“You should meet mine,” I muttered right back.
“She calls me every morning to see if I ironed my shirts correctly and makes me send her pictures,” he drawled. “Being an only child isn’t that fun.”
“I wish I only had to send my mother pictures of my shirts,” I shot back. “I have to set an alarm so they know to stop having sex before I get home.”
He froze. “Are you serious?”
“I have endless therapy sessions with a bottle of wine that says I am, sadly, deadly serious.” I sighed and cradled my water, having pushed the leftovers of my delicious sandwich out of the way. “It’s their… thing.”
“I am far more thankful for my parents now,” he said, lips twitching. “Is it better now that you’re working?”
“It’s better because my kooky relatives are in town,” I replied. “My great-aunt is a walking, chain-smoking, whiskey-drinking menace, and she loves nothing more than to argue with my cigar-loving, scotch-downing grandfather.”
“Are they related? Blood, I mean? Or marriage?”
“Blood. Brother and sister.” I wrinkled up my face and checked the time. “I should clean this up and get back to my desk.”
“I got it.” Cameron stood with a half-smile, gathering up the wrapping from his sandwich. “Get yourself a coffee and go back.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I can—”
“Mallory, despite what my cousin may have told you, I’m not a dictator. I can clear up sandwich wrappers, especially when having lunch together was my idea. My mother raised a gentleman.”
My cheeks flushed. “I didn’t mean—um, I wasn’t trying to say that…”
He laughed, tossing the ball of the wrapper into the trashcan. “I’m teasing you. I’ll clean up. You get back to work.” He threw me a wide grin that held more than a hint of charm in it.
Still, I balled my wrapper up and threw it in the trash. “There. Now I don’t feel so bad.”
Another laugh escaped him, and he pushed my bottle of water across the table to me right as my phone rang.
He raised one eyebrow. “Looks like your lunch hour’s up.”
Ugh. Amanda didn’t miss a trick.
I wanted to sigh, but I had no time. Instead, I had to rush over to my desk in my heels, almost tripping on the way there. If it weren’t for the desk being within reaching distance, I’d have fallen flat on my face.
Thank Heavens for small mercies. Like desks. And closed doors, so Cameron had never seen me trip.
“Good afternoon, you’ve reached Cameron Reid’s office. Mallory speaking. How can I help you?” I breathed, trying to steady myself.
“Mallory?” Great Aunt Grace’s voice harped at me down the line. “Is that you?”
I slumped again the desk. “Aunt Grace. You know I’m at work?”
“Did I call your work phone?”
“Yes.”
“Then I know you’re at work, child.”
I gritted my teeth. “What do you need?”
“We’re out of strawberries.”
I froze. Was she for real? She called to tell me we were out of strawberries? “Seriously?”
“Yes. There are none, and I made pancakes for lunch. I wanted chocolate sauce and strawberries with them.”
“We…don’t have chocolate sauce either, Aunt Grace.”
“Oh.” There was a brief pause. “Then I guess I need chocolate sauce and strawberries.”
“I’m at work.” I rounded my desk and sat down. “I can’t run to the store for you right now. You’ll have to make more tomorrow.”
There was a crash from the other end of the line.
“Aunt Grace, what was that?”
“Nothing!” she shouted. “I found the sauce. We’re good! You work hard, babykin!”
Babykin? What the fuck was babykin? And why was she calling me it?
“Aunt Gra—” I was cut off by the line going dead. A deafening beep sounded in my ear, and I groaned.
Goddamn it, Aunt Grace.
I put the phone back into the cradle and tapped the keyboard to wake up my computer. Strawberries and fucking chocolate sauce. How did she even get my work number? How did she even know where I worked? I was pretty sure I’d never given that information up.
Not to her, at least. There was no way I wanted her showing up here with a random idea. She might have only been here two weeks, but people could lose a job in two minutes.
I didn’t want her to be the reason I lost mine.
“All right?” Cameron asked, adjusting his black tie against his white shirt as he walked toward my desk. “Anything important?”
“Is my aunt asking me to get her strawberries and chocolate sauce counted as important?” I asked honestly, meeting his eyes.
His lips twitched. “Is she buying a house to eat those in?”
“I’d prefer she didn’t buy one in the area.”
Cameron turned toward his office, laughing. “Nope, not important.”
As he shut his door behind him, I couldn’t help but laugh myself.
He wasn’t wrong.
***
Me: I need a new job.
Jade: Why? What’s wrong with urs?
Me: My boss is too hot. I keep thinking about him with his shirt off.