asleep, my BlackBerry’s ring woke me to a new dawn.
I fumbled for my phone on the nightstand, disoriented and groggy.
“Yeah?” I answered. The word came out of a throat scratchy and swollen from crying. I didn’t want to think about why I’d been tearing all night.
“Eva, what the hell?”
I sat up, wrestled with my tangled bird’s nest of hair. “Cameron? Is that you?”
“You know damn well it is. You need to get your ass out of bed and into work. The janitors dragged my sorry butt out of bed an hour ago after being up with my kid half the night, so you’re first on my shit list.”
My clock said it was six a.m. “Uh, Cam, it’s six in the freakin’ morning! Have you been smoking the cheap stuff again? I don’t have to be to work until eight thirty.”
“Are you telling me you don’t know about this?”
“God, what is this, Jeopardy? Listen, I don’t have the brainpower for cryptic shit this morning. Can you please pretend I’m an idiot and tell me what I’m supposed to know about?”
“Just get dressed and get to work. Do not pass ‘Go,’ do not collect two hundred dollars. Don’t even take time for a shower. This mess is going to take us a while to clean up.”
The dial tone rang in my ear.
I smacked my palm against my aching forehead and fell back against the pillows. “Fuck.”
Chapter 9
I dashed off the bus and ran up the stairs to work. My mind conjured horrible images of the IT office in ruins, caused by everything from floods to acts of terrorism, none of which Cameron could pin on me. What else could it be?
When I made it to the outer door of the IT office, I stopped and forced deep breaths. Just because the fire he lit under my ass actually burned, didn’t mean he needed to know it.
My pulse slowed, and I pulled open the door, stopped, and froze. Vases overflowing with roses covered every inch of work surface in the office, as well as most of the floor, except for a single clear path that led to my desk. The sweet, fresh scent engulfed me as I took tentative steps forward. The roses were orange with thin ribbons of flame red. Beautiful.
When my tired mind made the connection that the flowers were intended for me, my muscles snapped taut, and I pressed my palms against my forehead.
Oh no. He didn’t!
Cam leaned out of his office, wading through the floral ocean, his glare fixed on me. “Care to explain this, Eva? Who sent them?”
“I, uh—no idea. Seriously.” Chuckling awkwardly, I continued forward, eying one giant crystal vase on my desk containing at least five-dozen flowers. The corner of a white envelope poked out from the middle. It might as well have been an alligator about to snap off a finger by the terror it induced in me.
“Well, why don’t you read the fucking card so I know whose ass to shove my foot up?”
My brain went numb as I thought it through. None of the Quality Engineers had the kind of money it would take to buy that many roses.
Fuckballs.
I rushed to my desk in case Cam lost his patience and decided to read the card himself. My life was complicated enough without my boss thinking I’d been knocking uglies with the Big Cheese. I opened the envelope with shaking fingers, pulled out the small white card, and turned it over. Only five words were written: I like what I see. It was signed “B.”
What the hell did that mean? My brow wrinkled. Did he get off on semigeeky women wearing men’s dress shirts? Was that some sort of lame pickup line?
Cam stepped up behind me. “Well?”
I jumped and shoved the note into my pocket. “I’ll take care of it.” I avoided his stare as I went for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
On my way to the exit, I peered at him over my shoulder. “I told you … to take care of this.”
He spread his arms in a gesture to the IT garden. “You’re just going to take off and leave me with all of this frou-frou shit?”
Biting down on a few choice curses, my fingers curled into
I fumbled for my phone on the nightstand, disoriented and groggy.
“Yeah?” I answered. The word came out of a throat scratchy and swollen from crying. I didn’t want to think about why I’d been tearing all night.
“Eva, what the hell?”
I sat up, wrestled with my tangled bird’s nest of hair. “Cameron? Is that you?”
“You know damn well it is. You need to get your ass out of bed and into work. The janitors dragged my sorry butt out of bed an hour ago after being up with my kid half the night, so you’re first on my shit list.”
My clock said it was six a.m. “Uh, Cam, it’s six in the freakin’ morning! Have you been smoking the cheap stuff again? I don’t have to be to work until eight thirty.”
“Are you telling me you don’t know about this?”
“God, what is this, Jeopardy? Listen, I don’t have the brainpower for cryptic shit this morning. Can you please pretend I’m an idiot and tell me what I’m supposed to know about?”
“Just get dressed and get to work. Do not pass ‘Go,’ do not collect two hundred dollars. Don’t even take time for a shower. This mess is going to take us a while to clean up.”
The dial tone rang in my ear.
I smacked my palm against my aching forehead and fell back against the pillows. “Fuck.”
Chapter 9
I dashed off the bus and ran up the stairs to work. My mind conjured horrible images of the IT office in ruins, caused by everything from floods to acts of terrorism, none of which Cameron could pin on me. What else could it be?
When I made it to the outer door of the IT office, I stopped and forced deep breaths. Just because the fire he lit under my ass actually burned, didn’t mean he needed to know it.
My pulse slowed, and I pulled open the door, stopped, and froze. Vases overflowing with roses covered every inch of work surface in the office, as well as most of the floor, except for a single clear path that led to my desk. The sweet, fresh scent engulfed me as I took tentative steps forward. The roses were orange with thin ribbons of flame red. Beautiful.
When my tired mind made the connection that the flowers were intended for me, my muscles snapped taut, and I pressed my palms against my forehead.
Oh no. He didn’t!
Cam leaned out of his office, wading through the floral ocean, his glare fixed on me. “Care to explain this, Eva? Who sent them?”
“I, uh—no idea. Seriously.” Chuckling awkwardly, I continued forward, eying one giant crystal vase on my desk containing at least five-dozen flowers. The corner of a white envelope poked out from the middle. It might as well have been an alligator about to snap off a finger by the terror it induced in me.
“Well, why don’t you read the fucking card so I know whose ass to shove my foot up?”
My brain went numb as I thought it through. None of the Quality Engineers had the kind of money it would take to buy that many roses.
Fuckballs.
I rushed to my desk in case Cam lost his patience and decided to read the card himself. My life was complicated enough without my boss thinking I’d been knocking uglies with the Big Cheese. I opened the envelope with shaking fingers, pulled out the small white card, and turned it over. Only five words were written: I like what I see. It was signed “B.”
What the hell did that mean? My brow wrinkled. Did he get off on semigeeky women wearing men’s dress shirts? Was that some sort of lame pickup line?
Cam stepped up behind me. “Well?”
I jumped and shoved the note into my pocket. “I’ll take care of it.” I avoided his stare as I went for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
On my way to the exit, I peered at him over my shoulder. “I told you … to take care of this.”
He spread his arms in a gesture to the IT garden. “You’re just going to take off and leave me with all of this frou-frou shit?”
Biting down on a few choice curses, my fingers curled into
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