The Office Party

I’m stunned. He’s never said much about his mother to me before, only the words, ‘I wish she was still here’ and ‘I can’t talk about that.’

“She loved The Bachelor show so much that she watched every episode and started chat forums with other fans. She also found a way to guilt me and Seth into watching, too. For the record, I personally think the show is fucking terrible, but I still watch the rose ceremony. Just that part, of course.”

“Of course.” I smile.

“Anyway, one December, she left to get new wreaths for the windows, but she never made it home.” He looks into my eyes. “My father, Seth, and I went out looking for her, for hours. We must’ve checked every Hobby Lobby, Target, and Wal-Mart in the city.”

“We made it to an overpass just in time to see her being carried away in a helicopter, and we never got a chance to say goodbye.”

He sighs. “My father started drinking that day and he honestly hasn’t stopped. He became a shell of himself with a mean streak to cope, and I don’t try to pretend otherwise. What I can do, though, is keep honoring my mother’s memory in a way that gets attention. Whether people like it or not…”

“I’m sorry, Garrett,” is all I can say.

“Don’t be.” He presses his forehead against mine. “I’ve never told you that before. I’ve also never told you that I want you, and whatever this is with you, to work. I want you to give me a ‘needs’ list whenever you’re ready. Can you do that for me?”

I nod.

“Good.” He steps back and grabs my hand, leading me around the corner. “That gives us the rest of the night for me to handle a need I should’ve taken care of yesterday.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This,” he says, pulling me into an empty room. He gets down on the floor, pressing his back against the wall, and then he extends his hands toward me.

“I want you to sit on my face…”

Two hours later

“I think I should just cancel the rest of the office party plans, and let people do whatever they want to do,” Garrett says, gently pushing the curls off my forehead as I finally recover from another orgasm via his mouth. “It’s for a completely selfish reason, of course.”

“I’m just happy that your memo might finally reflect what the word ‘generous’ means. They’re all going to assume that you’re close to death or falling hard for someone.”

“Probably.” He laughs. “But for the record, I’ve been in love with you since last year,” he says. “When you spent six months creating a plan to get out of my office party.”

“You never told me exactly how you found out about my plans.”

“I didn’t have to do anything special to figure them out,” he says. “I just thought about what I would do if the roles were reversed. We think a lot alike.”

He helps me stand to me feet and holds me against his side, leading me into the main hall. As we’re walking, we come face to face with a teary-eyed Taryn.

NOPE. Fake tears.

I start to let go of Garett, so I can walk around her, but he holds me still.

“I’m sorry,” she says, stopping right in front of me. “I had no idea you felt that way.”

“Well, now you know.”

“Shhhh!” The sound comes from somewhere down the hall, but I don’t see anyone.

“I want to make this up to you over a dinner or something before you leave, and I want to tell you the truth.” She looks up at Garrett. “If your boyfriend says it’s okay, that is.”

As if she can sense that I’m still uneasy about her presence, that a couple of hours and a weak “I’m sorry,” are not enough to get off my shit list, she grabs my hand.

“I never got into Spelman Grad, because there’s no such thing as Spelman Grad; it’s just Spelman…and it took me six years to finish.” She lets out a breath. “My Maserati and my Benz are leased, and I barely got into Alpha Kappa Alpha. I had to beg half of my teachers to change my grades.”

Garrett presses a kiss atop my head once she pauses, whispering, “Spend some time with your family,” before nodding at Taryn and walking away.

I wait for him to disappear around the corner and squeeze her hand. “Dinner would be nice. Can you show me the best late-night restaurant on the property?”

“Yes.” She swallows. “It’s still Grandma Hattie’s. That hasn’t changed at all in eight years.”

I smile and pull her in for a hug, one that I actually want this time.

“You should’ve made her grovel more!” Georgia calls out from down the hall, laughing. “I made her work for a full hour to get the okay from me. And leased cars or not, she’s still paying for our dinner tonight!”