Page 15 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
“What are you doing here?” I tried not to sound as annoyed as I felt.
He looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Am I wrong, or did you say there was more work to do? I’m clocking in, boss!”
“Work forme.” I frowned as I unlocked the door. “There’s nothing for you to work on here.”
“Wait, I’m supposed to be your second-in-command, right?” Raymond stood at attention. “I take my role seriously! So, here I am, reporting for duty!”
“Are you trying to take over my job?” I narrowed my eyes at him. Why the hell was he trying to be cute? “Is this a ploy to get me to let my guard down?”
“Seriously?” His shoulders slumped as he followed me inside. “This is because of what Mr. Watson did, isn’t it? I’m being punished for another man’s ignorance.”
“Oh, you mean mistaking you for the owner ofmybusiness?” I stopped walking and turned to him. “No, couldn’t possibly be because of that. Didn’t botherme at all!”
“That was real convincing.” He chuckled and rubbed his beard. “Well, you know I’m not here to take over, so relax. One foolish man isn’t changing my mind.”
“I’m perfectly relaxed.” I held up the donuts. “I have these! The cure to all my problems in cute packaging!”
“Did you have to trip a man to get them?” He pointed at the donuts. “I hope they don’t have to file an insurance claim like I did.”
“You did not!”
“How else do you expect me to recover from the knee injury?”
“Well, now you’re just being dramatic.” I sighed. “Are you really going to hang around here?”
“Of course. Besides, you might need saving again.”
“Saving?”
“You have stalkers, woman!” He waved his hand as if we were surrounded by the aforementioned offenders.
“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes and marched into my office.
Yeah, I tried to work. Computer on, files open, contracts ready for mark-up. For about thirty minutes, I pretended to be productive while Raymond sat across from me, feet on the edge of my desk, fingers tapping on his phone.
“Is this what you call being helpful?” I reached across the desk and knocked his feet down.
“This is what I call waiting for directives.” He smiled.
“I already told you, I have nothing for you to do here.”
“Right, and it doesn’t look like you’re getting much done either.” He pointed at the paper in front of me. “You’ve been looking at the same page for at least ten minutes now.”
“It’s hard to work when someone’s sitting across from you playing on their phone while propping their dirty shoes on your desk. Do you know how many germs are on those things?” I pointed to his shoes.
He inhaled deeply, a scrutinizing expression on his face, brows pushed in tightly, lips twisted. “What I’m hearing is that you need to get away from the office.”
“I’m not sure how the hell you took that from what I just said.” I folded my hands in front of me. “What I need is to be left alone so I can focus.”
“You’re hungry. Let’s go.”
“Are you just ignoring the words coming out of my mouth? It’s like I’m talking to myself. What the hell do you mean, let’s go?”
“We need dinner. I know I do.” He stood and stretched. “Those little finger fruit things they gave us at the meeting weren’t nearly enough to satisfy me. I’m a big, strong guy. I need food.”
“You’re a big, strong pain in my ass,” I fussed as I rubbed the tension forming at my temples.
“You know, ever since we finalized that contract, you don’t sweet talk me anymore.”
