughty. He was gorgeous, with his thick brown hair and those smoky gray eyes.
A knock on my door startled me out of my reverie. “Come in,” I called out, turning around. A warm smile greeted me as my friend, Lily entered. She wrote books in her off-hours and I painted. Our common creative streak made us particularly close.
“Hey, what’s this I heard about you and Mark rolling around together on the library floor?” She walked over to where I was standing.
“News travels fast in this place.”
“It’s a small office, and Brucie Dearest has a big mouth.”
“What is he, the town crier?” I asked and sat down in my desk chair.
“I love this picture,” she said, looking at Adam in much the same way I had just been looking at Mark. It wasn’t hard to tell that they were newlyweds.
“Me too,” I replied. My friends definitely knew about my infatuation, even though we hadn’t really discussed it much.
“Do you remember Adam and Mark back when they were in law school?” she asked, settling into an orange armchair across from me.
“Yeah, they visited Braden at our parents’ place over breaks a few times when I was home from college.”
“Did you drool over them because they were your big brother’s hot friends?”
“I definitely noticed them. They’re only two years-older than me though.” I shuffled some papers on my desk.
“And did you happen to notice Mark, in particular?”
“You’re such a lawyer!” I laughed, looking up at her. “I happened to like his style. How many law students wear leather jackets and Doc Martens?”
“Well, I’m sure he ‘noticed’ you too. It’s hard for most guys to miss gorgeous blondes with mile long legs,” Lily said.
“I’m not sure, but I think that I might have caught him checking me out a few times,” I admitted, a little sheepishly. It’s not like guys never found me attractive, but I got such mixed signals from him that I almost felt conceited assuming that he was interested.
“Well, I’m sure he was. It’s not exactly hard for anyone else to tell that the two of you are attracted to each other, especially since you started working together every day. I wonder why he doesn’t do anything about it,” she said, knitting her brows.
“Probably because he’s Braden’s friend, and I’m Braden’s little sister.” I sighed and gazed out my window wistfully.
“Who cares?”
“Obviously, he does, and like you said, we work together. It could get awkward if we suddenly started sleeping together too,” I noted with a light-hearted tone, even though it had been weighing on my mind.
“Beth, you and Mark are among the only people in this office not sleeping together, and I think there’s more there than just physical attraction. You two seem different with each other than with other people.”
“Yeah, I’m different with him all right. I’ve never had coordination problems, or episodes of unbearable awkwardness before, but around him, I’m a nervous, lusty, filthy-minded, mess,” I joked.
“Speaking of lusty, filthy-minded messes, how was the gala Saturday night?”
“Well, I made some good contacts. I met the Director of the Disability Law Center. She was very nice. We might be able do some joint projects with them. I also got a chance to talk to the lead attorney at the Philadelphia chapter of the ACLU.”
“No creepers?”
“I didn’t say that. I ran into a local businessman who seemed to have forgotten about his wife, and a guy from the city government who seemed to have forgotten that he was an asshole. He copped a feel and tried to pretend it was an accident.”
“Ew.”
“Tell me about it.” I glanced at my watch. “Oh, I promised Bruce I would help him set up his computer.”
“Well, God forbid you keep The Diva waiting. See you later.”
11:00 AM
“That black wire doesn’t seem to fit anywhere,” Bruce said. We were both on our hands and knees, side-by-side, under a desk trying to assemble a computer that was probably more advanced technology-wise than NORAD.
“According to the diagram, it’s supposed to plug in the back of the CPU, under the hole for the printer cable, but I can’t get it in,” I told him, trying in vain to insert part J into part K. I pushed harder, and felt my hands becoming slick with sweat.
“I have to run to the little law librarian’s room. I’ll help you in a second,” he said crawling out and then getting up and leaving. I stuck a couple of more cooperative pieces together, and then went back to tackle the black wire again. I was focusing on it intently when my mind vaguely registered the sound of the door opening.
“I think if you put it in from behind it will fit,” I said, assuming that Bruce had returned from using the facilities.
“I’m sure we could make it fit lots of ways,” Mark said. “But from behind works for me.” Because we were all friends outside of work, this office was more casual than most, and he rarely passed up an opportunity to tease. My stomach flipped over and I sat up quickly, too quickly; I slammed my head on the desk. “Are you okay?” he asked, wincing, and then coming over and dropping down on the floor himself. Oh God. We were on the floor together again. Steady, Beth. Don’t injure the man.
“I’m fine. Can you help me plug this wire in? The diagram makes it look easy, but I must be doing something wrong, because it doesn’t seem to fit in the hole.” I showed him the wire and where it was supposed to go. He crawled under the desk next to me, took the wire, and did his best to get it. Apparently, it wasn’t just me.
“Let me see that,” he said taking the diagram and furrowing his brows with concentration. In this confined space, I was surrounded by the scent of Armani Code and guy soap and guy. I had never realized how powerfully erotic the sense of smell could be. But then, he could probably smell like a plastic shower curtain and it would turn me on.
“Everything else seems to fit,” I said, giving myself a mental shake, and trying to focus on the damned wire.
“You connected part H, right?” he asked glancing up from the diagram, and pausing. His eyes widened slightly, and I think his pupils must have dilated, because they seemed to get darker within seconds. It was mesmerizing, like storm clouds gathering.