Page 100 of Boss of the Year

Lucas glanced my way, his eyes lingering on the sudden expanse of clavicle that greeted him, but kept talking. “Did you know that flowers basically just appeared one day, and no one knows why?”

I frowned. “Well, we know why we have them. Granted, I never went to college, but flowers are reproductive organs, right?”

“Hmm. Yes. Darwin, though, called them his ‘abominable mystery.’”

I snorted. “That sounds like how a lot of men think of female anatomy.”

Lucas chuckled. “He was just pissed because his theory of gradualism didn’t explain their sudden appearance, and some of his peers took it as a sign of divine intervention. To this day, no one has really figured out why, during the Cretaceous period, flowers became the dominant mode of plant reproduction.”

I laid my head on my hand and listened to him talk, using completely foreign terms like dicotyledons and angiosperms and phylogenetics. I didn’t know what any of them meant, but I loved the light in Lucas’s eyes when he talked about them.

“It’s a genuine mystery,” he concluded. “One that I think would be fun to solve. More fun than reading yet another cost-benefit analysis of moving production to China over Vietnam or listening to yet another AI pitch.” He turned his head, like he’d just remembered I was there. “Sorry. Now I’m the boring one.”

“You’re not,” I told him. “I was just thinking…you look happy when you talk about flowers. You’re handsome when you smile, Lucas.”

His mouth quirked, like he wanted to smile again, but wouldn’t out of principle. “I thought we weren’t supposed to say that anymore.”

“I think that’s just to women. And since I am a woman, I guess I can reappropriate the inappropriate compliment?” I considered. “Should I catcall you too when you get out of the spring? ‘Hey, baby, nice ass. Wouldn’t mind serving it for breakfast.’”

At that, we both started laughing.

“My turn now, but I’ll warn you, the question is definitely inappropriate,” Lucas said a minute or two later. “Like any amateur scientist, I have to get to the bottom of another great mystery.”

I chuckled. “Okay, warned. What’s that?”

His eyes met mine, suddenly solemn, but a little nervous. “Do you ever think about it? Having sex?”

“Do I—what?” I sat up, then shrank back into the water when I realized what I’d almost bared.

“I only ask because…well, I know you’re a virgin, obviously. And I know why, because you’ve told me. But what I don’t know is whether you even want that sort of intimacy. It occurred to me after what happened…the other day… that I’d never asked.”

There must have been something on my face that alarmed him, because he continued on in a fashion that could only be characterized as babbling.

“I don’t mean I’ve been thinking about how to have sex with you—I mean, I have, sort of, because, well, that kiss knocked my fucking socks off, and you’re incredibly beautiful, so I’d have to be dead not to even consider what it would be like—but what I mean is that I never thought to ask ifyoueven wanted more. You said maybe. Which doesn’t mean yes. I thought that was maybe to me, but maybe you meant it for everything. The whole act.”

By the time he was done, I was turned fully to the back of the bench, my arms folded under my chin, uncaring that all of my shoulders and upper back were out of the water, which nowacted as a translucent white bandeau. I needed to cool off more than I needed to stay modest.

Lucas seemed to notice, but once again, diverted his gaze.

“I…” I started, unsure how to answer. “Well, the short answer is…yes, I have thought about it. And yes, I want to do it. Believe me, my sister has asked.”

“Joni?”

I nodded. “Zero boundaries.”

He blinked. And waited for me to continue, just like I had with him.

“I think about it a lot,” I continued, more comfortable talking with him about it than I would have thought. “More than I used to. Especially when I see other people…well, like Joni and Nathan, for example. They can’t keep their hands off each other.”

“Hunt? Really? He seems a bit stiff.”

“Not around her. She takes down his boundaries too, believe me.” I sighed. “So, yeah, I want it. I suppose I was always just too shy to make a move with people.”

“People like my brother?”

His eyes were very much not meeting mine anymore, but the tension that had reappeared in his neck and shoulders told me he was waiting for the answer.

“I—yeah, I suppose. But…”