Page 44 of October (New Orleans #10)

I t was interesting to Finley. She had always thought that she and India had had a great sex life.

She supposed that was still true, to a degree, but it wasn’t like this.

Sure, she had been tempted to do things with India in the office at times, but not nearly in the same way that she was tempted to take Molly into that server room right now.

She’d also never had conversations about sex with India how she had with Molly.

Her relationship with India had been, for the most part, on India’s terms. She had known that before, but it was even clearer to her now that she had someone with whom she didn’t feel that way.

It was partly her fault for giving in to India every time, letting her dictate things, but it had always been easier like that for her.

The one way to avoid a fight was to give in to India and go along with whatever it was that she wanted.

Finley was currently watching Molly make a presentation to a room full of managers, and she wasn’t paying attention.

She knew she should be. This was important.

HR was training all people managers in the company on the new performance management process, and Finley was a manager now.

She needed to know this stuff. But Molly was wearing a black pencil skirt with a short slit below the knee and a white button-down tucked into it, and she looked totally and completely sexy.

Finley also knew what she looked like under all of that now, and that made it even more difficult for her to focus.

As she looked around the conference room with nine more managers, eight of them men, Finley wondered if they were thinking about Molly how she was right now, and she shook her head rapidly because they better not be.

“Finley?”

“Huh?” she asked, looking up when she realized that Molly was talking to her.

“Are you okay? You were shaking your head. Do you have a problem with the self-evaluation process?” Molly asked with a smirk.

“What? No, it’s great. Love it,” she replied.

Molly lifted an eyebrow at her and said, “Okay. Then, let’s move on.”

‘Yes, let’s,’ Finley thought to herself. ‘Let’s move on to the end of the day when we’re at home and I can get you naked again and hear those sounds I love so much.’

No, she needed to focus on this stuff, or she would be the only one not following the process in a couple of months. She listened and opened her laptop to take notes, which she only needed to do because it would help her keep her focus on what Molly was teaching and not the teacher herself.

When the meeting was finally over, Finley stayed back and waited for the others to leave.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” Molly asked as she packed her computer and notebook together and slipped them under her arm.

Finley checked that the glass door was closing, and they were alone in the room.

“Molls, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to distract you with that stupid headshake.

I was basically objectifying you the whole time because you looked so hot up there, so confident.

But when I thought that maybe the guys in the room could be doing the same thing, I felt really bad and also like I wanted to punch them, which I still might do because at least one of them was staring at you and not the projector screen behind you. ”

Molly laughed and said, “You think they were objectifying me?”

“I know I was. Babe, you looked hot up there, telling everyone what to do.”

“You like that? Me telling people what to do?”

“And if you want to tell me what to do later tonight, I wouldn’t mind,” Finley offered.

Molly laughed again and replied, “You saw me put this stuff on this morning.”

“I know. Still looks good on you. And you were in your element up there.”

Finley nodded toward the front of the room.

“Well, if you want these guys to stop objectifying me, which I doubt they were doing, at least not in front of you, I have a possible way to do that.”

“You do?”

“They’re moving people around. I had IT before. Then, they shifted things again. It happens a few times a year in HR because we hire more people on one team than another, and an HR partner needs more support or gets pulled to support that growth.”

“You’re moving? Your desk?” she asked. “I just sat next to you.”

“No,” Molly replied with a smirk. “But I now have IT to support.”

“IT? I’m in IT.”

“I know.” Molly laughed.

“Why are you laughing? Shouldn’t we be worried about this? You can’t be my HR person if we’re dating. I don’t want you to get into any trouble.”

“Because there’s a simple solution.”

“What’s that?”

“We just sign a piece of paper that says we won’t blame the company or sue Southern Roastery for anything. We tell them we’re dating.”

“Oh,” Finley said. “I never even did that with India.”

“You and India were in different departments, and she wasn’t your new HR person,” Molly said, looking concerned for the first time. “Do you not want to–”

“No, I do,” she interrupted. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, let’s do it. Where’s the form thing I need to sign?”

“I’d have to tell Stacey, and she would print it out. We would meet with her, and she’d give us some speech. Legal might be there. I don’t know.” Molly shrugged. “Then, we sign the form, and we’re good to go.”

“Legal has to be there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Molly shrugged again. “I’m in HR, so they might want the extra protection.”

Finley nodded and replied, “Okay. Tell Stacey.”

“Are you sure? It’s only been a few weeks,” Molly said.

“I found out about the change in my first meeting this morning. I don’t want to get in trouble if something comes up and we didn’t tell them, but I also don’t want to rush something if we’re not there yet.

I can always ask Stacey to just put me on another team. ”

“Won’t she ask why?”

“Probably.”

“Then, you’d have to tell her anyway,” Finley reasoned.

“She’s going to remove me no matter what when I tell her about us. I can’t be your HR person if we’re together. IT will get reassigned, and I’ll get another team.”

“Which one?”

“Not sure, but–” Molly stopped. “Actually, I do. I can guess, at least, based on the new structure.”

“What team?”

“India’s.” Molly laughed.

“No,” Finley said, laughing a little, too.

“Yup. Most likely. That’s something to deal with later, though.”

Finley really wanted to hold her. She wanted to step into Molly’s space, pull her into a sweet kiss, and hold on to her forever.

“Tell Stacey, babe,” she said and smiled wider. “I want her to know. And once that’s done, we tell everyone whenever, or we can just be ourselves, and they’ll all find out in time.”

“If people know, I doubt they’ll be objectifying me in front of you.” Molly winked.

“They better not be.”

“I like when you objectify me, though,” Molly replied.

“You do?”

“You’re the only one who gets to do that,” Molly said. “And yes, it’s hot.”

“Hot, like you want me to objectify you later?”

“Your place?”

