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“Yeah, you seem like a total mess,” she says sarcastically as she pulls away from me.
“Trust me. This is me being a mess.” I tug down on my shirtsleeves and comb my fingers through my hair. “Why aren’tyoua mess?”
“I don’t know. I feel…optimistic.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I think everything’s gonna be okay. My dad’s been pretty great since he got back from Seattle. I mean, I haven’t talked to him all that much, but he’s being nice. For him.”
“Really? Good.”
She gives my bicep a little punch. “Anyway, you should prep for your staff meeting. I’ll get everything together for you. Mr. Carver.”
“Hey,” I say before she opens the door. “When am I gonna see you again?”
She grins, lowering her chin and blinking. “Between thirty and sixty seconds from now, I’d estimate.”
“You know what I mean.”
“After rehearsal tonight.”
I nod once, super chill. “Sounds good. We should probably try to, you know, take it down a few notches until then.”
She places her fist on her hip. “Oh, I’ll take it down all the notches, Mr. Carver. Business mode—on. Whoever behaves inappropriately first buys a late dinner tonight.”
“Game on. Don’t worry—I like my tacos cheap. Like my women.”
So, I’m buying dinner tonight, but it’s worth it.
This staff meeting, though—I mean, I’ve never actually enjoyed a staff meeting, but this one is taking forever. When it’s my turn to give a rundown on what I’ve got going on, Jay Barnes praises me for the information I gathered on the office park in Central Point and tells me to move forward with it.
“Have you assigned it to a broker yet?”
Dan raises his pen to offer his services, but I choose Randall instead because he’s got more experience with foreclosures and he’s one hundred percent less douche-y.
Dan readjusts his tie. “Glad to hear things are going well with that resort, Wes,” he says. “When you and your assistant didn’t come back to the office after heading out there last week, I got worried.”
Literally everyone at the table looks over to Jay for a reaction…except me.
“All is well, thanks, Dan. The clients needed a little extra handholding that day, and we were able to use the time to power through a lot of their contingencies and financing details.”
Jay asks Roger the CFO a question, hastily changing the subject. I glare at D-bag, and this particular adrenaline rush keeps me hyper aware of everything that everyone is saying and doing for the rest of the meeting and eyeing all of the exits. When we finally wrap things up, I’m nearly out the door when Jay says, “Wes. Walk with me to my office, will you?”
And there’s that knot in my stomach again. “Sure.”
We’re halfway to his office before he says anything. “The gazebo in the garden is very nice. Thanks for helping with that.”
“It was my pleasure. I like a good carpentry project every now and then.”
“Must be nice to be able to build things. No one in the Barnes family has been any good at it, but we’re great at hiring people who can.”
“Well, that’s something.”
Tina looks up at her boss expectantly when we enter.
“Hold my calls for a bit,” he tells her. “Have a seat,” he says to me, gesturing toward the seating area inside his office.
“What’s up?” I take a seat, leaning back and puffing out my chest in an attempt at a power pose, while fully expecting to lose my job.
