Page 19 of Merry Little Hate Notes

Jason and his Axe body spray landed near me. The aroma, unfortunately, arrived first.

My eyes started to water. Did he bathe in that stuff? That was it. I was starting a campaign to get Axe body spray banned. Surely it was bad for the ozone. I had to take shallow breaths so I didn’t gag.

“How’s it going withBran?” he said his name in a taunting tone.

“Uh, fine.” I didn’t feel the need to go into any detail. It was none of Jason’s business. Besides, I needed Brandon to help me close the Artemis deal, and I didn’t need it getting around the office that I couldn’t stand him. The last thing I wanted was for Jason to get any ideas in his head that I wanted to be his BDR. With any luck, I’d be able to quit after my commissions paid out.

I headed up the stairs, hoping Jason would get the hint I wasn’t interested in continuing our conversation.

Jason unfortunately followed. “You seem to be gone a lot from your desk this week.”

Why was he paying attention? I knew how to handle this. I paused on a step and lowered my voice. “I’ve been having some women’s issues.” He could spread that around so no one else questioned my “bathroom breaks.”

Jason’s face turned bright red, like I’d just told him an embarrassing story. What an idiot.

“Uh . . . ,” he stuttered. “Um . . . sorry.”

“Don’t be. Periods are just a natural part of life,” I said for my pleasure, knowing the wordperiodwould make him even more uncomfortable. Sure enough, he went from bright red to pale.

“Yeah, okay.” He gaped at me like I was a different species. “I was just checking to make sure everything is all right.”

“Right as rain,” I said, like I wasn’t dreading another day of working with Brandon. I headed back up the stairs.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said insincerely, like he wanted me to be miserable. Maybe not everyone loved Brandon like I’d assumed.

I hoped this was the end of our conversation as I rounded up the second flight of stairs. That was wishful thinking.

“You know, I was wondering”—he looked around before finishing his thought—“if you might want to have lunch together sometime.”

Awkward. Also, where was this coming from? Oh my gosh. Was Jason the merry-sticky-note guy? I was all for men embracing their softer sides, but I don’t know—there was just something a little icky about a guy saying that. Like, I couldn’t even look at him thinking he’d said it, much less share a meal with him. Which I wouldn’t anyway. If I’d learned anything during my time in the bathroom, it was that dating a coworker wasn’t a good idea.

I kept trudging up the stairs, avoiding eye contact. “That’s so nice. But I bring my lunch every day.” It was more economical.

“I could bring my lunch one day too,” he offered. “We could eat together in the common area.”

Was he serious? How did he not pick up on the no-thank-you vibes? Now what was I supposed to say? It had been a while since I’d had any male attention. Truth be told, I never expected it fromJason—nor did I want this kind of attention from him. I was kind of hoping to meet a sexy stranger in Costco one day who shared my affinity for bargains and large bulk bags of dried mangoes. For this reason, I always made sure to linger a little longer in that aisle each time I shopped. Someday the odds had to catch up to me, right?

I continued my ascent up the stairs, biting the inside of my cheek, trying to think of something to say that wasn’t hurtful but got the point across.

“Holly,” Brandon’s voice carried down the stairs.

My head snapped up to find him at the top of the third floor, looking way too good in his warm-brown cashmere sweater and dark jeans, showing he was still a demigod. He lasered in on Jason with a furrowed brow.

As much as I didn’t want to see Brandon, I was grateful for his annoyingly sexy presence.

“What’s up?” I asked way too breathily. Crap. I needed to get that under control, ASAP.

“I need you to send me the slide deck for Granger Outfitters. Their CEO wants to move up the meeting to today.”

“Of course.” I jogged up the stairs as fast as I could. “See you later, Jason,” I called, not giving him a chance to respond. It was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Oddly, it felt safer choosing Brandon over Jason.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I found Brandon now glaring at Jason. I had no idea what that was about. Maybe some account executive rivalry. I didn’t care—I was just glad for the excuse to get away from Jason. I’ll tell you this: He wasn’t going to make it out of the first-round bracket on my Mistletoe Manness chart. The body spray andmerry little sticky noteswere a total turnoff.

I rushed to my favorite desk, despite seeing that Brandon had taken the seat next to it. He had hisOfficebobbleheads all lined up. If it were anyone but him, I might find that adorable. Instead, I found it irritating. Those toys were a lady magnet. So many women came by every day to shake the bobbleheads and mention how cute they were while they drooled over Brandon. No doubt he’d be their top seed in Mistletoe Manness. Regardless, I needed to put on a good front forJason and anyone else who thought our partnership wasn’t going well, so I set my things on my usual desk.

As I connected my laptop to the monitor, I noticed the corner of a bright-blue sticky note peeking out from under the monitor base. Grrr. I snatched the stupid note before Brandon returned.You have such a November face, so full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness.

What! He couldn’t use Shakespeare against me. Shakespeare was mine. Besides, he got the quote wrong—it wasFebruary face, thank you very much. I looked at my bag with the sticky notes inside, itching to grab them and tell him his brain was as dry as the lone remaining biscuit after a long voyage. I could maybe tell him to elf off, but I was pretty sure I used that last one when we were in high school. How dare he tell me I have a November face. I wasn’t sure what was worse, RGF or this? What did he have against my face?

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