Page 89 of By A Thread
I grabbed my coffee off the counter and slid into a chair in the corner facing the steamy glass window.
Me: Nope.
Charming: Where are you?
Me: You can’t fire me.
Charming: I’m not trying to fire you. I’m trying to apologize and promise it will never happen again. If anything, you could have me fired. You should have me fired.
Me: What is wrong with you?
Charming: I don’t know.
Charming: It’s safe to talk to HR. I wouldn’t stop you from doing that.
I gave up trying to text through still-frozen fingers and dialed.
“Ally.” The way he said my name had my lady parts clenching. “Where are you? Can we talk? It doesn’t have to be alone. I can have an HR rep—”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded. The woman next to me carefully studying the Bible glared at me.
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” he said in my ear.
“Your office door was locked, Dom,” I pointed out at a more modulated volume.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Your office door was locked, and it was well after hours. You didn’t lure me there, you idiot. I was dropping off files, and I used the key Greta keeps in her desk.”
“My behavior was unconscionable,” he said, his voice low and rough around the edges.
“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “You should see what I get up to with a vibrator on Saturday nights.”
“Ally.” He bit out my name like he was in physical pain.
The guy in the lemon yellow ski jacket texting on his phone like it was a full-time job shot me an interested look.
“Not gonna happen, buddy,” I told him.
He went back to texting, and now I worried he was doing one of those live-tweet things.Hey Twitter, I’m sitting at a coffee shop minding my own business when the chick next to me starts talking about vibrators…
“What?” Dom asked.
“Not you. Well, also you. I’m not trying to harass you, Dom. My point is that everyone acts unconscionably on their own time. I just happened to barge into your time. You didn’t harass me. You didn’t assault me. Yourejectedme.”
“I think you’re missing the bigger picture,” he said dryly.
“Yeah, well, I think you missed the boat. You had a chance to get this out of your system, and you said no.”
“I’m yourboss. And you’re being really stubborn about quitting.”
“At this point, I don’t really give a flying fuckcicle, Dominic.”
Bible study lady cleared her throat in a judgey kind of way and nodded her head toward the teenagers across from her.
“Sorry,” I mouthed to them. “Look, you had your chance. You made it crystal clear that you have no desire to… get coffee with me,” I said to Dominic.
“Coffee?”
