Free Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 by Lost (and) Found (v5.0) Page B

good.”
    Sean chuckled. “Sure.”
    “Jeez, you get all the nice office
stuff,” Krista noticed through a foggy head. “I get crappy plastic pens with no
grip, a crappy mouse, a used, dirty keyboard—well, until it was replaced…”
    “Replaced?”
    “Oh, yeah. I guess the main-cheese
in IT thought he’d do me a favor. Not that I’m complaining.”
    “Jacob?”
    “The one and only. I think Research
freaks him out, though. He hasn’t come back, thank God. I only need so much
leering in my lifetime.”
    Sean chuckled again. “It’s who you
know, though sometimes the cost isn’t worth the end result.”
    He had that right.
    He paused for a minute before he
moved to the visitor chairs facing the desk. “Are you wearing a new scent?”
    “What?”
    “Your perfume. New?”
    “Oh, yeah. My friend Kate gave it
to me. Well, not true. She left it at my house and I failed to return it.”
    “Finders keepers.”
    She laughed. “Exactly.”
    When the slide show came up she had
a good look. The art portion wasn’t all that exciting, but looked way different
than her presentation. The colors, for starters, clashed with her colors. They
looked like two different presentations altogether. If what she was looking at
was set in stone, she needed to redo her whole design format.
    That would mean she wasted a ton of
time on this! It was short-sighted on Sean’s part to wait this long before
letting her know.
    “Is this what you’re going with?
Final, final?” she asked, irritation seeping back into her voice.
    Sean sat in the visitor chair, eyes
glued to her face. “Yes. There might be one or two changes, but they would be
minimal.”
    “Just a curiosity, has Mr.
Montgomery seen this?”
    Sean’s head tilted. “No. Why would
he?”
    “To check it against my stuff?”
    He shook his head, clearly not
understanding what she was rambling about. It seemed like no one in the company
cared about efficiency. Everyone worked independently of each other, thus
making the project roll around in circles. It affronted Krista’s organized
nature.
    She shrugged and let it go. She was
too new to raise those kinds of questions to the top salesman. She also doubted
Mr. Montgomery would care about the work of other departments. His personality
clashed, why shouldn’t his colors?
    “Okay, got it.” She leaned forward
with the intent to get up, but her butt had fallen in love with soft, supple
leather. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning back, instead.
    Sean, still watching her
intently—here’s another word, staring—took her cue and settled a little more
firmly in his own, much less comfortable, chair.
    “Sorry.” She sighed, wiggling her
butt. “It’s just… this freaking chair has a hold on me and doesn’t want to let
go.”
    “Then I’m jealous of the chair,”
Sean whispered.
    The words wound their way through
the air like silk, curling under her skin, stroking her in all the right
places. He sounded so sincere. As a woman listening to a man she found
startlingly attractive, she wanted to believe.
    Like Theresa believed. Like the
Boob Market from a moment ago believed.
    Krista was out of the chair as if
on springs, climbing over the garbage can like an explorer running from a
raging elephant. She didn’t even care about the gossip end of it anymore. She
was more concerned with not falling for that old bullshit. She was better than
that. She deserved better.
    “Krista…” Sean stood quickly,
partially blocking her way.
    “Excusez-moi.” She didn’t meet his
eyes. Instead she drank in the sight of his large expanse of shoulder. The air
was stuffed with unsaid words as he slowly stepped aside.
    “Your mug,” he said softly. He
sounded forlorn. He sounded like he had been unfairly tried; guilty until
proven innocent.
    Yeah right, dude. You own the world
but you’re oppressed? Such a douche.
    Her mug, though, was serious
business. In a twirl of locomotion, she snatched her mug off the desk, but
didn’t