Earning Yancy (3 page)

I
stirred my
soup as I absentmindedly listened to Lucy talk about her newfound relationship with her former boss, Chris Barden. She made me laugh. Apparently, Chris pampered her every chance he got, which seemed completely out of character for such a formidable person. The man seriously intimidated me. His beautiful blue eyes were cold as ice most of the time, except when he looked at my friend. Then, they burned brightly. He often gazed at her as though she were the center of his universe, and it was a sight to behold.

I never understood how Lucy could be so blind to his true feelings for her until she and I talked a few weeks ago. Though she didn’t realize it, my friend had been stuck. Somehow, over the years, she fell into a comfortable yet guarded routine that made her feel safe. It also isolated her. I always thought she was naturally a loner. Instead, she was hiding behind her solitude out of fear and sheer habit.

I thought it was wonderful that Chris smashed through her shield. She needed the wake-up call. Now, she had it all, her dream job and a hot guy who adored her. I couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit jealous.

“Yancy, are you okay?”

I looked up from my soup and realized that all the girls were staring at me. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

Grier narrowed her eyes as she looked at me. “Is this about the new guy at work? The one who can’t remember your name?”

I couldn’t stop my grimace. “No, he’s a bit of a jerk.” I left out the fact that he was a handsome one.

“Is he still calling you Nancy?” Tanya chimed in.

I put my spoon down, this conversational turn was causing my appetite to disappear. “He was. Then, I kind of lost my temper with him on Wednesday.”

“What?”

I grinned at the expression on Tanya’s face. Unlike her, I despised confrontation and avoided it as much as possible. As a result, people tended to walk all over me. I knew it and my friends knew it. I let Cooper go without a fight and was sitting back and allowing the Office of the Attorney General to handle the back child support issue, something that annoyed Tanya to no end.

“What happened?” Chelsea asked.

I sipped my latte, hoping the caffeine would help perk me up before my afternoon meeting with the very topic of our conversation.

“Well, he came into my office Wednesday a little after five, just as I was getting ready to leave. You know how I love that.” The girls all nodded and Lucy smirked. “Then he proceeded to call me Nancy, not once, but three times. He’s been with the company a month, he should know my name by now. We’ve spoken several times and exchanged work-related emails and, to send me an email, he
has
to spell my name. I’ve corrected him countless times and, when he did it yet again, it annoyed me. Then he started giving me crap about my unwillingness to stay late and asked why my husband couldn’t watch the baby. I sort of exploded.”

“Oh my God. He has some nerve. What did you say?” Lucy asked, a shocked look on her face.

“I pretty much called him an asshole.”

All four of my friends stared at me, mouths agape.

I sighed. “While it did feel fantastic at the time, I’m pretty sure Judith frowns on that sort of behavior, so I’m going to have to apologize today.”

While Grier nodded, Chelsea and Tanya both looked disappointed in me. Lucy made a face. She may have had no problem calling Chris an asshole to his face while they worked together, but I never would have had the gall unless provoked.

“Don’t look at me like that!” I exclaimed. “It wasn’t very professional of me. Considering we have to work together constantly, it’s necessary.”

“Has he apologized for calling you Nancy for the last four weeks?” Lucy asked.

I drained the rest of my latte. I felt as though we were talking in circles and it was beginning to wear on me. The only one of my friends who understood my perspective was Grier, which was crazy, because she was the youngest of us at twenty-five. “No, but that’s beside the point. Just because he can’t be bothered to remember my name doesn’t mean I can stand there and call him an asshole.”

“Oh, yes, it does,” Tanya muttered under her breath.

I ignored the comment. Tanya was ballsy and opinionated, however, she was also a partner in her law firm and I knew damn well she would never, ever call someone an asshole in the office. Well, at least not to their face.

I glanced at my watch and saw that it was almost one. “Okay, ladies. Lovely chatting about this with you, but I have to go upstairs and prepare for my meeting with Charles and my apology.”

Lucy smirked at me. “How about,
I’m sorry you’re an asshole
?”

I had to laugh. While that might be what I would like to say, I was fairly certain that wouldn’t be considered an apology.

“Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m sure you understand why I won’t take your advice,” I answered, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lucy sighed. “Well, it’s obvious there’s no hope for you, so I’m going to get out of here. I have a meeting with Marcus this afternoon about the New York exhibit.”

Without asking, I knew it was probably driving Chris nuts that she still spent so much time around Marcus Flynn. Just as she had with Chris, Lucy somehow remained oblivious to the fact that her photographer friend carried a torch for her. However, I was sure that someone as sharp as Chris would notice something like that and, considering how possessive he was, it had to bug the shit out of him.

Shaking my head, I said good-bye to the girls and took my empty latte cup and soup bowl to the trash, dumping them before heading to the elevator. Since I worked on the fourth floor, I typically tried to take the stairs. It was the only exercise I usually got, but I knew I wouldn’t have time before I had to meet Charles.

By the time I got to my office, I decided to keep it simple and move on. I doubted he was still stewing over my tantrum. Men didn’t brood over things like that, did they? Then again, considering the way Cooper would pout for days after an argument, I probably wasn’t the best at understanding how men thought.

I grabbed my laptop and a few other things off my desk and headed for the conference room. Even though I was almost ten minutes early, Charles was already there, working on his laptop. He looked up at me when I entered the room and smiled slightly.

“Wow, you’re early.” He sounded surprised.

I returned his smile and carried all my things to the chair beside him. I felt that little flip in my tummy as the scent of his cologne hit my nose. He didn’t seem to be upset with me. In fact, he seemed a lot friendlier now. It threw me off balance. Where was the guy who couldn’t remember my name and acted as though he would rather be anywhere but in the room with me?

