Page 7 of Accidentally Amy

Mr. Chest leaned back a little in his chair and crossed his arms, looking every inch the executive. A very expensive-looking watch peeked out from under his right cuff, and I think I was distracted by it because I didn’t quite get it when he said, “Pam called you Isabella.”

“Yes…?”Is it an actual Rolex?

“So I thought you said your name was Amy.”

“Oh.”Oh, noooo.I’d been so locked in on the prettiness of his face and the shine of his watch that I’d forgotten all about the stolen coffee. My face was instantly hot as I stammered, “Oh, uh, yeah. Um.”

He asked, “Is Amy your middle name?”

I suddenly felt like I was on trial. He looked like a stern prosecutor—hot thought to be revisited later—and Pam was like a juror, quietly watching the cross-examination. I opened my mouth and was about to snatch up his middle name excuse like the liar I’d apparently become, when Pam said, “No, her middle name is Clarence. Right, Izzy? Isn’t that what you told me when you filled out the I-9 form?”

God, why? Why did I ramble nervously to my new boss about my stupid middle name?

Pam laughed and said to Blake, “I think she said it was her grandfather’s name. Isabella Clarence—can you imagine?”

I rubbed my lips together for a second—shit, shit, shit—before confessing, “Amy isn’t actually my name at all. It’s, uh, kind of a funny story.”

Blake’s head tilted just the tiniest bit.

I said, “Let me explain.”

Pam kept smiling, looking at me like she was waiting for a hilarious tale, but Blake was doing that jaw-clench thing and absolutely not smiling anymore.

He kind of looked pissed.

He kind of looked like the twin brother of the charming man I’d flirted with in the elevator. He was now Bloke, Hot Blake’s grumpy twin brother.

“Okay, so, I was running a little behind and didn’t want to be late for my first day at Ellis. I paid for my drink, but the line was super long. Like, so long that I was going to have to bail before I even got my coffee, right?”

Pam was still into it, listening in amused anticipation, but Blake just looked impatient, like he wanted me to shut the hell up.

Hard same, Bloke.

I looked down at my feet and just let the admission fly. “So after they called for Amy three times and no one came for the drink, I, um, I might’ve said that I was Amy.”

“You didnot,” Pam said, full on laughing.

I tried giving Blake an adorably playful smile. “It didn’t pay off, though, because I ended up spilling the drink all over Blake here.”

“Um.” He cleared his throat, clearly unmoved by my attempt at adorability. “Are you saying that you took someone else’s drink?”

That reminded me of theyou took someone’s reservation?bit in the movieDate Night, but I needed to keep that thought to myself and focus on the task at hand.

The task that was apparently…well, not looking like a thief at my new job.

“I mean,” I started, trying to make him understand. “Ipaidand we ordered the same thing, so—”

“So does that make itnother drink, then?” He looked at me like I’d just confessed to beheading a puppy. “Amy’s drink is fair game for anyone who prepaid for the same order, is that what you’re saying?”

I glanced at Pam, who looked suddenly uncomfortable with the exchange, and said, “It was a very uncool thing to do, I know.”

“I don’t know about uncool,” Bloke said, his eyes pinning me in place like he was the hawk and I was the mouse he found too annoying to eat, so he just wanted to play with me until I was dead. “But it was definitely dishonest.”

“So very, very dishonest.” I gritted my teeth and tried to stay calm, because I wanted this job more than I wanted to tell off the ultrahot, über-judgmental asshole. But what ajerk.I crossed my arms over my chest, breathed in through my nose, and said, “You have no idea, at this moment, how much I regret every single thing that transpired today in relation to that dishonest cup of coffee. If I could go back and undo all of it, every single moment, I absolutely would.”

His eyes stayed on me, unwavering, and his expression was unreadable.

But I knew that he knew what I was saying.

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