Office Affairs
Chapter Twelve
July 11, 2011
Over the last couple of days, I'd really done some thinking about the situation with Edward and Alice. I hadn't spoken to Alice since talking to Jasper, I was worried that she was avoiding me, but maybe she just needed her space. I owed her that much after her struggles.
After thinking about everything thoroughly, I'd decided to get to know Edward and form an opinion of him for myself. I hoped Alice wouldn't be angry, but I was never and could never be a judgmental person.
Edward strolls into my office around lunchtime, he seems at ease and light today. All week long he's been stressed about the trip to China, as they had requested we go there two months early, meaning next month. It was another reason I wanted to know this man better, I couldn't go to the other side of the world with him and not at least know him on some level. He smirks, something is on his mind.
"Your blouse is buttoned all the way," he says in a flirtatious tone.
Apart of me knows he's flirting, the other part doesn't really care.
"I thought the girls should be hidden today," I say with a laugh.
"Well, you know I don't mind either way, Isabella," he quips.
"You can call me Bella if you'd like," I blush, playing a random pencil on my desk.
"Well, Bella, how about we grab lunch?" he offers, a hesitant and almost coy smile on his face.
I pause to think for a bit, I go with the decision to give him a chance. To see if Edward is really that bad.
20 minutes later
"And then she spills tomato sauce all over the front of her shirt," Edward finishes his hilarious story, and I can barely breath, can barely contain the fit of giggles that threaten to erupt from me.
It gets quiet for a bit, but not uncomfortable quietness, calm quiet. It's so easy to interact with him, easier than it's ever been with anyone. Our conversation over lunch quickly went from work related topics to tomato related stories because of a woman's red dress at the restaurant he'd taken me to.
"My dad is actually allergic to tomatoes," I giggle.
"Really? You're shitting me," Edward looks at me for a long while, my poker face remains strong.
"Nope, he really is allergic to them," I try to muffle my giggles by biting my tongue.
"For real?" he ponders.
"Nope, I'm actually bullshitting you. For a business man, you're quite slow," I tease.
"Well, I guess in business school not only zaps the soul, but the spirit."
He pauses, and looks at me. That same heated gaze returns from the night he took me home. My face is hot from the heaviness of it, and I feel a certain tingly feeling down below. I try to shift unnoticeably in my seat, this is the first time I'd really noticed my attraction toward him. Other times I tried to push it away because I needed to push that feeling away, but now I absorbed it like a sponge. I quickly looked away, but he did not. It was a silent exchange without words until the waitress came over with the bill.
She was a pretty girl, her hair was the color of roses, her skin ivory pale. She could be the doppelganger for the maid on American Horror Story.
It seemed that Edward attracted the prettiest girls, which made me feel insecure.
"Can I get you anything else?" she asks in throaty voice.
The voice girls use to seduce men. He doesn't even turn his gaze from me.
"No," he says distractedly, he drops the money on the table quickly.
Still not looking away from me, he hands the girl a two twenties, she scurries away as fast as she came. My jaw hangs in shock, but his expression never ceases, never stops.
When we're back, he walks me to my office, his hand laying casually low on my waist. He rubs small patterns there that bring back the tingly feeling, and I want to make sounds at what he's doing but I don't.
"Lunch was fun," I smile, "we should do it again sometime."
Edward heads to leave, before leaving he turns to me and a crooked grin spreads across his face, "we can do it everyday if you want, it can be our thing."
Our thing.
I liked that thought too much.
"Sounds like a plan." I agree.
With that, he leaves.