Page 25 of Waiting for Acceptance
Knock knock knock.
“Go away,” she yells back.
Um, no.
I open the door and walk in, catching one of those famous eye rolls. “What if it was Amy or Luther? Would you want them to go away too?”
“No. I knew it was you, though,” she answers, pushing the lettuce from her salad around with her plastic fork.
“Oh? How’s that?” I question, sitting in the chair across from her desk, catching a glare from her as she tosses her fork down.
“Because everyone else in this office knows that my door being closed, means don’t even try to come in, and to email or text me instead.” She closes the laptop next to her and I notice a tissue with black smudges was behind it. Her eyes follow my gaze and she snatches it up, tossing it in the bin under her desk.
“What do you want?” She crosses her arms over her chest, sitting straight up in her chair.
“I wanted to apologi—” She holds her hand up to stop me.
“Don’t.” I look on in confusion.
“Um…oka?—”
“Apologizing would suggest you did something to upset me. You simply proved to me that you’re exactly who I thought you were. So thanks for that.”
“Ah, so you’ve got me all figured out then, is that it?” I lean forward in my chair, watching as she mirrors my movements.
“You make it pretty easy. You come in here, telling everyone what to do like you own the place—which makes sensenowseeing as you’re about to—you make me jump throughridiculoushoops to prove I’m good enough to be here when everyone in this office knows damn good and well that I am. Something you would also know if you took a second to glance at my record, but no. Instead, you take the lazy way out, tagging along while I bust my ass to make sales.Thenyou steal clients out from under me for God only knows what reason. Since youclearlydon’t need the money. Then you act all gentlemanly like at lunch which was more than likely a ruse just to see if you could get me into bed again. I’m not sure why, exactly, since I was onlydecent. Hmm, boredom, maybe? The rich bachelor is having trouble picking up girls in a new city?” She taps her fingers against her lips, and it pisses me off that I want to kiss her just to shut her up. I’m practically a flaming ball of rage sitting in the chair in front of her, all while she looks as calm as ever.
“But I’ll save you the trouble,Mr. Fitzgerald. You and I are done. In every sense of the word. I will not answer to you anymore, no matter what Marcus says. If I’m going to work with you, the order will have to come from Jack himself.” She lets out a little huff, the only giveaway that she’s worked up about all of this, and stands up behind her desk.
“Now get the hell out of my office.” I stand up from my seat, studying her carefully as she tips her chin up at me.
Sexy little Vixen. She has no idea who she’s dealing with.
I turn to walk out of her office, then think of one point in her rambling that needs immediate reconciliation. “The check for the Johnsons townhome sale, the check withyourname on it, is in your otherwise empty mail holder.” I see her look at where the little white envelope is barely peeking out at the top before her cheeks redden with embarrassment.
“I can’t wait to watch you eat your words, Trouble.”
CHAPTER 14
LAUREN
What in the holy fuck does that mean?
Miraculously, I didn’t see Fitz the rest of the day. I’m genuinely shocked, seeing as how he’s never seemed to listen to me before. I’m the last one out of the office tonight—per usual—and just as I am locking up, headlights illuminate the front of the building before I hear a car stop behind me. My heart rate picks up when I remember I never pulled my car closer to the door before it got dark out. A decision I’m currently regretting.
I turn around, giving myself a little pep talk to look confident as I walk to my car and not as scared as I actually am. Then I see that it’s Fitz in his dumb-ass Range Rover and all emotions switch to annoyance.
“Get in,” he calls through the rolled down window. I walk in his direction, not because I intend toget in, but because my car is parked behind where he’s stopped.
“Um…not no, but hell no.” I smirk at him humorlessly and walk around the front of his vehicle to get to mine. I pull my keys from my bag just as I hear his door shut.
“Get in the car, Trouble.” He closes the distance between us and I spin around, my eyes wide.
“What’s your damage, Fitzgerald? What part of ‘no’ do you not understand?”
“I understand it, I just don’t accept it. You can continue your tantrum later, but we need to talk.” I open my mouth to give him an earful—which I can do fromoutsideof his car—but he holds a finger up to my lips and I despise the way his touch makes my body react.
“Let me rephrase.Ineed to talk, I only need you to listen. Think you can manage to shut that pretty mouth of yours long enough to do that for me?”