“Yes,” Finley said with a nod.

They left the conference room and went back to their desks, where the new girl sat reading from one of her training manuals. Molly left after a few minutes and returned not long after that.

“We can go into Stacey’s office now if you want,” she said to Finley.

“Already?”

“She had a meeting cancel,” Molly replied. “But are you sure? I didn’t tell her anything yet; just that we needed to talk to her about something.”

“I’m sure,” Finley said.

“Are you finally telling HR you’re dating?” the new girl asked.

Finley and Molly both looked up at her in surprise.

“What?” Molly asked.

“Oh, please. It’s obvious. Finley stares at your ass every time you walk. And Molly is always looking over at you with heart eyes when she thinks you’re not paying attention.”

“I do not,” Molly protested a little too much.

Finley laughed and said, “Let’s go tell Stacey, Molls.”

“I don’t do that,” Molly argued as they walked toward Stacey’s office.

“Yes, you do. It’s cute. Don’t stop doing it, okay?”

“Are you going to stop staring at my ass?”

“Couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Finley winked at her.

“What’s going on, you two?” Stacey asked from behind her desk as they walked into the office.

“We have something to tell you,” Molly replied as she closed the door behind them.

“You just took on IT, Molly. What the hell happened already?”

“Nothing,” Molly said.

“We’re dating,” Finley added. “We’re a couple. Molly and I just wanted you to know so that we can sign whatever paper thing that we need to sign, and she can get put on a different team.”

“What she said.” Molly nodded toward Finley.

“I thought you were with India,” Stacey replied as her eyebrows knitted together.

“I was. We broke up.”

“You and India never signed the paper.”

“No, but Molly and I want to,” she said. “I don’t want her getting into any trouble because we’re a couple. She’s in HR. India wasn’t.”

“Molly, you’ll have to get put on another team.”

“I know. That’s fine.”

“Can I say something not as HR for a second?”

“Sure, I guess,” Finley said.

“I can see it.” Stacey pointed between the two of them. “I can see this. You and India… Not so much, if I’m being honest. But this, I can see this. I’m happy for you two.” She dropped her pointing hand. “Okay. Now, I’m in HR again. You two really like to make my life difficult, don’t you?”

Finley and Molly both laughed a little.

“Well, all right. Let me get someone from legal in here to make sure that this is all good, and I’ll print the form for you to sign.

There’s no rule against you dating. This is mainly to protect both of you and the company, but mostly the company, so keep that in mind before you sign anything.

If this isn’t serious, it might not be worth it.

I can still reassign Molly to partner with a different team just in case, but no one else needs to know. ”

“It’s serious,” Molly replied.

Finley smiled over at her and said, “Definitely serious.”

◆◆◆

“Okay. It’s all done,” Finley said and handed Molly the laptop.

“Why does it look completely different from how it did when you showed it to me the first time?”

“It is different,” Finley replied. “I may have added a lot more to it than I said I would, but now, it’s basically state of the art.”

“Finley, I don’t need this. You should keep it.”

“But I built it for you.”

“I wouldn’t even know how to use it.” Molly opened it. “Is it special or something?”

Finley smiled and ran a hand through Molly’s hair.

“I built it for you, so yeah, it’s pretty special.”

“What does it do that my work computer doesn’t?”

“Well, you might get mad at me…” Finley turned it on for her as they sat on her sofa and swallowed. “I had to call in a favor from Juliet, so now I owe Gwen tech support for her grooming business, but don’t be mad at her if this isn’t okay.”

“If what isn’t okay?”

“It’s a regular computer. I mean, I added a few things that’ll make it run faster, and there are a couple of programs on there that I thought you might like, but…” Finley faded when she saw the wallpaper appear.

“It’s my dad,” Molly said. “And me. You put a picture of us on here?”

“Yes, but I did a little more than that. I’ve been working on this whenever I could.

I got Juliet to ask your mom for stuff, and she sent it to me, so here you go.

” Finley clicked on a desktop folder. “I digitized all of your old family photos. Well, not all of them, probably, but most of them. The ones your mom sent me, at least. Luckily, cell phone cameras became a thing a while ago, but all your younger photos were still in photo albums. Your mom trusted me with them, and I sent them back already, but you now have all of the photos on your computer here.”

Molly looked over at her in shock.

“Mad?” Finley asked.

“What? How could I be mad about that? When? How? My God, Finley. You really did all that for me?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I know you’ve been struggling a bit, and I thought this might be a nice thing.”

“It’s more than a nice thing. Are you kidding?” Molly opened one of the folders and clicked on the first image. “I’m a baby here. I haven’t seen this in years.”

Finley wrapped an arm around Molly’s shoulders as she began to tear up.

“Dad…” Molly said and put her hand over her mouth.

Finley kissed Molly’s temple.

“I thought you said you sent everything back,” Molly noted.

“I did. Why?”

“There’s a box over there.” Molly pointed to a box on the floor.

“Oh, that’s India’s stuff,” she said. “I got tired of waiting for her to do it, so I boxed it up for her. I’m going to take it to work tomorrow and get my key back.”

Molly turned to her and asked, “You are?”

“I was planning on giving it to you, but if you want me to give you mine, I can take hers. Not sure if you’re superstitious about stuff like that.”

“You want me to have your key?”

“And when you’re ready, I’d like yours, too, but mainly because you’ll have a cute puppy I want to hang out with, so don’t get a big head about it.”

Molly kissed her and said, “I get to pick her up tomorrow. Stupid puppy worms making me wait to get my puppy. Want to come with me?”

Finley nodded and asked, “Want to look at these pictures now?”

“Yes, but wait.”

“What?”

Molly looked worried.

“You talked to my mom? My mom knows about you?”

Finley just laughed and pulled Molly back into her side.