Page 13 of Blood Ties
“Make sure you bring the thermos home with you. It wouldn’t be good to have the cleaning service find it.”
“Oh, I bet that would go over well. ‘Hey, look what I found in Mr. Alexander’s fridge, a thermos full of blood,’” he answered like a smart ass. “Yeah, I’ll be sure to bring it home.”
I furrowed my brows at him. “You, okay?”
He sighed, running his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m just aggravated.”
“If you’re not ready to go back…”
“No, I am. I just…” He paused shaking away his frustration. When he turned to look at me he plastered a small smile on his face. “I love you Gaby. I’ll see you when I get home.”
“Grayson…” He silenced me with a kiss before he turned to leave the apartment.Well, that was weird.
When I arrived at work, there was a note on my desk letting me know Ralph wanted to see me. It wasn’t surprising. I had missed a lot of work because of the Grayson-Anton situation.
After depositing my bag at my desk, I made my way to his office.
“Nice of you to grace us with your presence this morning Gaby. Wasn’t sure if you’d be coming back. It’s not like you need to work after all, right?” Ralph declared snidely as he stared at his computer not bothering to look at me as I entered, which was unusual. Ralph was normally a pretty friendly guy. In all the time I’d worked for him I’d never seen him angry before, except when they pulled the one hundred calorie cookies from the vending machine and even then it was a “Well, heck,” and he moved on.
I took the seat in front of his desk ignoring his curt remarks. “I’m sorry, Ralph. I had some personal matters come up. I did have my friend Shawn call to inform you.” Shawn had placed the call when he wasn’t able to get a hold of me when I went after Grayson and Anton. He told me that he thought it was smart to have all our bases covered. He’d been right.
Ralph turned to me. His chin rested on his steepled fingers. He looked to be studying me. “Gaby, Shawn isn’t the employee here.”
I tried not to show my shock at his comment. “I couldn’t get to a phone to call, so he did it for me.”
“You’re saying that in this day and age you didn’t have access to a cell phone?”
I gawked at him, “I’m really not understanding the issue here. You were informed. If I could have called personally I would have.”
“There is no reason to get upset.” Just having him tell me not to be upset made me upset.
“Ralph, I’m gettingupsetbecause I just had a really emotionally exhausting week and you seem to be drilling me over it, like I’m lying to you.”
“Are you?”
Now I was truly pissed. “Are you freaking serious, right now!” I yelled.
“It’s a simple question, Gaby.”
“I’m not lying, Ralph and how dare you insinuate that.”
Ralph sighed shaking his head. “Gaby, we’ve had this problem in the past with employees. They get into new relationships, start calling in sick and work gets put on the backburner. I just didn’t think you were one ofthoseemployees.”
“Whatexactlyare you saying to me right now Ralph?”
“I’msayingthat isn’t it a coincidence that both you and Alexander were out at the same time.” Ralph knew I was dating Grayson. After Grayson had hired Gates and Summers for his opening it was hard to hide our relationship, but it seriously ticked me off that Ralph was using that knowledge to dig things up on me.
“Coincidence? No. And what are you doing? Spying on me?” I spat.
“How about you just tell me what business you had that required you both?”
Gripping the armrests, I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say. There was no way that I could tell him the truth. I could lie, but living around vampires my entire life made it difficult for me to even try and be convincing. Vampires could tell when you were lying by listening to your heartbeat so there was never any point in trying.
“I honestly don’t see how that is any of your business. After what happened with Rachel, you told me I could take time off. I did. Yes, it was a lot of baggage rolled into one overwhelming situation, but I don’t see how that’s an issue. Now if we are through here…” I stood heading towards the door without waiting to be dismissed.
With a huff, I plopped down in my chair before waking my computer with a wiggle of my mouse. After a few failed attempts at trying to work and still reeling from my conversation with Ralph, I decided to check in on Grayson.
Grayson’s secretary picked up on the third ring. “Alexander Holding Incorporated. This is Betty.”
