Page 10 of She Likes It, Hey Micah
Micah turns, piercing me with her blue eyes. Not a color I would have expected to go with her auburn curls. They’re a soft blue, almost the same color as the forget-me-nots in one of the many blooms on her desk.
I clear my throat, handing her a business card because her hand is still out and waiting. She seems surprised but starts typing in my email anyway.
“I take it you like flowers,” I say, feeling pretty pathetic for making a business meeting awkward. This is my thing. What I’m good at. Whatever it is about Micah that has me stumbling through this whole thing is really starting to bug me. If I can’t even set up a calendar with a coworker, how am I supposed to make sure this event doesn’t completely bankrupt Grant’s company?
Micah shrugs as she starts clicking and dragging blocks around her calendar. Whatever program she’s using, it looks way friendlier than mine. “They’re great,” she says, and the phrase is open ended.
It isn’t any of my business. “But?”
She glances over, her smile growing. I don’t think she’s beenwithouta smile since I got here. “But none of them have guessed my favorite.”
“None of what?”
“My dates.”
These are all from guys? I look around the cubicle more closely, counting five different arrangements. The oldest can’t be more than a week old, and she saiddates. As in plural. “Not a boyfriend?” I ask, reaching out to touch a rose petal. Whoever sent her these, he picked yellow roses. Code for friendship. Probably not the message he was hoping to send.
Micah snorts. “Is that your way of asking if I’m available?”
“I don’t date coworkers.” Especially when they apparently have an ego to rival their famous brother’s. I’m honestly surprised Houston Briggs agreed to come to our reopening when I imagine him to be too self-important to care about anything that doesn’t get him in the spotlight. I suppose thisdoesput him in the spotlight, if only a small one. But nothing quite compares to pitching in the World Series.
Micah’s smile somehow grows even more, which I didn’t think was possible. “Oh, me neither. After I went out with the guy who delivered our lunch whenever we ordered Chinese and it didn’t go anywhere, things got so awkward. We had to stop ordering from that restaurant until he became the assistant manager and no longer did deliveries. You can’t believe how much I missed their honey walnut shrimp.”
“That’s…” I don’t even know what to say to that. “That’s not what I…”
She pats my arm, and I instinctively flinch, expecting the discomfort that usually comes from unexpected touches. It doesn’t come.
I massage my palm again. How can Istillfeel her? It’s been at least fifteen minutes since she held my hand. I should be itching to scrub my hand free of her touch, not hoping for more.
“Okay, you should get an email with the link to our calendar app,” Micah says right as my phone buzzes.
I pull out my phone, frowning at the email. “You can’t just send it in Outlook or something?” I spend enough time as it is making sure Grant gets to everything on his calendar, and I don’t need the risk of missing something.
Micah does a full spin and then some in her chair, four hundred and fifty degrees until she comes to a stop facing me with her unending smile. “Trust me. Once you use this app, you’ll never go back. Plus, most of our vendors use it too, so it makes it way easier to schedule tastings and design meetings.”
I’m wary, based on the sheer amount of color in the preview photos on the app store, but I click download anyway. First coffee, then giving Ember a chance. Now I’m downloading unnecessary apps onto my phone. I’m a little worried what else Micah Taylor might convince me to do if I’m here for much longer.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I was feeling perfectly normal when I woke up this morning, all the way until I stepped off the elevator on the fourth floor. Then I saw a girl in a sky-blue sundress and bright red lipstick, and it’s like I’ve devolved into a caveman driven by pheromones. Yeah, she’s gorgeous, but I can’t forget she’s a colleague. She’s far younger than me. I know nothing about her. I have no intentions of dating right now.
Or ever.
“Price!” Grant’s voice precedes him through the door of the office next to us, and he narrows his eyes at me as if I’ve done something wrong. I probably have, at least in his mind. “Time to go.”
Micah looks at me. “Your name is Fischer Price?” she whispers, her eyes wide.
I hold back a groan as I stand. “Go ahead and laugh. Get it out of your system.”
She bites her bottom lip, teeth white against the red. “I’ll be in touch once the calendar is set up,” she says after a moment, saying nothing more about how my name resembles a toy company. She looks behind me. “Mr. Bradley, it was good to meet you. I hope you get everything you’ve always wanted from Ember Events.”
Grant glances at Lila, who gives him a look that heats the room by an uncomfortable twenty degrees. It’s the same look she gave me when I first got here, and I don’t like the way Grant puffs out his chest. He’s distracted enough as it is, and he doesn’t need to be pursuing an attraction to his event planner.
Still, I know the feeling. And I know Ember is going to be dangerous for us both. I nudge Grant toward the elevator before either of us can get into trouble.
“Is this your cell number, Fischer?” Micah asks as she types on her phone, but I get a text from her before I can respond. She grins. “I hope you’re an early bird, because I am.”
I groan as I follow Grant into the elevator. And yet, for the next thirteen hours before I finally go to bed, I hope every text that comes in is another one from Micah.
That’s going to be a problem.
