Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 Read online

  Without warning, something deep and forgotten raised its ugly head. Anger boiled, rising to the surface. Seeing her hurting, afraid…he could barely breathe for wanting to ease that pain. He wanted to meet that guy, whoever it was, and put some manners into him. Make him pay for what he’d done to her; make sure that guy didn’t ever to it to another woman again.

  “Does no one in this company know how to make coffee?” she was saying, reaching for an open bag.

  Sean pulled himself together, took his own deep breath. Stilled his overwhelming emotions and tucked them back inside.

  “So, you had a weekend?” he asked, willing humor to cover the uncomfortable place he found himself.

  “Eh! I went speed dating, of all things.” Krista put her head in her hand. “Kate’s idea.”

  “And Kate is…your friend?”

  Krista turned and gave him a flat stare, her eyes on fire. “Bloody good show, Captain Obvious, you’ve solved the riddle.”

  The dark cloud over their moods dissolved instantly. Sean barked out laughter, unused to seeing this side of the nerdy research girl. He wondered if anyone in the company had. He bet not. He would’ve heard about it. They liked to gossip about her as much as him.

  “And how’d it go?”

  “Well, I met fifty wankers…” She ripped the bag open. “No, that’s not true. I met about forty-five wankers, and five decent fellows. One I quite liked. The others were door stops.”

  She scooped the coffee into the machine and hit the “Start” button. She took her full cup and crossed to the creamer station. Sean took up her position, but instead of using the last dredges in the pot, something he usually would have done to move his morning along, he poured it down the sink and waited for the next batch in order to hang around longer.

  “So you met five keepers, then. That’s not bad,” Sean said as he lounged against the wall.

  Creamer in hand, Krista lounged as well. “Not keepers, no. Five guys that weren’t awful. One keeper. Just one. And he--”

  “Oh, Sean!”

  Sean and Krista both looked toward the entrance of the break room where the worst possible gossip was hurrying forward.

  “Good morning, Cindy,” Sean muttered, hating the interruption.

  She smiled at him and batted her eyelashes, late on noticing Krista. When she did, she looked at the other woman, then back to him, suggestion taking over her features. “Oh, am I interrupting something?”

  “Well that depends. Are you planning to steal all the creamer?” Krista asked with a voice that sounded like honey poured over razor blades.

  Cindy made a sound like, “Wwu..?”

  Krista continued to stare at her like she’d asked a logical question.

  “Oh, well…Uh, no, of course not!”

  “Then no, you won’t be interrupting my morning ritual of making coffee. Anyway, Sean, like I was saying—or are you bored?”

  “Fire away.”

  “Right.” Krista got a sugar packet and shook it within an inch of its life. “Like I was saying, I liked one of the five, right? And guess which one of the five didn’t call?”

  Sean raised his eyebrows.

  “Exactly. The one I liked. He was hot and laid back and cool. He didn’t call. Of course he didn’t. But the others—oh they called lots. I had to return a call on each one to get them to stop freaking calling me! So then I tried to say I didn’t want to go out with them, right? And they asked why I gave them the envelope. It was a good point, so now I have freaking four dates in the next two weeks with guys I don’t want to talk to. Did I mention I hate first dates?”

  Krista stared accusingly at Sean.

  “Well, dear, how will you ever meet someone? You’re single, I take it?”

  Krista looked at Cindy with that flat stare again, daring her to interrupt their conversation one more time. After Cindy was fidgeting nervously, Krista turned back to Sean.

  “So now I have to go on these dates, sit at some restaurant awkwardly, listen to them as they nonstop talk about their lives, and pretend to be having a good time because I’m too nice to say how uncomfortable I am! Urg!”

  “Then why did you go in the first place?” Sean asked, inwardly smiling at Cindy’s discomfort.

