Was Blaire trying to get fired? Why was she messing with this guy?
“I’m so sorry, sir. I’ll fix the ad immediately. The corrected version will run in the paper—print and online—an additional two weeks at no extra charge.”
He takes a deep breath, and his shoulders relax. “Thanks a lot.”
“Do you have attachment issues?” I nod toward his hand holding the leash.
He laughs. “Somebody called and said they’d found my dog and would leave him here at the paper. You haven’t seen a dog around here, have you?”
I shake my head. “No, sorry.”
He nods. “Yeah, the girl at the front desk said she hadn’t seen a dog either. It makes sense. A lot of people have been punking me because of the ad.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Well, well, well. What are you kids up to?” Blaire says as she bursts into my cubicle, startling my dog-lacking visitor.
“Hell-o there,” she purrs when she gets a proper look at him.
“Hello,” he says.
She glances between us and lifts her eyebrows at me when he’s not looking. Then she points and hops when I swivel and try to ignore her.
“This is Blaire Elliott. She’s in charge of classifieds,” I tell him. I turn to Blaire and widen my eyes while giving a side-nod to the guy. “Blaire, this gentleman’s classified ad had some serious errors in it. I’ve offered him a corrected ad to run for two additional weeks at no charge.”
“Oh.” Blaire nods her head, not taking her eyes off our visitor.
He pulls at his collar. “Hi. Brandon Raphael.”
“Oooh! So nice to meet you, Mr. Raphael.” She grabs his hand, shakes it a little too aggressively, and then hangs on. His face reddens. Is she looking for Troy’s replacement? Or is she hoping to make Troy jealous? I scan the room, but Troy’s nowhere in sight. Blaire’s on the prowl.
She pulls Brandon by the hand she hasn’t let go of deeper into my cubicle. “Do you like sushi, Mr. Raphael?”
Uh-oh. She’s after him for me. Blaire hates sushi, but I love it.
“I guess so,” he stammers. I don’t blame him. Blaire is terrifying.
“What a coincidence! Marissa here loves sushi too. You two should go have sushi together. Maybe dinner this week?”
Blaire’s question hangs in the air, and I want to crawl under my desk and pull my chair in behind me, even if that means he’d see my seat ring. She’d get the point eventually. I think.
“Blaire, I’m sure Mr. Raphael has other things—”
“I’d love to,” he interrupts, soft eyes twinkling.
A smile tugs at my lips. “You would?”
He bobs his head several times and then produces a gleaming smile. “I’d really like that. I can’t do this week, but maybe next Friday night? We wouldn’t necessarily need to eat sushi…” He glances at Blaire as he trails off, as if making sure he has permission to change the game plan.
She smiles and nods encouragingly like a good coach.
“I’d love to.” I realize I don’t hate the idea. Brandon is attractive. And he seems like a nice guy who loves his dog. Someone who is used to caring and nurturing something rather than wrecking it. It feels like a positive change for me.
Blaire backs away until she’s standing behind Brandon. She gives me a thumbs-up over his shoulder and claps her hands almost soundlessly while sporting a giant grin. He turns to see what she’s doing, and she reins it back in, nods at him, and leaves.
He angles his head toward her retreating back. Blaire’s antics are never as covert as she thinks they are. “She’s in the wrong job, isn’t she?”
“She really is.”
Chapter Eight
Are you even ready to date?” Kya asks me. I’m on the phone with her after work, trying to find a position on my couch that doesn’t aggravate the bruise on my butt. I finally settle on lying down completely. I still think being vertical is overrated.
“I’m not. Blaire pushed me into it.”
“Ahh,” Kya says like I solved the mystery for her. Blaire is Blaire. After a second’s pause she continues. “Tarek said you were in really rough shape when he went over to your place last week.”
I roll my eyes, even though she can’t see me. “I’m in worse shape after seeing him.” I think of my bruised backside and gaping heart hole where my love for Liam used to be.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. I’m just kidding.”
I don’t want to tell Kya about the fight I had with Tarek. For one thing, I’m afraid she’ll defend him, and not having her on my side would tear me apart right now. And then she’d say something stupid and straightforwardly real like Tarek wasn’t the one who left me for a stripper, Liam did. She’d defend Tarek like she always does and miss the main point, which is that Liam and I were perfectly happy, perfectly in love, and everything we were supposed to be until Tarek came in with his corrupting influence and ruined my love life like he always does.
“How’s the new crush?” I ask in a blatant attempt to change the subject.
“Good. Great,” she gushes. I can almost see her shining face. “She’s definitely showing interest. And my calves are rock hard.”
Kya works from home doing web design, so she has to make the leap of leaving her house to meet new people. At the moment she has a thing for one of the trainers at the gym. Kya has been working out a lot in the effort to get her attention. She won’t sign up to be her client, though, even though that would give them a dedicated chunk of time to be together. Besides the conflict of interest, Kya doesn’t want the woman to know how much she weighs.
“Your calves were already rock hard.”
“Well, they’re harder now. And rockier.”
“Uh huh.”
“You should come with me next time. I haven’t seen you at the gym since the split with Liam.”
“Too many bad memories.” That was true, but there was also my laziness to consider.
“Come make new memories. It’ll be good for you. You need to stay in shape. Don’t let Liam wreck you on the outside too.”
I sigh. “Okay.”
She accepts her victory with grace and changes the subject. “So where is Dog-boy taking you on your date?”
“I have no idea.”
She pauses. I can tell she’s working up to something. “Hey, you know your friend on Facebook, Giselle?”
My heart rate speeds up, and I hold my breath so I don’t miss a word by breathing too loudly. “Yeah.”
“Why have I never heard of her before?”
There’s a thread of hurt in Kya’s voice, and I kick myself for not thinking about her feelings earlier. My stomach twists as I think about a whole lot of feelings Kya might have about certain plans in the works that I should have considered earlier. But I can’t think about that now. Tarek deserves all this and more. And I can only solve one problem at a time. “Oh, Ky, she’s just an old friend from California before I moved here.”
“Yeah. I guess Tarek’s been talking to her on Facebook.”
Ha. Yes. He’s been trying, anyway. I mentally pat myself on the back.