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Damn them.
I walked her to the break room across the lobby. I’d make sure no one so much as looked in her direction on our walk in. Not a word would pass anyone’s lips if I could help it. I’d mastered the art of scowling after all. I had a scowl for every occasion, and I knew how to send people scuttling back to their desks. One thing was for sure: I couldn’t stand to watch people judge her for her outfit and not show her my support. Not when she’d done enough to show me she was a stellar employee who also did well with my son. The world was usually unfair, butthiswas too much.
If this was how people treated Chloe, what would Will be like?
27
CHLOE
The next week passed by in a blur. At work, Sean still maintained a hefty distance from me. Even if his eyes blazed intensely every time we crossed paths. For my part, the attraction was undeniable. I couldn’t stop thinking about our kiss, my skin heating with the memory and my core clenching tight with need.
But he was a mystery. And not just to me, I realized. I accompanied him to one of the lower floors for a meeting, and I saw the chaos he left in his wake when he walked out of the meeting.
When he took off, back into the elevator, alone, cubicles transformed into mini sanctuaries.
“It really was him!”
“I’ve worked here for five years and never once seen him!”
On Tuesday, Sean took advantage of a light day at work. He canceled his meetings to take Lucas and me to spend the day at the Central Park Zoo.
My pulse pounded in my veins the entire time with how near Sean was to me. But he was strangely distant, and Lucas was a good buffer for our tension.
I could see that Sean was trying, engaging Lucas in conversation as much as he could.
While being around Sean and not touching him was a new kind of torture, I enjoyed seeing Sean as the dad. He was sincerely trying, and combined with an adorable Lucas, they made a great father-son combination.
Emboldened by the success of that day, Sean took Lucas by himself to the Intrepid Museum the next day. At the end of the day, when Sean brought Lucas back to the office to grab some papers, I asked Lucas about his visit.
He told me it was like stepping into a real-life action movie with aircraft carriers and space shuttles. He also added in a small voice that he wished I could have been there.
So, I still had miles to go with helping Sean bond with him. I kept that bit of information to myself, afraid of ruining Sean’s burgeoning optimism about his relationship with his son.
Recently, I’d seen Sean making calls to Lucas from work, checking in with him midday and even asking him if he had ideas for where he wanted to spend the weekend. He’d even go as far as calling himbuddyevery time they spoke.
By the time Thursday rolled around, I tried to push thoughts of Sean out of my mind. I was both nervous and worried about my date. I really needed this date to go well because I really needed to get over Sean.
I wrapped up work quickly, buying myself time to get ready at home before Will showed up. I looked in Sean’s office multiple times as the afternoon came to a close, but he firmly stayed out of it all day. I knew his schedule by heart and that he was at work today, but he’d chosen to take most of his meetings at restaurants or conference rooms on other floors. By five o’clock, when I was ready to leave, my heart was heavy as I picked up my bag and took a last look at the empty high-backed office chair in Sean’s office.
How had he managed to avoid me all day? How had I not seen him in between meetings, like I usually did? Lately, he had been the only one to know what was happening in my personal life, and I was hoping for a look from him to confirm I was doing the right thing.
Besides, I missed seeing him. His presence and his occasional knowing but intense look, I realized, were a big draw for why I showed up to work eagerly every day.
I took the elevator down and waved to Charles, the security guard, as I walked out of the Tassater building before heading toward the nearest subway station.
An hour later, I was back home. I pushed the door open, expecting to find the house empty when I saw Henry’s familiar brown hair and oval face in the kitchen.
“Henry.” I smiled as I shut the door.
He turned around from the accessible induction stove, where he had been stir-frying noodles.
“You’re on time,” he exclaimed as I walked in. “I’m making us dinner. Your favorite—drunken noodles.”
It smelled great, and I sniffed it eagerly as I fought against my better instincts. I was very tempted to ditch Will and have dinner with Henry instead. This was familiar and comfortable.
“What about your social club at college?” I asked, setting my bag down.
He waved a hand in the air genially. “A bunch of us decided to ditch the club for today and go out to the mall. I’ll take the bus at six. One of my friends, Ronan, will be on the same bus. So, you don’t need to drop me today.”