Page 54 of Friend Me

He was the Prince Charming I’d always dreamed of, handsome and successful and kind. Understanding about Dad. If he could only seeme,not as a Synergy employee, but as a woman sitting in front of him. A woman who could love him if he only gave me a chance. We’d be great together. Did he suspect the same? Had he accepted my help tonight to ask about Tyler and ensure the path was clear? Why wouldn’t he make a move, then?

Because, as I’d told Ben, Cooper was too busy taking care of those around him to take care of himself. I’d have to take care of him.

I unfolded my legs and stepped around the coffee table. He watched me, his face unreadable, as I perched on the loveseat next to his chair. I took his hand in one of mine. “Cooper,” I began softly, “I need to tell you—”

My pulse leaped when he set his other hand on top of mine and pierced me with his stare. The Eagle had landed.He was going to tell me how he felt. I widened my eyes, my ears, every pore to catch his words. Hope surged through my bloodstream in the brief, glorious moment before I told him I cared about him. That someday, I could love him, too.

“Marlee, stop.” He pulled my hand off his and set it on the cool leather arm of the loveseat. In one smooth movement, he rose from the chair and strode to the window. He stood there, his back tall and straight and cold.

“I’ve got it from here. Thanks for your help. You should go home now.”

My heart fell into my stomach, where the spicy Thai food started to erode it. Painfully. I couldn’t believe he’d shut me down when we’d come so close to something more. “But, Cooper, I—”

“No, Marlee.” He didn’t even turn. “You are a Synergy employee. I am the Chief Operating Officer. Even if I—”

I jumped up from the loveseat and marched over to him, facing his stiff back, trying so hard to hold in my anger I vibrated with it. “Don’t you ever do anything just because you want to? Bend the rules? Even flaunt them sometimes?”

He was a block of granite. “No. Unlike Jackson, I take my responsibilities very seriously. You, of all people, should understand that.”

“There are important rules like…doing right by people. Respect. Showing others you care. Jackson does just fine by those. Other rules”—don’t fall in love with your coworker—“can be sacrificed to stay true to the more important ones.”

“All rules are created for a reason, Marlee. They’re all important.”

Inside my head, I called him an obstinate jackass and a few other choice names. But continuing the argument, even after hours, would’ve been futile at best. In the mood he was in, I wouldn’t have put it past Cooper to write me up a formal warning. He’d probably include not wearing proper footwear in the office.

“Good night, Cooper,” I said. “Have a good trip.”Stubborn…conventionalist.

“Good night.” He held up his hand in a sort of wave but didn’t turn around to look at me.

Snatching up my shoes, I kicked the door shut behind me. Hard. I hoped it startled him. I hoped he regretted blowing me off. I hoped he had blue balls for the next week.

I froze midway between his office and my desk.Sigmund Freud on a stick.Now I was one of the batshit women leaving Cooper’s office. If I ever saw that bitch, Karma, I’d zap her with my Taser.

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