Page 3 of Tech Bros

“What happened?”

“Bit my lip, I guess.”

“Jesus.” I approach him, hands reaching to bring him in, see the wound up close, but he only laughs and dodges me, a blush tinting his cheeks.

“I’m fine,” he says.

“Please, can I?—”

“What? Kiss it and make it better?” He laughs again as he picks the plug up off the floor. “Really, it’s fine.”

I go for broke. “Come out with me tonight.” If he won’t let me kiss him here, maybe he will if we’re somewhere else. It’s a fantasy I’ve been entertaining for too long now.

“You have a date tonight. If you’d been listening earlier...”

“I don’t care,” I say. “He’s a stranger. Let me buy you dinner. I feel terrible—about your lip.” And just in general, I want to say but don’t. It’s no use, this date with someone I’ve never met. My cock decided months ago who it wants, and now, after dating at least half of the available men in the Bay Area, the rest of me is hopelessly on board with it.

Evan’s hair has been fucked out of its careful style, and I want to reach out and put it back in order. The chocolate brown strands fall across his vivid blue eyes, grazing his cheekbones. He looks gorgeous with his pink cheeks and his bitten lips curved into a smile I can’t get over. Can’t get out of my head. It’s so…cute. One crooked tooth—his left canine—haunts me.

I could love him. I’ve never thought that about anyone, but I think it all the time about Evan. I go to sleep thinking about it, wake up and get dressed every day thinking about it, and then he shows up in pants like these, and I turn into an animal with one urge—fuck. Fill.Claim.

But he’s not mine. And he’s given me no indication that he wants to be. No one ever seems to, despite the fact that on paper—I have everything. I’m a damn catch. I thinkI’dlike me. I might be a little high maintenance, but I feel like I’d be down with that, too. I’d be a great boyfriend—for the right man. This one in particular.

Like he never even heard me asking him out, Evan says, “It’s ten-thirty. And I need to give you a heads up about one tiny thing before we go into this meeting.”

I do my best to revert into work mode, attempting to straighten my tie. Evidently I fail at it because Evan takes over after gently batting my hands away.

“You know the new CEO of FPF?” he asks.

“Only what I’ve read about him.” Nepo baby. His company’s flailing now that he’s taken over for his recently deceased father. Something Cross. Forest? No. Hunter. Hunter Cross.

“He’s my ex.”

“What?” I blurt.

Evan chokes up on the knot of my tie, giving me a chastising look. “I know, I know. I had the audacity to have a life before you hired me. Crazy.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I didn’t think he’d be coming to the meeting, and I haven’t spoken with him directly. I’ve been talking to his VP, Glenda.”

“Are you okay with this?”

“I’m totally fine.”

“How did it end?” I ask.

“I ended it after he fucked it up.”

“How long ago?”

“College.”

“Grad or undergrad?”

He smirks. “Nosy. Undergrad. Anyway—if you’d feel more comfortable without me there, I’d get it.”

I shake my head. He’s put together almost the entire presentation on his own. It would be his first major account. We’ve worked on it together, but only as a mentor/mentee. If we land Four Points Freight as an account, I’ll be promoting Evan. He’ll be getting his own team. I want him to have this. He’s way too good to be my assistant, as much as I’ve enjoyed having him—in every sense of the phrase. “If you’re not worried about it.”