  “You try saying no to Kate! But I did meet Paul. He was at the bar directly after to shoot the shi—ah, to chat. He didn’t do the speed dating thing, but his friends did, so that’s how we all kinda met. Kate and Jasmine wanted to hook up with the friends…“

  “Together?” Cindy exclaimed.

  “Cindy, my dear, you watch too much p**n ,” Krista said as she stirred her coffee. “Anyway, he’s okay. Paul, I mean. Really sweet. I should’ve just hung out with him that evening, but we had to rush off to meet Jasmine’s friends—” She grimaced, sighed and shook her head all at the same time. “Ah life, it sucks, yes? Well, anyway, I’ll catch you all later.”

  Without further ado, Krista trudged out with her coffee in hand and her cheek bright red.

  “What’s got into her?” Cindy asked indignantly.

  “She had a bad weekend,” Sean explained, still feeling as light as a balloon. If he didn’t already want her, he would now. He loved sassy women.

  When Sean got back to his desk, he had an email from Krista.

  Hi Sean,

  What can I say, I’m an a-hole. Sorry about the tirade. Always be wary when I’ve had a bad weekend full of tequila and bad lays. I can be a cranky S.O.B.

  JP.S. I don’t plan to apologize to Cindy. I hope you did damage control. You’re good at that sort of thing.

  Bad lays? So she wasn’t so saintly after all.

  The next email was from John. Reading it with a hard-on just felt wrong.

  ~*~*~*~

  Krista was working on her first real project, which would turn into her first real, honest-to-God presentation. She’d been at it for a half hour and already come up against a brick wall.

  Her boss had emailed her the subject, which was a type of sports drink, and noted that if she had any questions, she should “go ahead and ask sales directly.” In other words, don’t bother him; it’s none of his business.

  Not afraid of forging ahead without a support system, or dead weight, depending on how one looked at it, the first thing she’d done was research sports drinks in the company’s giant database. That yielded a ton of information, way too much for any one presentation. The topic had to be narrowed down somewhat. And while she had read the email 800 times, there was nothing in it to help.

  So here she was, halfway into a bad day, also halfway into her first real assignment, and already with questions. It was probably a departmental record.

  She sent an email to the general Sales account, having no one specific listed in her email, asking for some specific information. It would take a second for the email to be routed, so she headed to the other side of the floor to get a soda. By the time she got back, she had a message in her inbox. She nearly peed herself.

  It was from Sean.

  He must not have realized he wasn’t supposed to respond to her last email, and was now trying to glean some more of her private info while the vault was open. When her eyes skimmed lower, her heart froze. Even worse still.

  Dear Krista,

  I received your email from the main Sales email account. In future, please contact me directly with any questions about this presentation.

  Attached you will find specific parameters and demographics I would like to encompass within this presentation. If you have any problems with the guidelines, please notify me immediately. I am excited to be working with you on this campaign.

  Best regards,

  Sean McAdams

  Before she could open the attachment, she got another email.

  Dear Krista,

  On hindsight, I am not sure how thorough James was about protocol for getting a presentation approved. He will need to sign off on any final content. He will then forward it to Sales for our viewing pleasure, but will not give us t
ime to work with the Researcher on format.

  As a special favor to me, I wondered if you might send me a copy of your presentation when you send it to him? I can then have more time to look it over. I would greatly appreciate it.

  Thanks a million!

  -Sean

  She couldn’t help but notice how formal the first email was, and how loose the second was. It was like he sent the first email without looking at who the researcher was, then realized it was her and tried to use his influence to call out a favor. If he didn’t use her name in the first email, she would have paid it no more mind. As it was, it seemed like there was a tiny bit of manipulation going on.

  On the other hand, Sean could help, whereas Mr. Montgomery wouldn’t. Being that Sean was the best salesman in the company, his critical eye was as good as getting a private lesson directly from the teacher. She just had to make sure he was always out in public, and therefore responsible for his actions. She really didn’t want her first real presentation marred by a sexual harassment suit. Or a kick to the groin.

