Free Starting with the Unexpected by Andi Van Page A

His ex was upset, and while I doubted Davis was intelligent enough to pick up on the fact that I was insulting him, I didn’t want to stir the pot if he turned out to be one of our listeners.
    Okay, that’s a lie. I totally wanted to stir the pot, but I didn’t want to do it at Marcus’s expense. He’d dealt with enough shit from his ex.
    The longer our day went on, the more my head hurt, but Kat knew me well enough to see the signs, and she manipulated the rhythm of the show so flawlessly that I doubted anyone actually noticed that she was doing 90 percent of the work. I’d need to take her out for a drink or three when I was feeling better.
    By the time noon rolled around, I honestly wasn’t sure how I’d survive the rest of the day. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see my mom, but I was hurting. A lot, actually, and I hadn’t been smart enough to bring anything for the pain. Instead, I sat slumped over my desk, my head cradled in my arms.
    There was the thump-rattle of a bottle of pills being dropped onto the desk next to me, and I turned my head just enough to see that Kat had presented me with Advil. “Marcia ran out to get you some, you stubborn idiot,” she snorted. “Take some and get the hell out of here.”
    “I’m waiting for someone,” I told her, popping open the bottle to shake out a couple pills.
    “About your height? Brown hair, brown eyes, looks lickable?”
    “Keep your tongue to yourself, lady, or I’m calling your boyfriend,” I growled. “But yeah, that’s him. He’s here?”
    “He’s here,” she agreed, glancing somewhere behind me. “He’s turning a lovely shade of red too.”
    I swallowed the painkillers dry and turned to see Marcus standing right behind my chair. He was indeed a little red, but he was smiling. “Hey, Ol—” He cut off what he was saying when he saw the panic on my face, and his smile got wider. “All of us are going to be in trouble if we’re late meeting your mom.”
    Grateful that he hadn’t let Kat hear his nickname for me, I nodded and got up slowly. “Yeah, we’d better get going.” I sighed happily when he gave me a quick hug.
    Kat cleared her throat. “Do I get an introduction or not?”
    “I’d vote for no, but I don’t have a death wish,” I grumbled so only Marcus could hear me. “Marcus, I’m sure you already recognize Kat. Kat, this is Marcus. He broke up with me by text before we ever met.”
    The look on Kat’s face was comical, and set us both laughing. Even as she managed to pull herself together, we continued to giggle. “I thought he was a girl,” she told me.
    “So did I,” I said. “Luckily for me, that turned out to not be the case.”
    “Luckily for both of us,” Marcus said with a bob of his eyebrows.
    “You’re together?” Kat squawked. “Jesus H. Christ, you’re like some kind of weird-shit magnet. Don’t you ever have something normal happen to you?”
    “Considering I ended up working with you, the answer is no,” I teased and dodged the playful punch she aimed at my arm. “We’re going to go have lunch with my mother. Do you want to join us?”
    “Well, that explains why all you did for lunch was sit at your desk and eat a chocolate bar from the vending machine, at least.”
    “You what?” Marcus demanded, leveling a glare at me. “Somehow I don’t think that’s what your mother had in mind when she told you to have a snack.”
    Kat snickered and stepped back quickly as I narrowed my eyes at her. Damn woman was having far too much fun getting me in trouble. “Thanks for the offer. Seriously. I’d join you guys, but I really just want to get home and sleep.” As she started to walk away, she called “And Marcus, do something about your man’s headache. I understand orgasms are a great cure for those.”
    I groaned and rubbed the undamaged side of my face with a hand as I heard my coworkers snickering in her wake.

CHAPTER 8
     
     
    I GRINNED at the look of surprise on Marcus’s face