“You should take home one of every product and try them out,” he said.
“Already bought them all over the weekend and pampered myself a little. I want to use each one before attempting to do anything marketing-related with them.”
“And?”
“I think it’s interesting that such lovely products are developed by a man.”
“What can I tell you? I’m in touch with my feminine side.”
“Hmmm…I heard you utilized your products to get in touch with the feminine side in college.”
Chase raised an eyebrow. “I see I have to keep you away from Sam.”
“But she’s such a wealth of knowledge.”
His hand returned to the small of my back and guided me out of the product development lab. “That’s the problem.”
We walked to the marketing department side by side. “How long have you two known each other?”
“Middle school.”
“Wow. As far back as we go, huh?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t her I was sucking face with in that hallway outside the gym.”
A young guy walked out of the first office in the marketing department just as we passed. He was handsome, in an I-just-left-the-frat-house-and-scored-my-first-real-job type of adorable way.
Chase stopped and introduced me. “Reese, this is Travis. He’s IT for marketing—does all of our SEO and web optimization.”
He shook my hand with a goofy smile. “Please tell me she works here.”
“She does.”
“Damn, I love my job.”
“You do, huh? Well, pop your eyes back in the sockets, and go read page fourteen of the employee handbook.”
“Page fourteen?”
“The no harassing fellow employees policy.”
Travis held up his hands and laughed. “All good. No harassment. Maybe just a few compliments on how beautiful she is.”
This was definitely the type of office where everyone joked around, even with the boss.
Chase leaned over to me as we continued walking down the hall and whispered, “Stop worrying. Harassment policy only applies to employees, not to the owner. Checked this morning.”
The big office at the far end of the hallway was Josh’s. He was sitting with an obviously pregnant woman when we arrived. She slouched in her chair and rubbed her round stomach.
“I found your new employee trying to get in before the sun rose this morning,” Chase announced. “Better put all that energy to good use.” He looked at the woman I assumed was the one going out on maternity leave soon. “Looks like Dimitria is about to pop any second.”
She looked seriously uncomfortable, gripping and ungripping one of those gel-filled stress balls as she spoke. “Why haven’t you invented a product that stops pregnant women from peeing a little every time they sneeze or laugh? Or a product that makes the swelling go down in our ankles?” She pointed to her feet. “These are my mother’s shoes. Nothing of mine fits me anymore. Not even my own damn shoes.”
Chase shook his head. “Do you have any fears, Reese?”
“Fears? You mean like spiders and stuff?” How much time you got?
“Yeah. Something that makes you run out of the room irrationally when you come in contact with it because it scares the living shit out of you?”
“I’m not much of a pigeon person. I’ll cross the street to avoid them.”
Chase nodded. “My fear is pregnant women. So I’m gonna go hit the concrete for that run before it gets too hot outside.”
Dimitria whipped the stress ball at Chase, hitting him in the shoulder. “Now I finally understand the use for those damn things.”
***
Divine Wax. At the end of the day, I sat in my new office and spun the jar around on my desk a few times. Tomorrow I would sit in on the first official think tank strategy meeting as the marketing department kicked off a major rebranding project for Parker Industries’ flagship product. I needed to get my brain into the mindset of a consumer doing home waxing. The only problem was, I didn’t do my own waxing. So I’d made an appointment for eight tonight with my regular esthetician. She’d be doing my Brazilian using both her usual and Divine, so I could compare.
Most of the marketing department had gone, and I was nibbling on a protein bar and sipping a soda I’d gotten from the vending machine in the break room when Chase appeared in my doorway. Unlike this morning, he was dressed in business attire. He loosened his tie as he spoke. “Dr. Pepper, huh?”
I hadn’t had one in years, but when I saw it in the machine today, it reminded me of when I’d run into Chase at the gym, and he’d told me how much he liked it. The memory had spurred me to push the button before I gave it any real thought.
“My cousin really likes them,” I told him. “Thought I’d give it a try.”
He smiled in that I’m-insanely-hot-and-I’m-not-even-trying-at-all kind of way he had. God, stop doing that.
“You like to work late?”
“I do my best work at night,” I said.