  ~*~*~*~

  Four full work days of complete focus later, Krista sat back and looked at her finished report. She’d done two edits and two final checks, and now it was ready to be sent.

  The presentation wasn’t for another two weeks, so she didn’t have to work so diligently, but she had little else to do and a lot she didn’t want to think about—like the latest date and his love of birds--so she worked on it almost exclusively. She wasn’t hammering it out like normal, either. She took her time, learned the software, did some Photoshop, and tinkered with the visuals. She wanted it to pass her personal inspection before it went out to the powers that be. And she had exacting standards.

  In the end, despite her aversions to Sean, she did care what he thought. Obviously he was doing something right in his professional career to be where he was. Logically, she should listen to his every word so some of his success might rub off.

  In truth, though, she wanted to stand out. She wanted to prove she was better than the sleaze-buckets he took home. That she was worth something, that she was more than just tits and ass. She wanted respect, damn it. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

  I’m dumb.

  When she was finished, she paused in her fifth rendition of Aretha Franklin’s song. To help Sean, or not to help Sean. The power was in her hands.

  Who was she kidding? Sometimes she was bitchy, but overall she wasn’t a bitch. Or spiteful.

  Hi Sean,

  Per your request, here is a copy of my presentation. It was sent to Mr. Montgomery earlier today. I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention that I sent it to you directly—he gets touchy about that sort of thing.

  Any feedback you could give would be greatly appreciated.

  Thanks for your time.

  Krista

  Faster than a flash, she received back:

  Dear Krista,

  Understood.

  -Sean

  She stared at the screen for a minute, looked away, and then looked back at the email just in case she missed part of the message.

  No, she was right the first time--it was a pretty simple message.

  It was the simplicity that was misleading. Did he understand she was going out on a limb for him? If so, where was the gratitude? What did he think about it being her first presentation? Did that worry him? Did he have confidence in her? There was so much more going on than “understood” could portray.

  Could he have at least given her a sentence so that she could read into it a bit more? Cripes, she had nothing else to do, dissecting his code like she was in high school would have at least passed the hours.

  And while she was on the “I hate Sean” bandwagon, why bother with the Dear Krista shenanigans? And why sign his name? The email said who the sender was; she didn’t need him to double up the info.

  She sighed, loudly, and leaned back in her chair. Then she went for coffee. Her friend Peet was always willing to lend an ear while selling his wares.

  The next day there was an email waiting in her inbox. Thankfully it was from Sean. Thankfully because she had slept horribly worried that he would accidently, or not accidentally, tell Mr. Montgomery that she sent it directly to him. She would get in serious trouble if her boss found out.

  Krista—

  Fantastic work! You get a gold star for this. And thanks for breaking protocol sending it ahead of time—your secret is safe with me. Any problems and don’t hesitate to say I strong-armed you.

  I have noted some minor changes that would help on a macro level. As soon as James sends me his version (which I doubt will have any changes), I will send these changes to him so we are all on the same page. I will not mention you already received these notes.

  I also have some art mock-ups. If you wanted to pop by my office I could briefly show you what we are looking at in terms of overall feel. It would help you to know how you fit into the overall layout. Please let me know if you have time for this.

  JThanks again on such a thorough job. I knew I would be in safe hands.

  -Sean

  Well, now, that’s more like it!

  Krista smiled to herself. Her worry had been stupid. Of course Sean would understand! Thank God!

  She got to work right away on his notes, which were both insightful and easy to change, then got her mug and headed down to meet him with a bounce in her step. It wasn’t until she stepped out of the elevator that she paused. That she realized where she was going. Alone.

  Her stomach filled with butterflies and her fist tightened on her lucky mug.

  “This is not a big deal,” she whispered to herself.

  Taking a big breath, stepping out of the line of fire into a fake, bushy plant, which was only weird if she got caught, she took stock of her situation. She was here for business. She was not here to meet him in some kind of intimate tryst. He was funny and nice to talk to, but so were a million people. His handsome face and freaking god-like body just meant he was bad news to boot. No mystery there. She’d already catalogued that fact.