“Go ahead and have a seat,” he invited, looking up at me from his chair.

“Actually, I need to say something first,” I replied. I took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry I lost my temper Wednesday. It was rude and it won’t happen again.”

To my surprise, he laughed, and, sweet baby Jesus, he had a dimple in his left cheek that I hadn’t noticed before. I could only stare as he continued to chuckle at what I thought was a very polite apology.

Finally, he spoke. “Thank you for the apology, but it was unnecessary. I was acting like an asshole. If someone called me Chuck for a month straight, even after I asked them not to, I would lose my temper too. Actually, that has happened and I did a lot worse to the guy.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’ve spoken to Judith about this account since then and, while she was upset about the errors, she seemed to think you and I could handle it.”

I nodded and sat next to him.

“Also, I’d like to apologize to you. I really do know your name,” he joked. “It’s just very unique and, even as I’m saying it incorrectly, I can’t seem to stop myself. It wasn’t intentional and I promise to let you call me asshole every time I slip and call you Nancy.”

I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. It seemed as though Charles Faulkner had a sense of humor after all. “How about I call you Chuck instead?”

“Deal.”

He stared at me for a few moments, his blue-green eyes twinkling with humor. I couldn’t help but wonder what caused his sudden change in attitude. I felt a sliver of anxiety and wondered if perhaps he had an ulterior motive. I immediately dismissed it as ridiculous. I reminded myself that not every man I met would be as manipulative as Coop.

“Well, we have a lot of work to do,” I said. “We should probably get started.”

The discomfort I felt about our meeting had faded with his apology and I discovered that I truly enjoyed working with Charles. Now, I was beginning to like him, which meant the small hum of attraction in my belly was in danger of becoming something more intense. Somehow, I knew that liking him was much worse than thinking that he was arrogant and annoying.

T
hree days later,
it was Monday and I had begun to think I greatly misjudged Charles Faulkner. Our meeting on Friday went extremely well. His arrogant attitude was gone and he seemed genuinely interested in my thoughts and suggestions. Our working styles and strengths complemented each other and he hadn’t slipped up and called me Nancy once. He also had a dimple in his left cheek if he smiled widely enough and he smelled amazing. I shouldn’t have noticed things like that, but I couldn’t help myself.

Over the weekend, we exchanged several emails. I discovered with each passing day that he was intelligent and thought outside the box. Since I tended to be extremely methodical, he was an excellent partner.

I walked into the building bright and early Monday morning, triple shot caramel macchiato in hand. My friends poked fun at my coffee addiction, but, most days, it was the only thing keeping me going. Especially after a night like the last. Carolena seemed cranky and not herself, waking up at 2:00 a.m. and refusing to go back to sleep until nearly 4:30. I chalked it up to teething pain as I struggled to go back to sleep for a couple more hours.

Taking another sip of my latte, I headed toward the stairs. Maybe the climb to the fourth floor would get my blood pumping. Just as I approached the door to the stairwell, an arm reached around me and pulled the door open. I jumped, spilling a few drops of coffee on my hand. I hissed as the hot liquid left behind a stinging burn.

“Damn. I’m sorry, Yancy. Are you all right?”

I pulled a tissue out of my purse with my free hand, wiping away the coffee on my skin. “I’m okay. You just startled me, that’s all.”

He looked sheepish. “I planned to take the stairs this morning and saw you headed this way. I just thought I would grab the door, not give you second degree burns.”

“I’ll be fine,” I repeated, smiling so he would understand I was sincere. “We better get going or we’ll be late.”

Charles held the door open for me, something I secretly enjoyed, and we walked up the stairs together.

“How was your weekend?” I asked, trying to find something to talk about. Now that I no longer thought he was a complete jerk, I wasn’t sure what to say to him.

He grunted. “It was okay. You?”

I shrugged. “Not bad. Someone kept emailing me about work though,” I teased.

He looked at me, surprised, then saw that I was joking and smiled. “Yeah, I get a bit obsessive when I have a project.”

“I can see that.”

Charles chuckled. “Okay, I think that’s enough.”

We climbed past the second floor entry and up the next flight. I noticed he wasn’t even breathing hard. I wasn’t panting or anything, but I definitely felt the burn in my thighs and I did have to suck in a bit more air. Okay, maybe I was nearly panting. I needed to figure out a way to get to the gym. I hadn’t realized how out of shape I was.

“Doesn’t that bother your girlfriend?”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I winced inwardly. Great, he was going to think I was on a fishing expedition. The question asked by desperately single women everywhere.

“Nope. No girlfriend. The last one decided she wanted to trade up when she realized that I had no desire to be a CEO.”

I made a face. “That’s horrible.”

He shrugged. “Probably. It was a while ago but we hadn’t been together long, so it didn’t exactly break my heart.” He paused. “What about you?”

By this time we were passing the third floor door and I didn’t have the breath to laugh. I really needed to go to the gym. “No man for me.”

“That’s surprising.”

We were almost to the top of the last flight of stairs and the look in his eyes distracted me. I tripped on the next step and started to go down. Two strong hands caught my waist before I could even throw up my hands to break my fall.

Charles managed to catch me, but he must have lost his balance as well because he ended up with his back to the wall, my body pressed against his. I vaguely heard my coffee cup hit the steps and tumble down the stairs.

His eyes were the prettiest mixture of blue and green and he had the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man. I stared up at him, too lost in the color of his eyes and the heat of his body to even apologize.

Quickly, I realized that I was breathing hard, my breasts pressing against his chest and my hips against his in a position that felt sensual and intimate. My palms were resting on his pectorals and I could feel the steady thump of his heart.