Page 1 of Zane
1
Charlotte
I slump into my chair and rub my temples. My head feels like it’s been run over by a steam train.
“Morning, honey.” Elsie, my best friend at work, saddles up beside me with a fresh cup of coffee in her hand. “Thought you might need a little something-something to make you feel better.”
I take the scolding hot mug and tentatively sip from the dark aromatic liquid. “You’re my favorite person in the whole world.”
“Ah,” she hugs me and pats me on the head like I’m a naughty dog who ate the chocolate cake that was left on the counter... instead of a twenty-four-year-old woman who went out for birthday drinks on a work night and said yes to a few too many tequilas. “You’ll be fine. Besides, it’s Friday. All you’ve got to do is get through today, and then you can go home. Curl up on the couch in front of the TV, pour yourself a glass of wine, order some take-out. By then your hangover will be a distant memory.”
“I hope so.” The mere mention of wine has the insides of my mouth filling with saliva… and not in a good way.
I’m just in the middle of deliberating whether I might need to quickly run to the restroom and relieve my stomach of some of its contents when Susan, our boss, marches into the office with a devastatingly handsome man in her tow.
“Morning, ladies.” Her beaming white smile lights up the room as she storms past us. “Everyone in the meeting room, ten minutes.”
“Oh, God,” I whine to Elsie, “I thought she wasn’t coming in until this afternoon.”
I look up to see Elsie craning her head over the row of computers, her eyes following the behind of the tall man with the silver hair. “What?” she says, catching me looking at her with a slightly accusatory eyebrow raised. “A woman can look can’t she?”
“A married woman with three children?” I ask.
“Especially a married woman with three children.” Elsie gets up and picks up a pile of folders from her desk. “It’s about the only thing a woman like me can do… look. God knows I haven't been seeing any more action than that, recently.”
“Dirk's back still playing up?”
“Honey, there ain’t nothing wrong with Dirk's back that would stop him getting his pole wet, if he really wanted to. It’s just one of those things. You have three children. You get a mortgage. You both put on a bit of weight, and after a while, when you slip into bed, you’d rather read a book and fall asleep than have a little hanky-panky. I’m just as guilty as he is. But we’ll sort it out. We always do.”
I stand up and drain the last of my scolding hot coffee. It burns the inside of my mouth, but I’m going to need the energy if I want to be at my best for this meeting. Especially when Mr. Tall-Dark-And-Handsome is there, too.
I flick a mint in my mouth, to ward off any coffee breath, or possibly the lingering scent of last night's alcohol, and half-stagger, half-strut my way to the meeting.
“Okay,” Susan says. Her jacket’s hanging off the back of her chair, and her shirt sleeves are pulled up over her athletic arms. I can’t help but look at her figure and feel a pang of jealousy. She’s ten years older than me and she still looks amazing. I really don’t know how she does it? Running a successful business, married, and enough discipline and time to maintain the kind of figure a professional tennis play would be jealous of. “This here is my brother, Zane.”
All eyes make their way to the man who is now sitting on a chair in the corner behind us. He’s obviously trying to stay out of the way, but a man of his size, and with his looks, in a room full of women… well, he’s got about as much chance of melding into the background as a dinosaur at a picnic.
I try to pretend like I’m less interested than I am, but when I turn back to look at him, our eyes meet. For a moment it’s like the whole world stops moving. My head goes dizzy. I’m not sure whether it’s the hangover or the coffee, or whether the air-conditioning has suddenly stopped working, but I can feel the heat build up and break out over my skin. My vision goes blurry. Before I know what’s happening, I’m slipping off my chair. Sliding onto the floor.
I hear people gasping, but I can’t see any of them because I’m sinking into the darkness. The next thing I know, I'm opening my eyes and I’m still looking into Susan’s brother’s deep blue eyes, but this time his face is much closer, and I can smell his woody, masculine scent, and I swear he’s got his arm wrapped around my shoulders.
He pushes a glass of water into my hands. “Here, take a sip on this.”
“What happened?”
“You fainted.”
“What?!” I look around and notice the whole entire office is standing around us. I’m sitting on the floor. My skirt is hiked up a little higher than is appropriate, and, looking at my reflection in the glass wall, I notice my hair is a total mess.
The level of embarrassment I feel shoots up to a million.
I try and stand up, but he puts his hand on my arm and stops me from moving. “It’s best you stay where you are. You’re probably still dizzy. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine.” I force myself to my feet, bravely ignoring the unusually loud heartbeat pounding in my ears and the wobbly, newborn dear status of my legs. “Thank you for your kindness,” I say, swiping my hair behind my ear and attempting to regain some sense of decorum, “but I think I can take it from here.”
2
Zane
