Page 59 of Set Me On Fire

She patted my arm before waddling forward.

“It takes a little bit to get to know everyone here,” she said over her shoulder, “but you’ll find they’re good guys. Every single one of them would bend over backwards to make life easier for you.”

But when she left the room, an awkward silence filled it. Millie jerked her eyes down comically fast, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Doing her job, I concluded, while avoiding me.

People said I called a spade a spade, and I’d need to do that here I realised. I’d stormed into the break room, cracked the shits because there wasn’t milk, but that wasn’t the issue. Closure, part of me wanted it, needed it, with every breath in my body, but I was well used to not getting it. Instead, I needed to do my damn job and let Millie do hers, and there was only one way to do that.

“Can we?—?”

“Oh, hello, Knox.” Brent walked out with a sheaf of papers. “Everything alright?”

“Just organising a regular milk order, Boss,” I replied. “The honour system isn’t working.”

“Good plan. I’m bloody sick to death of black coffee in the morning. You’ve got this, Millie?”

“Just making the draft purchase order,” she said. “I’ll get Judy to check it and then send it to you for approval.”

“Good girl.”

Those two words sounded a lot different from him. Brent didn’t pant that out as Millie fought to take his cock, didn’t praise her over and over for the way she was driving all three of us out of our minds. I wanted more, always wanted more, the few girlfriends I’d had telling me I was too damn demandingeach time, but if I was to enjoy what happened, I had to take it for what the night was. Something hot, something I wouldn’t soon forget.

But also something that wouldn’t be repeated.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it. Knox, can you get the teams in the conference room in thirty minutes? We’ve got a new briefing from head office.”

“You got it,” I said as he wandered out the door to set up.

I listened to the sound of Millie typing before I said what I had to.

“Can I have a quick word?” I looked around me, hearing Judy’s voice coming from down the hallway. “At lunch or after work?”

Millie looked up, staring for way too long, but all I could do was stare right back, noting the flare of amber around the brown pupil, bleeding into the blue. She realised this wasn’t professional before I did, breaking the spell by shaking her head and smiling.

“Um… sure.”

I opened my mouth to say thanks, but Judy walked in the door.

“How’d you go?”

Millie had work to do and so did I, so I left to get right on it, but each step was somehow lighter. Why? I think it was because I’d gotten about as much closure as I was going to get. If Millie was into me, she’d have made contact before now. She definitely wouldn’t have taken this bloody job. If she could be professional, so could I. We’d clear the air and move on.

Just because I hadn’t connected with Millie didn’t mean there was no one out there interested in something more long term. With a whistle, I carried my black coffee into the appliance bay and rounded up everyone for the meeting.

Chapter 30

Millie

Was there any worse sentence than, “We need to talk?” I couldn’t think of one right now, especially when Knox delivered it so coolly. Those grey eyes didn’t give away a damn thing as he stared down at me. I, however, was freaking the hell out. First day on the job, doing something I hadn’t done before. I could run a whole pub with little effort, but the workings of government procurement were labyrinthine and complex. Then there was the little issue of telling Knox and the others the truth.

“You got it, girlfriend!” Judy’s enthusiasm was infectious, forcing me to smile through my distress. “And thank god for that. Brent had someone here, and let’s just say the guys thought she was amazing. Couldn’t do a damn thing right, but pretty, y’know?”

“Hey, sometimes it's better to be kinda average,” I said, clicking through the process of sending the purchase order for approval.

“Average.” She snorted. “Oh, you’ll have guys walking in this office looking for dumber things than a regular order of milk if you let them. Are you single?”

“It’s… complicated,” I replied, hitting send.

“I hear ya. Before I met Blue, I thought I’d never find anyone worth sticking around for, but he’s gonna be the best daddy.” She groaned as she eased her shoes off and then put her feet up on a nearby chair. “Even if my feet are swelling to the same size as my head during the process.”

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