Page 41 of If I See You Again
“You’re still tired?”
I huffed a laugh at his question. “You’re not exhausted after yesterday?”
He shrugged, pulling away only to reach for the coffeepot and pour the liquid into both mugs. I poured a small amount of cream into each cup before putting it back in the fridge. Our drinks were still steaming, but I lifted my mug to my lips, blowing on it for a moment before taking a small sip.
David chuckled. “That’s fair.”
We stood there in my little kitchen, drinking our coffee until it was time to leave. We placed our mugs in the sink, a problem for me to take care of later, before we headed back out the door. A big part of me wanted to show David the rest of my place. Maybe get him acquainted with the bedroom, but we had plenty of time for that. I wanted to give this a real chance.
The ride to the office was uneventful, though I checked the mirror several times before getting out of the car to make sure I didn’t have any visible love bites. It was probably something I should have done at home, but hello, David Garrison was sitting on my couch. You’d be distracted, too.
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. The receptionist greeted us with a smile, even giving a small, flirtatious wave as we entered the building. That had been something I’d always noticed in my time at Thomas and Braxton Advertising. People were always cheerier after a major holiday. It was even betterafter Christmas, and with the office holiday party coming up, there was bound to be even more excitement on the way.
We continued down the hall toward my office when Angela popped out of hers. Her eyes widened seeing the two of us together, but she said nothing as she slipped back into her space. The door clicking closed made me want to laugh a little. There was no doubt my friend had a good idea about what I’d been up to over Thanksgiving.
What I hadn’t been expecting was to find Mr. Thomas sitting in my chair as we entered my office.
“Mr. Thomas? Good morning. Is there something I can help you with?”
He said nothing at first, only leaned forward to rest his elbows on my desk, steepling his hands under his chin.
“Mr. Fisher, care to tell me what’s happening here?”
My eyes widened as I turned to look at David, who didn’t look nearly as panicked as I felt. Nope. He was cool as a cucumber. I’d always fold under pressure because I didn’t know how not to be suspicious. I sucked at secrets. Never trust me with them. Especially one as huge as sleeping with the client.
“Nothing, sir,” David answered for me, setting his briefcase in the empty chair. “This was my first holiday away from home, and I barged my way into Malcolm’s family.”
Mr. Thomas’s eyes narrowed. “I’m aware. There were pictures on social media.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought about any of that and hadn’t even checked to see what people had posted. My family knew about my relationship with David, and we’d been pretty open about things around them. My boss could have seen any number of things.
My heart slammed into my ribcage, threatening to burst free the longer Mr. Thomas sat there staring at us. It didn’t ease at allwhen he finally stood from the chair and walked out of the room without saying anything else.
I finally exhaled.
Chapter 30
David
Malcolm collapsed into his chair, his hands instantly gravitating to his hair and pulling at the strands. Anxiety rolled off him in waves—not that I could blame him under the circumstances. There was no need to panic until we knew exactly what the situation was, and that was why I hadn’t elaborated further while Mr. Thomas was in the room.
“What social media accounts do you have?” I asked, crouching in front of Malcolm and resting my hands on his knees.
He snorted a half-hearted laugh. “Inactive ones. I had them back in college because it was the cool thing to do. Occasionally, my family still tags me in things, but I don’t maintain anything.”
I nodded in understanding. “Then maybe we should check. There’s no need to worry until we know what we’re up against.”
Malcolm reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone with shaky hands. He hadn’t been kidding about not using the social media accounts. He didn’t have the apps installed on his device, and he had to try several times to remember his password when he attempted to log in to the websites.
Once the page was finally open, there was a post by his mom sitting right at the top. There were lots of pictures from the last several days, and sure enough, I was in several of them. The good news was that his mother had been discreet with her photography skills. In most of the shots that included me, I appeared in odd places around their home—nothing suggested a relationship between Malcolm and me. Even in her post explaining who I was, she only mentioned that Malcolm had brought a friend.
“This isn’t that bad.” It didn’t seem to help to say it out loud. Malcolm still vibrated beneath my touch. I only hoped that this didn’t send us backward again. We’d finally been making progress, but at this rate, I couldn’t blame him if something like this sent him running for the hills. I’d never ask him to put his job at risk like that. Though I wondered just how much of that was actually in the company policy.
Malcolm still didn’t relax as I ran my hands up and down his thighs. I needed to distract him another way, so I pulled the phone from his grasp and set it on his desk.
“Look, gorgeous, we need to figure something out. I don’t know what Mr. Thomas was getting at with those pictures. There’s nothing even remotely weird about them, other than that I’m in them.”
He took another deep breath, those emerald-green eyes closing for a moment and then opening again. He blinked a few more times before it looked like he was able to form the words he wanted to say.
