Company Ink by E.L. Lewis

s i x

By the time I get home, my head is pounding, and my eyes feel dry. I thank my lucky stars that Adrian never ended up checking in on me later in the day. He had an emergency client meeting and had to leave the office early. Honestly, I don't know how I'm supposed to survive the next six months working for a walking aphrodisiac.

Kitty and I spend five hours going over procedures and electronic systems. For such a bougie firm, one would think they'd have the latest technology. Their electronic filing system is something out of the early 2000s. In those short few hours of working, I learned that my job is basically to copy and paste a ton of shit from one folder to another. And the documents are never-ending. Kitty said that Mr. Pearson recently announced that they were going paperless, so every case the firm has handled needs to be digitized. I'm going to have to start wearing those blue light glasses I spontaneously bought on Amazon.

"So how was your first day?" Monique sings, muting our flat screen TV and twisting her body towards me. "Did you meet the infamous Adrian?"

"Yup." I slump down on the ottoman in front of her and slam my head against the couch, nuzzling my face into the throw blanket. "I met him, flirted with him, and undressed him with my eyes," I mutter shamefully.

Monique's laugh vibrates the sectional. "I take it he's as good looking in person as he is online?"

I spring my body upright and pout. "He's even better in person! I swear the universe is playing some sick cosmic joke on me."

Monique tilts her head. "Oh, no! You poor sweet girl. How will you ever survive? What a cruel cruel world you live in!" she exclaims, sarcastically.

"Mon!" I whine, digging around the chip bowl in her lap and popping one into my mouth. "It's not funny. What am I supposed to do? I have to see the man every day!"

"Hmm..." Monique taps a sassy finger against her lips. "You could go to work, do your job, not sleep with your boss, and then come home? That's what us normal people do."

I fling a chip at her chest. "Your boss is a fifty-five-year-old woman with a mustache. I think my situation is a little bit different than yours!"

Monique rolls her eyes. "Cass, you might be bending yourself out of shape for no reason. How do you even know he wants to sleep with you?"

My jaw drops. Did she really just ask me that? "Oh, please! He was basically eye-fucking me during our entire meeting. I swear my bra clasp snapped open at some point."

Monique face-palms herself. "The fact that you were able to say that with a straight face worries me, cher."

"Whatever!" I let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm going to bed." I stand up and stretch. Even though it's only 6 pm, I feel like I've been awake for days. "And when I wake up tomorrow all of these stupid feelings will be gone. You know why?"

"Why?" Monique asks, her eyelids drooping with annoyance.

"Because I am in control of my emotions," I explain sternly, more so attempting to convince myself, rather than my roomie.

"Cass, I've known you since you were fourteen," Monique says. "When have you ever been able to control your emotions?"

I clench my teeth and grunt internally. "I'm doing it right now." Old Cassie would have dumped the entire bowl of party mix on Monique's head, but new and improved Cassie is just red-faced and vibrating violently. That's progress if you ask me.

"Cassie, breathe," Monique chuckles. "You're going to pop a blood vessel."

I huff and storm down the hallway to my room. "Goodnight!"

Monique's laugh echoes behind me. "Love you!"

"Mew mew," I mock her, shutting my bedroom door.

I hurl myself on my queen size bed. Monique thinks I'm being dramatic, and in her defense, I sort of am. But this situation is simply unfair! He's like a piece of forbidden fruit.

I now understand how poor Eve must have felt.

Adrian is my apple.

But since Eve took a bite... why can't I?

Just as I'm flipping open my laptop to re-watch Scandal for the third time, my phone rings.

"Hi, Auntie Lucy," I say into the speaker. "How's it going?"

"Oh, it's going alright, same old same old. I was just calling to see how your first day went."

I still haven't told my parents I was laid off from NVP, but I called Lucy as soon as Nadine hired me. I trust her with my life, and I know she wouldn't rat on me to my dad; they never got along anyway, not even when they were kids.

"It was pretty good. I met a few of my co-workers, did some training, got all my passcodes and stuff," I laugh. "Met my boss."

"Is your boss nice?" she asks.

I blow a raspberry. "Is he ever."

"Oh, Cassie, I think there's a story here," Lucy observes with a soft chuckle. "Can I take you out for lunch tomorrow to celebrate? I'm picking Ness up from the doctor's around 12:30 pm. Maybe we can meet at around 1 pm? You get a lunch break, right?"

Another doctor's appointment? It's been three years and they keep saying the same thing: the damage is permanent.

"Yeah, 1 pm sounds good. Let's go somewhere close by though, ok? I don't want to get in trouble for being late." Or maybe I do... No. No, I don't.

"Ok, sounds good honey."

"Tell Ness that I love her!"

"Oh, she knows," Lucy says. "We'll see you tomorrow, Cassie."

"Goodnight!" I hang up.

I bite my lip, staring at the black screen on my phone. Flashbacks from three years ago swirl around my mind. Ness in the hospital, the brain scans, the rehabilitation. I close my eyes and shake away the unwanted memories. It is what it is. There's nothing I can do to change the past; all I can do is live in the present. I press play on Netflix, hoping that the badass Olivia Pope will take my mind off of Ness and Adrian.

