Page 10 of Festive Flings

~ Owen ~

It's 4:40 p.m. and our day at work finishes at 5 p.m. I summon Jamie to my office so I can ask her out before I miss my opportunity.

As she walks in, I shift uncomfortably in my seat. I'm getting hard for her already; I’m as bad as a teenager. She looks good enough to eat, and God knows how I would make a meal out of eating her.

I’m not sure why but she looks a bit different. She carries her bag and coat with her and looks ready to leave.

“Are you wearing make-up?” I blurt out and her face turns crimson in embarrassment.

“Oh my God, does it look awful? I managed to get myself a date tonight straight from work and I have been trying to make myself look nice, but the lights are terrible in the staff toilets.” She takes out a small compact from a pocket in her bag and examines her face in it, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.

I’m already too late. After all this time, I am going to miss my chance. I am definitely going to lose her now. Not that she’s mine to lose, but I want her to be mine.

“No, it looks great! Sorry, you just look different.” I stumble over my words, but I continue talking anyway. “A date? What’s brought all this on, eh? I thought you were concentrating on yourself for the time being.” I try to keep my voice level, but panic is building inside me and I hear it as the words come out of my mouth.

“This is what brought it on. It's time to move on. If Carl gets to move on and be happy then I deserve that, too… don’t I?” A card and a letter fall on my desk. I only have to read the first few words to understand: that fucker invited her to his wedding!

Rage bubbles up in my stomach, pushing out the panic. Who the fuck does he think he is, messing about with Jamie again? She has been to hell and back getting over him, and now he callously throws this at her, too. My hands clench into fists, wanting to punch his face in.

“Of course, you deserve to be happy. Just be careful, Jamie. There are some weirdos out there, and I would hate anything bad to happen to you.”

She looks stunned that I would be concerned. “Thank you, Mr. Matthews. I promise I will be careful.”

Mr. Matthews! How do I change that?

“Jamie? Can I just talk to you, not as your boss, Mr. Matthews, but as Owen, just for a minute?” I wait for her to agree before I continue. “So you’re really ready to start dating again?”

When she nods yes, I know I have to ask her. I have to, I can’t leave it to chance any longer.

“If this date doesn’t work out, then how about we go out sometime?”

Her look of complete bewilderment confirms that she really has no idea how much I like her. Her lovely eyes are wide, and her cheeks have turned pink. She is so beautiful, and now I will finally know if there will ever be a future for us.

“You’d like to go out with me, Mr… I mean, Owen?” Jamie is gorgeously gobsmacked; she really has absolutely no idea of how amazing she is.

“I’d love the chance to get to know each other outside of the office. Obviously, if your date turns out to be your future husband then we’ll pretend this conversation didn’t happen. But if he’s not…”

She still looks stunned. “I didn’t think someone like you would be interested in someone like me. I will think about it. I don’t want things to become awkward between us if it goes wrong; we would still have to work together.”

“You have my number, but can you put it under Owen, please?” When she smiles at me, the smile goes all the way to her eyes and turns my insides to jelly.

“Ok, I will change it to Owen.” She opens the office door and as she leaves, she turns back, all professional once again, and calls out, “Goodnight, Mr. Matthews. See you tomorrow.”

My heart gives a leap; fuck, she is insanely sexy. I can only imagine what it would be like between us in bed. It has annoyed the shit out of me for almost two years that she calls me Mr. Matthews. Now I’m having all sorts of visions of her naked in the middle of my bed beckoning me to her by calling, “Mr. Matthews… Mr. Matthews”.

Shit, I’m in deep here and I don’t know how I will make it through the night not knowing how her date is going with some other man.

I should have made my move earlier, but goddammit, she moved fast once she made the decision to start dating again.

I should have asked her where she is going, who this guy is and where she met him.

Casting my mind around for a solution, I finally hit on one: Tim! Tim might know. I’m at his desk in record time.

“Tim… can I have a word before you leave?” I ignore his look of annoyance; he obviously has stuff he would rather do, but this is important.

“I’ll make it quick… Do you know who Jamie is going on a date with?”

Tim looks surprised by my question. “She’s got a date already? She literally downloaded the app this afternoon.” He looks bashful, but I don’t have the time and patience to dissect the reasons why.

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