Page 20 of Reckless Encounters

Olivia laughs, shaking her head. “That shiesty fucker is smart.”

“Huh?” I ask, not following her accusation.

“Girlfriend, there is no rule against that. Mr. Bryant himself has been banging every secretary he’s had since the 90s.”

My mouth falls open.

That son of a bitch.

Maybe I will take Logan up on that date after all. He’s hot, extremely interested, and not a complete asshole.

Parker’s assistant Tasha greets us, lacking the enthusiasm she normally shows when Logan is around.

“Mr. Cole will meet you in here,” she says as she sashays out of the meeting room she showed us to. I can’t help but wonder if he fucks his secretary the way Mr. Bryant apparently does.

“Do you think we should also tell him we want to change the color scheme he and Logan decided on for the cigar lounge?” Olivia asks, interrupting my wayward thoughts.

I giggle because we totally agreed to let the boys have complete say over that room, but we had an idea today when we were picking out countertops, and now we can’t unsee it.

“Let’s feel him out first and make sure he isn’t giving off over-the-top asshole vibes.”

We both laugh until a deep voice interrupts, “What in the world could be so funny?”

“Oh, nothing, Ava’s just hilarious,” Olivia says, brushing him off.

“Could have fooled me. I figured it must have been the asshole Ava was referring to. But then again, I know she has many talents…” The pause in his sentence makes my skin prickle. “I just didn’t realize comedian was one of them.”

Many talents, huh? Those talents didn’t mean much to you the other night when you couldn’t get me out of your Uber quick enough.

But I guess we’re pretending that never happened, which seems to be our MO.

“She really could be, but anyways…what did you need to see us about?” Olivia tries to change the subject. And I have to give her credit, because she’s dodging this awkwardness like a pro.

“I wanted to commend you guys on the vanity countertop choices.”Pride swarms my insides at his praise. I guess that’s one good thing about someone who never gives positive feedback. When they do, it's like a drug.

Again, red flag central. And I can’t stop myself from wanting to play capture the fucking flag.

I pull my head out of my ass when I hear Olivia thanking him and follow suit.

“And because of that, I have decided to hand the task for the actual bar tops off to you two as well. I know I said I wanted that decision, along with the cigar lounge, to be left up to me with the help of Logan, but you two proved yourselves today.”

“Wow, thank you.” I’m so surprised by this, and by the look on Olivia’s face, she is as well. “So you are saying that we will now have full control over those areas as well?” I clarify.

“Yes, I trust you both as manager and designer, but any bigger changes or decisions, I still expect you to run by me.”

Who knew he could be so reasonable?

“I’m going to be pulling Logan to help on a smaller project at times, so this will free him up and take some of his responsibilities off of him.”

We both nod, barely containing our excitement about the opportunity to have more creative freedom. Parker and Olivia discuss a few things that Mr. Bryant wanted her to focus on, and my mind wanders back to our conversation on the walk over here.

Would Parker purposefully pull Logan away from this project just to keep our interactions at work to a minimum? I shake my head at the thought. I can’t wrap my head around why he would go to that extent.

I stare at his side profile, taking in every detail. He’s so handsome it's sickening.

What are you and that perfect fucking jawline up to, Parker Cole?

We spend the next hour going over the final floorplan for the rooftop, including the décor. Olivia’s phone chimes right as we’re wrapping up.

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