Page 28 of Rewrite the Rules

Out? You were out?The thought of Adler out on the town on a Friday night, looking like that, makes my jaw twitch with jealousy. I hate the thought of some other guy drooling over her, but it isn’t my place. I at least find comfort in the fact that she’s here by herself looking for her key to gohome…alone.

I open my top desk drawer and only see pens and an ergonomic computer mouse. Trying the drawer on the other side, I find extra cords and chargers. “I don’t see it.”

“It’s taped to the back so it doesn’t come loose,” Adler says as she advances toward me. “Here, let me look.”

I roll my chair backwards to give her room. Adler squats down in front of me and pulls my top left drawer open. Most of her arm disappears as she reaches to the far back of it.

“Aha!” Adler pulls out a single copper key with a piece of tape still attached. She pops back up enthusiastically. Too enthusiastically. She catches the corner of the desk. My whole body tenses as I hear a loud tear rip through the quiet office like a foghorn.

My mouth falls open.

Skin. All I see is smooth, lush…skin.

* * *

Adler

I freeze, too scared to assess the damage. But I can feel it. The cool air engulfs the right side of my body, my ribs, my waist, and my bare ass that my thong definitely does not cover. I’m exposed. My dress is split open, in front of my boss, in his office in the middle of the night. Human Resources would have some serious questions and concerns about this.

I have no choice but to play this like a possum. I am going to lie down on the ground right now and pretend to be dead until this whole mess goes away. Humiliation has a temperature and it’s a thousand degrees, hot enough to instantly incinerate me.

This is it, right here. This is how I’m going to die—of embarrassment.

I finally work up the courage to peek at Joel. His eyes soak up my body like it’s the last sight he’ll see before blindness takes him. He scours every inch of my exposure as if he’s in a trance. I am melting underneath his scorching gaze and if this were a man who found me attractive, it’d be our moment. I’d let him rip the rest of this dress off and show me exactly what I’ve been missing out on all these years.

But it’s Joel. Therefore, all I feel is…ridiculous. I tried to kiss him and he said no. So naturally I wait a few weeks and strip half naked in front of him. Clearly, I can take a hint.

I cinch my dress together in one fist. I consider running for the door but I’m the idiot who came out without a coat and I can’t walk home in my thong like this. There’s no amount of binder clips or safety pins that can salvage this dress. I am going to have to make a very awkward call to my friends and somehow explain why I’m half naked in my boss’s office when I was supposed to be on my way home. I can already imagine Quinn’s pursed lips, Reese’s encouraging head bob, and Noa’s hands smacked against her cheeks.See guys…what had happened was…oh shut it. Just come rescue me!

“Um, I’m…sorry…it was an accid—”

Joel’s undressing.

His eyes glue onto mine as he pops button by button free. His lips part slightly as he forces out a long steady exhale that could inflate a jumbo-sized balloon. I gawk as Joel reveals his firm broad chest speckled with the perfect amount of chest hair. I scrunch my toes in my boots.

Maybe he changed his mind? Maybe under this light I look a little different?

He rises from his executive chair and frees the remainder of the buttons below his belly button. His abdomen is so defined that the grooves separating his six-pack could double as a tiny mouse maze.

He slips out of his sleeves, his eyes never leaving mine. I curl my toes harder. So hard in fact, they begin to cramp sending an uncomfortable pulsing sensation up my calves. I un-bunch my fist and let the loose pieces of my dress fall free. My eager nipples push against the lace fabric of my bra. I can’t fight this swell. This heat. This electricity. Damn the consequences, endanger my ego, I don’t care. I’m alive.

And I still want him.

“Here,” he whispers as he hands me his shirt. He clears his throat and his tone returns. “This should be long enough on you.”

Oh…

Well…just…shit.

His words are like smelling salts pulling me out of the haze. He’s not trying to be sexy. He’s being gallant. He wants me to cover up.

Joel fetches his gym bag in the corner of the office and pulls out a neatly folded athletic t-shirt. He throws it over his head. “I would’ve offered you this one because it’s clean, but I think my button-down is a bit longer… Adler, are you okay?” His brows furrow, pairing with his look of concern. He nods at the shirt in my hand that I haven’t put on yet.

His gaze toggles from my exposed ass to his shirt. His startled expression eventually lands on my eyes, reminding me that I’m basically trying to seduce him in the manner of wild baboons by shoving my bare ass in his face to signal that I’m down to get busy. Although, according to that nature special I watched, in the animal kingdom, females ‘present’ proudly. I don’t believe they die of mortification afterwards.

“Sorry,” I mumble as I jump into action. I force my arms through the too-big-for-me sleeves. His top becomes a dress on me. It covers well past the torn hem. I find warm consolation in the smell of his earthy cologne that envelops me as I fasten the shirt buttons as quickly as my trembling fingers allow.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Joel smiles as the flames in his eyes cool to glowing red coals. I hate that he does this to me. I always leave feeling more foolish than when I arrived.

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