Page 15 of No Harm No Howl

“Well, I’m here now,” she said with a smile. Her heart had been light all day with a sense of happiness she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“You are. Now, let’s grab some food and get down to the nitty-gritty.”

“Sounds good.”

Gia was amazed by what Russ had called the café. She had expected a small high school-style cafeteria. Boy, was she ever wrong. The café took up most of the lower level of the building and had several restaurants in it. Each restaurant featured a different cuisine. From Mexican to Italian to Chinese, whatever you wanted. It was available.

“Wow. I was not expecting this,” she said.

“It’s a nice perk of working here. Everything is on the house. WSI takes care of whatever employees want. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. If you’re here late, you can even pop in for drinks and snacks.”

“Are you serious?” she asked.

“I am. We take care of our employees. The happier my people are, the better job they do. The more committed they are to the company. I will go to bat for every single person here. Think of it like this … they are my pack.”

Gia didn’t know what to say. So she smiled back at Russ. She’d never heard of a company doing what WSI did for their employees. It wasn’t like she would plan to eat every meal at the office, but damn. That was a nice perk. No lie.

“Let’s grab some food, and we’ll chat while we eat,” Russ suggested.

“Sounds great. What’s good? I’m a bit overwhelmed right now.” She laughed.

“Everything. It’s going to come down to what kind of food you’re in the mood for. Myself, I’m going for street tacos.”

“Oh, man. Please tell me they have queso.”

“Of course they do.”

“I’ll have what you’re having. With a side of queso.”

Once they had their food and drinks, they found a table and got down to business.

“This is amazing,” Gia said, taking a bite of her taco. She was in food heaven.

“Queso really does make everything better. Now, this week will be pretty quiet. I wanted to make sure you have time to settle into what will be a rather hectic next couple of weeks. We have a few projects coming up that are going to require a bit of travel. I wanted to make sure you have plenty of notice.”

“Where are we headed?” she asked with a shaky voice. She knew the job required travel. She just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

“Vegas. Are you sure you’re okay with traveling?” he eyed her skeptically.

“Well, I told you I’ve never traveled for work before. I guess now is a good time to say that I’ve really never traveled anywhere, and I’ve never been on a plane before.”

“Really?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Honestly. I’ve always considered myself a girl who likes to keep her feet and paws firmly on the ground.” Gia had never had the desire to fly. If she couldn’t get there by driving, she didn’t really have the desire to go there. That was the approach she had always taken.

“I’ll be there with you the whole time. It’s not a solo trip. I’ll make sure our seats are together. Hopefully, that will make you feel more comfortable.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Gia tried to pump as much enthusiasm into her voice as she could, not wanting Russ to know that she was secretly scared shitless when it came to climbing into a metal can and flinging her ass hundreds of miles an hour at an altitude of God only knew what. Ugh.

She pushed the worry away for later, not wanting to have a full-blown panic attack on her first day in the office.

TEN

RUSS

Russ looked on as Gia said her goodbyes and left for the day. He wanted to follow her out that damn door, toss her over his shoulder, and take her home to his empty house… where she belonged. But he couldn’t. Not yet. She’d fight him tooth and nail. That wasn’t what he wanted.

Nope.

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