And that was another thing. If he didn’t want to attend online meetings, fine, that was entirely his choice. But I hadn’t so much as heard from the man outside of company-wide newsletters and the like since the world shut down around us.
It was true, he was still engaged to be married to that airhead Alyssa Muenzel, and I knew that full well. Maybe it was my fault for expecting it to come to anything, but it really had felt as though the two of us shared some kind of connection after that evening we’d spent in the bar together. In the remaining weeks we’d spent around the office since our little chat, I sometimes caught him peering over at me across the office. We smiled at one another, and started making casual chit-chat more often than we ever had before.
Things never quite heated up to the level that I wanted them to. There was no direct follow-up to the sparks that flew between us that fateful evening, as desperately as I longed for that to happen. Still, though, I was grateful for what interactions did take place between us, and I kept deluding myself into thinking things might actually progress in the direction I’d been hoping they would, if only I gave it enough time.
Only there was no time. In the blink of an eye it was like the entire world got swept away, and I was left wondering if I’d been nothing but an immature romantic the entire time.
God, how I wished I wasn’t single…
It’s not so much that I missed Dennis. In fact, it was almost alarming how quickly I’d managed to erase him from my memory after that night at the bar with Malcolm. Still though, the solitude now confronting me felt like it might have been easier with someone by my side. Of course I was still fantasizing about that someone being my billionaire boss, instead, but at this point I was just longing for anyone at all to keep me company.
_____
I awoke one afternoon to shafts of golden sunlight streaming in through my window. Yes, I said afternoon there, my days and nights having blurred almost completely together at this point, and my sleep schedule leading me to turn in at ungodly hours of the morning.
I sat up, stretched my stiff muscles, and ran my fingers back through my untidy bedhead, strawberry blonde locks dripping down over my bare shoulders.
I was seriously going to need to get it cut soon…
It wasn’t too out of hand just yet, but it was right on the verge of becoming so. I figured I just might have to end up biting the bullet and cutting my own hair, as horrible an idea as that seemed.
But hey, who knew? Maybe 2020 was the year when the bowl cut finally got its chance to shine!
“Shit,” I muttered to myself, and slumped back onto my pillow, feeling as though I’d barely slept at all that night. I’d been dreaming like crazy lately, and I’d read that plenty of other people were too. Something about all the extra levels of anxiety or whatever that were currently floating around, which I guess made sense.
I closed my eyes again, squeezing the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger. I tried to remember whatever it was I’d been dreaming about.
Through the darkness, I saw a rock hard body materializing, with something else rock hard standing up between the legs. I saw his piercing white smile, his dark eyes gleaming at me, a come-hither look burning so hot that I could feel my wet clothes becoming plastered to my skin.
He reached out both of his large, solid hands and placed them on my hips, pulling me close. He reeled my body into him, his hot breath burning against my lips.
Our mouths met. Our tongues entwined. His hand slid down the front of my body, and reached into my pajama shorts…
I gasped back suddenly to consciousness, shuddering from head to toe as I forced myself back up from the bed once again.
“Nope! Nope, we aren’t going there today, Annalise,” I forced myself to say, now remembering the dream vividly, and almost ashamed of how excited it had made me.
I rubbed my eyes, and turned to look at the alarm clock on my bedside stand. It was 1:15 in the afternoon.
“Ugh,” I grunted, remembering that I had an office video call about an hour from now. With great effort I managed to lug my heavy limbs up from the bed and traipse off to the bathroom. There really wasn’t any strict dress code for video calls, but so far no one had ever turned up for one in their pajamas, so I figured I should at least try to uphold some standard of professionalism in my wardrobe and appearance.
The pulsing shower jets felt like heaven as they rained down onto me from overhead, steam rising up around me, making me feel as though I might drift right back off into dreamland. There’s a chance I might have spent those minutes lathering myself up thinking about the NC-17 imagery of my dream from the night before, but I’m not going to give any further comment about that here…
I felt at least a little bit refreshed after that, or at least enough to be able to face the day ahead. I slipped into a pretty black floral print dress, something I could discard just as easily for my PJ’s once the video call was over. With twenty minutes to spare I scarfed down a couple slices of toast, checked Goldfinch on my phone to see if there were any interesting news developments (aside from the regularly scheduled influx of new virus cases,) and finally brewed myself a pot of coffee.
I stepped over to my computer, logged in to the video meeting, and took a long, delicious sip from my coffee mug. I nearly spat the hot liquid back out all over myself when the video call loaded, and the familiar Brady Bunch-style grid of faces popped up on the screen.
Only this time, there was one more face present than I’d become accustomed to seeing…
“Hey everyone!” came the voice from a chiseled face, as finely manicured as ever despite the shutdown from the pandemic. “Hope I haven’t missed anything these past few weeks.”
“Malcolm!”
“Hey, boss!”
“Good to see you!”
“Welcome back!”
I didn’t manage to say anything, but simply gaped wide-eyed at the screen, suddenly wishing I’d put a little bit more effort into my appearance than I had.
Mostly to avoid standing out too much from the rest of the group, I finally forced a too-cheerful grin and gave a tinkling wave of my fingers as my co-workers all continued fawning over our boss’s return. Our screens were all arrayed in such a way that it was impossible to tell where anyone was looking at any given moment, but I swear that when I did that I caught Malcolm’s eyes shifting to gaze directly at me, his eyes glinting in a way that seemed to communicate far more to me than could have been remotely possible.
I felt my face getting hot, and I cast my eyes down to my keyboard, reflexively tucking my hair back behind my ears as casually as I could.
Again, I felt sure I was going overboard, but this seemed akin to having Malcolm in my home all of the sudden, and the pressure to perform well in this meeting suddenly felt through the roof.
After what felt like several minutes, all the welcoming back and ass-kissing subsided, Malcolm finally went on. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to be as hands-on as I usually am during these meetings. I’ve been very preoccupied through all of this, unfortunately. There’s some behind-the-scenes stuff happening financially I’ve had to sort out, as well as some potential opportunities for expanding the company I’ve been looking very closely at.
“Between all that and dealing with a few personal matters, I’ve been entrusting Liz here to take charge of these little meetings, and rest assured she’s been keeping me abreast of all that’s been happening in my absence. I’m extremely grateful for all the hard work you’ve been putting in, and I definitely want to discuss with you all how best to compensate you for your efforts. Right now though, I would love to hear from you all about the projects you’re making.”