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He wished he had a similar rapport as Gus had with their employees. He used to be more like that. When he was younger, he was always hanging around the office or the factory. People knew and liked him. But ever since Serena had decimated his heart, something in him had closed off, which had earned him the reputation he now had. Only people who’d worked at the company for more than five years knew what Sebastian was once like.
It was distracting sitting across the desk from Genevieve. About an hour ago, after she’d cracked the window and insisted they stay and get a little more work done, she had slipped her feet out of her sandals and rested them on the corner of her desk. Sebastian pretended to be working on his laptop, which he really should have been doing, but his gaze kept traveling to her bare feet and along the length of her calves to where the bottom hem of her flowy pink sundress with the little white polka dots rested just above her knees. It got even worse when she ran her fingers through her hair and twisted it up in a bun at the nape of her neck, securing it with a couple pencils stabbed through from opposite sides. Little wisps of hair now hung around her face and along the back of her neck, some sticking to her perspiration.
Is it getting hotter in here? He wasn’t sure he could stand much more.
When she picked up her water bottle and pressed it to her full lips as she took a drink, he knew he was done for the day. He stood and pushed the chair out quickly.
“Time to go home,” he announced.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. “But we still have twenty minutes.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m melting in here.”
She gave a knowing nod and started packing away her things.
“I’ll walk you out.” He said it before he remembered the possibility of someone seeing him, but it was too late to take it back now.
“Thanks.”
As they made their way out of the building, he was happy to see that it was pretty much a skeleton crew since most people had been sent home from the overheated building. He held the door for her and was feeling relieved that they were almost in the clear, when he spotted Franky walking toward the building with Skylar.
“Hey, man.” Franky held his hand out for a fist bump. “Thought you’d be tucked away in your office like always.”
Sebastian was frozen in place, unsure what to say. Franky knew the situation, but he didn’t know this was the girl they’d told him about. He glanced over at Genevieve, who looked from Franky to him and back again.
“Hi, I’m Genevieve.”
Franky’s lips turned up in a smile, and he took her already outstretched hand and gave the back of her hand a kiss, which made her let out the most adorable giggle.
“Wow, the men at this company sure are gentlemen. Kurtis is always holding doors for me. And now this.”
Skylar chuckled.
Sebastian rolled his eyes at his friend. “This is Francis Middlebury, a close friend of the Schultz family.”
Franky’s eyebrow lifted, and then he met Sebastian’s eyes with an expression of understanding. “Yeah, I don’t work here. I’m a friend. And Kurtis here is always a gentleman.”
Genevieve smiled at Sebastian then looked at Franky again. “It’s very nice to meet you, Francis.”
“You too,” he replied. “Please, call me Franky.”
“Okay, Franky,” she said with a smile.
“What are you two up to now? Sky has to pick something up, then we’re headed to dinner. Care to join?”
Sebastian thought Genevieve looked a smidge uncomfortable, but he couldn’t be sure. “If you already have plans, it’s fine,” he reassured her.
“I kind of do.”
“Then we’ll try another time.”
She turned into Sebastian a little, lowering her voice to speak privately to him, and he loved the intimacy of it.
“I’m supposed to go to my mom’s tonight, but I should still have time to go to dinner.”
He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “If you already have dinner plans with her, that’s okay. Another time.”
“No, not dinner, just a visit. I’m mostly going to check on Charisma.”