***

I'm going to name my work computer Elsa because this bitch is frozen.

My go-to for fixing anything electronic is to turn it on and off repeatedly until the device surrenders to my immaculate tech whiz skills. But it turns out that Elsa is a tad more stubborn than my MacBook. I glower at the error message sprawled across the screen. This better not be some super-virus that erases hard drives; I'd for sure get fired if that's the case.

I peer over the desktop computer and into Adrian's office. He's been on the phone for hours. Today, his panty-dropping body is wrapped in a dark teal suit that gives off a slight glimmer when the May sun shines through his window. I'm sure this is how Edward Cullen would look if he were a corporate lawyer instead of a blood-sucking leech. My gran would've said they're one and the same, she never was a fan of attorneys...or vampires.

Propping my elbow on my desk, I rest my chin on my palm. Adrian's shutters have been drawn all morning, so I haven't been distracted for several hours, but now that he's out in the open and Elsa is being temperamental, I'll allow myself to gawk, but only for a few minutes. Lucy always said moderation is key.

I'm so entranced by the alluring and fluid motion of Adrian's mouth that I don't notice my elbow slipping off the desk, forcing my head to free fall onto my keyboard. My chin collides with the edge of the table resulting in an embarrassingly loud thump. Fuck! I let out a long whimper. A strong metallic flavor fills my mouth. Reluctantly, I swallow back the unpleasant mixture of blood and spit.

Kitty looks over from her desk, concern filling her sparkling green eyes. "Oh my God, Cassie!" She rolls her chair towards me. Apparently, the situation doesn't look dire enough to warrant standing up. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I exclaim with a mild lisp. "I just thlipped." I run my tongue between my teeth. "I wath trying to fix the uh- computer." I point to the screen. "Ith broken."

Kitty narrows her eyes. "Why do you sound like that?"

"I bit ma tongue," I admit, shifting my gaze sheepishly to the floor. "I wath uh- chewing gum." That seems like a believable lie.

"Okay..." Kitty purses her lips, scanning my face then motioning towards Elsa. "Do you want me to call IT for you?"

I begin nodding my head when a warm hand appears on my shoulder. "Why don't I try first?"

I crane my neck, following the heavenly sound of Adrian's voice. When did he get here?

"Ith fine, I can call IT." My cheeks immediately burn up. Okay, no using words that have the letter 'S' in them.

A ghost of a grin tugs the edge of Adrian's mouth. "I've had this error before," he says, then turns to Kitty. "I think we can handle this, Kitty. Why don't you go take a quick break? Manpreet will be on a call for another few minutes; he won't even know that you're gone."

A slight semblance of annoyance flashes across Kitty's features. "Yes, Mr. Cavallero," she says quietly, rolling back to her station.

"Let's see if we can fix this," he whispers once Kitty is gone. Reaching for the mouse, Adrian's body hovers over my chair. The oaky and intoxicating fragrance of his cologne fills my lungs as his chest brushes against my bare shoulder blade, sending a noticeable shiver down my spine. Why must he stand so close to me? I could just slide over a foot and put myself out of this misery. Or I could stay put and just bask in the ambiance of his tantalizing presence.

Decisions, decisions.

Adrian's chest vibrates for a fraction of a second from a low, almost inaudible chuckle. "Are you cold, Cassie?" he asks in a deep hushed tone, his focus remaining on the computer screen as he clicks on various pop-ups.

He's teasing me, this bastard.

Fire meet flame.

"Quite the opposite, Mr. Cavallero," I hum, thanking every God in existence that my 'S's', are mostly back to normal. "I'm actually quite hot right now."

"Is that so?" Adrian tilts his head back towards me, his dark eyes burrowing into mine suggestively for a fraction of a second, but enough for me to squirm in my seat. He blinks once and his features neutralize. He adds casually, "Perhaps I'll reach out to our maintenance staff and ask them to adjust the thermostat."

I bat my eyelashes while my inner professional tries to scream 'stop'! Unfortunately, my inner seductress duct-taped her rational lips shut. "I'm not sure that will help. I think the source of my...discomfort is a bit more centralized."

Adrian raises an eyebrow, shock dancing around his irises. "How unfortunate," he smirks. "That must be incredibly frustrating."

To say the least.

"It is," I smile coyly. "But I'm sure I'll be able to remedy the situation in the near future."

"Really?" Adrian lets out a soft laugh. "You sound very confident, Cassie."

"It's because I am," I state boldly, knowing quite well that I'm digging my own grave.

Adrian licks his lips before shifting his attention back to Elsa. I gaze heavenward, shaking my head. How long does it take to fix a goddamn computer?!

After a few more uncomfortable minutes Adrian pulls away, motioning to the fixed desktop. "Alright, one problem solved," he says with a cunning smile. "One more to go."

I narrow my eyes. "What's the other problem?" I ask, confused.

Adrian squeezes my shoulder, my skin burning under his touch. "Your discomfort," he whispers before striding back to his office.

Did he just...

Fucking hell.