He nodded, appeased by my answer, but he didn't move. "I was clearing my thoughts too. Until you showed up."
The closet was too tight, too warm. "Yeah, I hear hangovers are the worst."
Rainer grinned. "How do I look? Ready to face the press?"
I stopped shoving him aside and narrowed my eyes. "What press?"
"I'll tell you in the elevator."
I took three big steps back and shook my head. "No, thank you. I'm not going to get tangled up in your disgusting office gossip. I'll take the stairs."
"Suit yourself, Tasha," he said. Rainer slipped out the door and shut it behind him.
I stood in the dark and waited for my pulse to settle down. He knew my name; of course he knew my name. The real shock was hearing it on his lips and liking it.
I yanked open the door and marched down two flights of stairs as if I could escape the preposterous idea that I was attracted to Rainer Maxwell. To distract myself, I planned the best route to my office.
The top executives occupied the floor directly below the Vista Cafe level, and the financial department was directly below them. I slipped onto the financial floor and marched to the first bank of elevators. The junior executives had offices on the next floor down, and it would look perfectly normal for me to take the elevator from there. No one would know I ran into Rainer, or that he was the reason my cheeks still felt hot.
The doors slid open seconds after I pushed the down button. I stepped forward to enter the elevator and stumbled. Rainer lounged against the back wall, surrounded by his buddy colleagues. They reluctantly shuffled aside to make space for me, but Rainer just smiled.
"Good morning, Ms. Nichols," he said.
If I refused to get on the elevator now, everyone would assume I had a reason to dislike him. I did dislike him, I reminded myself, but not because we'd had some cheap office dalliance and he'd moved on. It didn't matter that I was turned off by his casual work attitude or his smarmy path to success. All our colleagues would think was that I was another one of his conquests.
"Good morning," I said to the group at large. I forced myself onto the elevator and turned around to face the doors, leaving as large a gap between myself and Rainer as I could. The doors slid closed inches from my nose.
"All right, Rainer, enough suspense. Tell us about the party last night," one of the junior executives said.
Another one chucked Rainer on the shoulder. "I hear you showed up with two models you met at the product shoot."
Product shoot? I wondered, ignoring the other lascivious details. My team's application was the only product I knew had been recently promoted in print media.
"I'd tell you boys, but there's a lady present," Rainer said.
"Where?" another junior executive joked.
Rainer stood up straight, and I felt his eyes on my back. "I'd watch out, Georgie. Ms. Nichols is planning to be your boss."
Georgie jammed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah? Well, I hear she's your boss as of last night."
Snickers erupted behind me. I refused to move and acknowledge any of them, but I felt Rainer respond immediately. Whatever move he made had George throwing his hands up in self-defense.
"Hey, we're not stupid," George said. "We all tried to jump on her project too. You just happened to have the best strings to pull."
Sweat threatened to pop out along my hairline, and I was glad when the elevator doors slid open on our floor. Rainer Maxwell had weaseled his way onto my project? I strode down the hallway, ignoring the parting looks I felt from the elevator. I had precious little time before our big meeting, and I had to find out if it was just elevator gossip or the truth.
My mind was racing faster than my feet, so it took a moment for my thoughts to circle back to my assistant's desk. A petite woman with her brown hair in a tight ponytail stared up at me.
"You're Amy?" I asked.
She nodded and raised an eyebrow, but otherwise did not move.
I clenched my fingers into a fist. "I'm Ms. Nichols. You're my assistant. Have you read through the binder?"
Amy jumped up and opened my office door. "Really? I thought you were kidding about that. I mean, that binder is huge."
"This is your job, Amy," I said. I dumped my things on my desk and put my fists on my hips. "Are there any messages for me about changes to my project team? Specifically concerning the public relations portion."