Page 45 of Love to Hate You

“Did it at least make you smile?” He sits back, crosses his arms over his chest and tosses me a mischievous grin.

I nod. “Yes, it did. And I had a pretty lousy commute, so thanks for turning my day around.”

“No problem. There are donuts in the kitchen, too,” he adds.

“Glazed?”

“Of course.”

“Are you trying to make me gain weight?” I ask and tilt my head. I realize that I’m flirting, and I don’t even care.

“It wouldn’t matter. You’d still be gorgeous.”

His words make me blush. “So, I, ah, was thinking you should probably move out of here.” I look around the tiny room and suddenly feel bad for sticking him in here. “It was only a joke.”

“Where do you want me?”

I don’t want to kill the vibe between us, so I hesitate. “I was thinking you could take my office and I could move into the corner office.”

“I wondered when you’d finally make the big move.”

“I should, right?”

“May as well enjoy a perk of the title, Madame President.”

His voice is light and teasing and I nod. “Let’s move your stuff down,” I say.

We spend the next few hours moving Nash’s things into my old office and all of my things into Thomas’ corner office. As I’m setting up, Nash sits in his father’s big leather chair, and helps me go through his dad’s belongings, files and personal items.

“I’m going to take this. If you don’t mind,” he says and lifts the framed picture of him, his dad and siblings. “It was mine originally.”

“Of course.” I look down at the photo in his hands. “You all look very nice in that picture.”

“It’s before everything went to shit,” he says. “I don't know what he told you about our relationship with him and each other, but it went downhill after Mom died.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “He never said anything other than you were all estranged.”

“Yeah, thanks to him.” Nash sets the frame aside. “Anyway, enough about the old man.” He spins the chair around and gazes out at the dark, gray sky and pouring rain. “You’ve got quite the view.”

I chuckle. “Not so much right now but, yeah, it’s pretty spectacular.”

Spending time with Nash makes the morning fly by. We accomplish our office moves and then go our separate ways for conference calls and zoom meetings. I don’t have time to leave for lunch and at 1:00 p.m., Nash walks in with a brown paper bag.

I look up from a stack of quarterly reports and stick my pen in the back of my bun.

“Since it looks like you didn’t have time to go out, I grabbed you some lunch. Besides, it’s still pouring out there.” He sets the bag down on the edge of the desk, swipes a hand through his wet hair and my heart trips. No one looks out for me like he does and it’s a strange feeling.

“Thank you,” I murmur. The gesture touches me and emotion tightens my chest.

“Just something light. I have a big dinner planned,” he says with a wink and walks out to let me keep working.

I open the bag and take out a container of hot vegetable soup and a chunk of sourdough bread.Mmm, perfect for a rainy day.

Since I’m so busy, the rest of the day flies by in a blur and it’s 5:30 p.m. before I know it. I force myself to stop working and freshen up before our dinner. I want to look nice, of course, and I touch up my makeup in the attached bathroom. I also pull the pins from my hair and brush my loose, shoulder-length waves out until they gleam.

I can’t help but wonder if the only thing on tonight’s menu is dinner. Or is this going to be the night of hot sex? My toes curl in my high heels. Either way, I’m going to be ready. I take one last glance in the mirror and after a quick spritz of perfume, I walk back into the office and grab my purse and coat.

The rain finally seems to have slowed down to a drizzle and, as I’m reaching for my umbrella, Nash appears in the doorway.

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