Page 31 of Joint Custody

But drinks seemed to be off the menu tonight. She was shaking her head so hard as she pushed the files at my chest, I thought she might have whiplash.

“Oh! No, no. I have so much work to do, I told him I had to cancel. I’m just so glad I was able to catch you in time to give you these,” she said in a rush. She had bits of hair sticking out in places as if she’d run her hand through it several times. My fingers itched to reach out and smooth them back in place, caress the bags that had gathered beneath her eyes. But I turned my attention to the files she handed me instead.

I gave them a quick once over, scanning the pages at the speed of light before nodding, indicating how impressed I was with her work. “Very good,” I said, looking up at her as she smiled and began to hurry away.

“Hold on,” I called after her. “I don’t understand. I mean, you’re done, right?” I asked, holding the files up in the air. I thought about asking if Mario had assigned something else, but I knew that unless it was urgent, he wouldn’t have, not on an important night like this where she could be out celebrating her first day of employment.

She touched her forehead, and I noticed her fingers shaking a little as she did. She was more than just a little bit stressed. “So far from done, you have no idea. Jared asked me to work on something for him. He wants it done first thing in the morning, and I’m not even halfway through it,” she said, clicking her heels away from me in a hurry again.

“Of course he did,” I said to myself before I found the next words leaving my lips. “I can help you,” I yelled at her departing back.

Her heels squeaked on the tiled floor as she came to a quick stop, spinning around, looking far too apologetic as she held her hands up as if begging me to forgive her for nothing at all. “No, no, it’s okay. I couldn’t ask you to do that. Really, you’re kind. But don’t let me stop you from enjoying a night out with your friends after a long day at work,” she said.

Look, I enjoyed a drink, a bit of partying and hanging out with friends. I’d choose to do that even if I didn’t have a long day at work. But I had to be honest with myself here. The height of the night would have been the fact thatshewas there, letting her hair down around us. Sure, Chris got another night off which was rare so I should be more inclined to go and hang out with him, but I had to say, standing here, right now, hanging out with Tiffany sounded far more tempting.

“Trust me. I don’t mind at all.” I placed my hand on my chest and smiled. “Besides, if I can help you finish up here, maybe we’ll get to go have that drink after all.” I flicked my eyebrow up, hoping she’d accept my help. I mean, other than the fact that my pull to her was animalistic, as if her silent pheromones were beckoning me to her, I could see that she was a nervous wreck, and I knew Jared was trying to break her. I couldn’t watch that happen to her. So my offer to help her was genuine.

She laughed. “Oh, no. I’ve learned my lesson about drinking before showing up for work the next day.” She paused, and I thought that meant she wasn’t open to accepting my help. I wasn’t going to force her to. It was a bad idea; it would’ve been too close for comfort anyway.

Maybe I was being given another chance to not put myself in a situation where I could potentially fuck up my friendship. Plus, how cocky was I, huh? There was no telling whether she was even attracted to me.

Yeah, when I thought about it, I realized I was being given grace to get the hell out of here and go grab a drink with my friends, have some safe fun. I was capable of that.

I dropped my office keys into my pocket and was about to tell her good night when she said, “But I mean, the help sounds amazing. I wouldn’t want to put you out though.”

I was far too happy to hear that answer but I played it cool, closing my mouth that had a big old cheesy grin on it. “Okay then.” I tamed my smile, walking to catch up with her as she led me to the file room.

“Uhhh, you know what? I think I might go for that drink after all,” I said, turning on my heels and pretending to storm out of there at the sight of how many fucking folders were on that damn desk. I couldn’t even see the desk.

She looked disappointed at first, reaching out after me until she saw that I was messing around and laughed along with me. It was a tired laugh but it pleasured my cells. “That’s a crap ton of work. How in the world is one person supposed to finish this?”

“I’m guessing he’s not expecting me to,” she said with a shrug.

“But you’re determined to?” I asked.

She nodded. Well, fuck. We better get to work then.

“Have you eaten?” I asked.

She looked up as if just remembering that she was supposed to. “No, I haven’t,” she responded, shaking her head.

I pulled my phone out. “We’ve got a long night ahead of us. We’re gonna need food and a shit ton of coffee,” I told her as the restaurant picked up my call and I placed our order.

I turned to face her with a smile, reaching out to pat her slouched shoulders. “Don’t worry. We’re gonna surprise the pants off Jared in the morning.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” She ran into my arms and at first, I froze. I wasn’t sure what I was allowed to do, whether this was far too compromising. Reaching out to touch her shoulder seemed risky enough as it was but as the heat of her body settled into mine, the most natural feeling in the world, my arms came around her waist to embrace her.

I wasn’t certain if it was just because of where my mind went when it came to her, but she smelled of sex and peaches. It made me dizzy and I liked it. But as my body began to like it too much, I dropped my hands from her in a rush, breaking the hug as I moved away to pull up a chair at her desk.

When I opened one of the files, I shook my head. “What is it?” she asked.

“Oh, nothing.” I turned to her. I recognized the case, and I knew Jared didn’t need this load of damn work completed by tomorrow morning. I tried hard not to roll my eyes because I didn’t want her to catch it and think it was directed at her. Jared was bent on getting her to quit, but I didn’t want her to go anywhere. So, game on, Jared.

Chapter 23

Tiffany

We’dreturnedtoAnthony’soffice where there was a lot more space, plus I was tired of being around the stuffy boxes. Next to us were empty take-out containers and a couple empty coffee cups. I was laughing at something funny Anthony said as I propped up my head with my hand, my hair now loose around my shoulders after taking it down from the ponytail that was beginning to make my head hurt. I massaged my scalp with the tips of my fingers, sighing in relief that he chose to help me out tonight. Hours had passed and we’d gotten so much work done, we were more than halfway through the piles of work before us. A feat I was sure I’d never have been able to achieve without him.

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