  So why the hell was that open door beckoning her closer, the pull of the charismatic salesman moving her feet as if she was in a lovesick daze. It was so freaking unfair.

  With a big sigh, face a stern mask of determination, she stepped out from behind the bushy plant, then apologized profusely to the passing woman who jumped and screeched at the Research girl materializing out of thin air.

  Back on track, Krista marched down the hallway, eyes trained on the battlefield, ready to keep her wits about her, hands to herself, and not grab any crotches in an act of sexual starvation. As she stepped up to the gaping door, hand in the act of knocking, she heard a female voice float out into the hallway. Then laughter.

  Her gut pinched in worry. She really, really didn’t want to walk in on some sort of office sexual fantasy being acted out by Sean and his squeeze of the day.

  She poked her head in slowly, eyes squinting just in case they had to close quickly, and saw a woman leaning heavily over the desk, half her large chest spilling out of her top and onto the wood. Sean’s green eyes seemed to glow in the bright, fluorescent light as they glanced at the cle**age show, a slick, predator-like expression dominating his face.

  Her stomach seized up. Instead of the hurt she feared, her determination hardened. This clown wasn’t worth her emotional rollercoaster, and she was tired of him getting his way. Really, did these women not have any self-respect?

  Rolling her eyes, Krista continued her knock, sighing when Sean’s head snapped up and his hungry expression turned into a mask of guilt.

  “Sorry to disturb you,” Krista said coolly, irritation firing on all cylinders. “I just wanted to look at the art mock-ups. Should I come back later?” She glanced at the busty girl who was surprisingly not cute.

  It was official. This guy would literally screw anything. No offense Miss Boob-N-Plenty.

  “Not at all, Krista. Please, come in,” Sean answered cordially.

  The girl,
a member of Marketing, gave Krista a look that said she should watch her back or her desk might catch fire with her tied to it. “Okay, Sean, well I’ll chat with you tonight.” Mt. Bust slowly crossed to the door, then made a show of waiting for Krista to get out of her way.

  “Ole,” Krista said without thinking. She looked up at Sean with a “Don’t you dare comment” look. Wisely, he caught it and erased his smile.

  After Krista finally stepped into the room, Sean said, “Sorry about that. She was just visiting.”

  He looked like he needed Krista to understand something. Male urges? Helplessness in the face of ni**les? Unwilling participant in a love affair but unable to say no for fear of life? Whatever it was, she wasn’t buying.

  “No problem. Could I just see the mock-ups?”

  “Of course.” Sean smoothly exited his chair, raising a hand to beckon her over.

  Krista stayed right where she was. She knew what happened to raw meat when it wandered into the lion’s den.

  “They are on discs,” Sean explained patiently, “so you have to view them from my computer.” His face was perfectly blank.

  Have you ever heard of a flash drive?

  Defeated but still rigid, Krista crossed the space, taking the path on the far side of the desk to get to the chair. It meant she had to awkwardly climb over a garbage can and recycling bin, half leaning on the desk so as not to crawl through a plant, but she did not have to pass within inches of an incredibly attractive, though exceedingly sleazy, salesman.

  As she sank into the overstuffed leather chair it went cush. “Oh holy hell, this is a nice chair. Sorry about the language.”

  A smile flickering up his face, Sean said, “Can’t complain.”

  He took two slow steps to her side, leaned over her, his solid bicep inches from her face, and worked the mouse, bringing up the presentation. A buzzing filled Krista’s head as she tried to ignore the heat radiating off that exquisite body. She took a deep breath, not hearing whatever was drumming out of his muscular chest next to her ear. His special elixir dizzied her, made her want to lean in, connecting her skin with his.

  “There you go.” That smooth masculine tone tickled her ears and groin at the same time, making her break out in a sweat and shiver.