“We should do this sometime…” I hinted. “I mean, the real thing.”
She turned toward me in surprise. “Stargazing?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded but seemed to be in deep thought about something. Was she regretting what happened between us earlier?
I rolled to my side and gazed at her gazing at the ceiling. After some time, she turned toward me. Our lips were inches away from each other. I could feel the sexual tension vibrating once more in the air.
I reached out and touched her cheek ever so lightly. “You know they’re right,” I said.
“About what?”
“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered. It just came out. I was saying what was on my mind without filtering anything.
She was speechless.
“Why have you not dated anyone in the office?” I blurted out.
She shrugged. “Just not into anyone. And I never planned on dating when I started working there. I want to focus on my career.”
“What if I ask you out? Will you also turn me down?” I said in a serious tone. This woman was changing me in just a short period of time. It was mind-boggling.
“Maybe,” she answered, a smile turning up at the corners of her lips. At least I was able to make her smile again. “You’ll never know unless you try.”
“Hhmmm… I’ll think about it,” I said jokingly.
She grinned.
Soon we both fell asleep, her head resting on my shoulder, one of my arms around her waist. It felt so comfortable, so right. I never wanted the moment to end.
Perhaps an hour or so passed.
Then suddenly, a persistent ringing sound woke us both up. I sat up in alarm, feeling something vibrating in my pocket. When I checked, I realized it was my phone. It had a signal!
The ringing stopped before I picked it up. That was Anna calling. She did send a message that she and Riley were fine, so I was relieved.
When I turned to Kayla, she looked at me strangely, her mouth open and eyes wide. “Oh. My. God!” she said very slowly and with a stressed purpose. “I can’t believe you!” She slapped me hard on the chest, making me almost fall backward with the unexpected force.
She got up, grabbed my phone, and began waving it in front of me. “Your phone had a signal all this time?!”
“What?” I said loudly, not understanding her at first. But then it began to sink in.
“You planned this! You intended for it to happen! I can’t believe you’d stoop that low!”
Wow, she was really angry. I could almost see steam coming out of her ears.
I didn’t know whether to get angry at her accusation or to laugh about it. “I didn’t plan it. My phone did not have a signal earlier. Check it; the signal is weak. It’s fluctuating.”
“But we could have tried sending a message to someone!” she said, her face turning red from anger. “Raven’s working late tonight. She’s probably just here somewhere.”
“Kayla, I didn’t plan it, just like I didn’t plan for the lights to go out when we were working late in the office! Just like I didn’t plan for the elevator to stop working!” I was raising my voice too to match hers. It was pissing me off now.
She stormed off, taking my phone with her. I saw her dialing a number, but she kept moving from one position to another, so I guessed she realized that I had been telling the truth. The signal was fluctuating.
“Aarrrggghh!” she shouted in frustration when she could not connect using my phone. She threw it to me and stomped off to sit by one of the production desks.
I suddenly wondered how we’d be able to win this case if we were on good terms one minute and then screaming at each other the next.