“Look, Dex.” She shook her head. “Mr. Quinn, you are my boss. What happened last night was-”.
“Hot?”
“It was unprofessional.”
“I don’t agree with that, Rosie.” I brought my hand up to rest on her face, feeling the deliciously warm skin on the apple of her cheek. “I may have gotten ahead of myself a bit but what happened last night was fucking amazing. And it would have been even better if you hadn’t run off.”
“No-”
I cut her off. “I didn’t even get to kiss you and I was still on fire, and I know you were too.” I desperately didn’t want to embarrass her further, but I needed her to admit what happened between us was important.
“Mr. Quinn, please-” she pleaded, her voice slightly rougher than before.
“You can admit it, Rosie.” I leaned down. “You can admit that you felt something between us.”
She pulled away abruptly before I could get the chance to kiss her. Those brown eyes wild. “No!”
“No?”
“Yes!” She took a deep breath. “I mean no! You’re my boss, Dex.” Rosie put some space between us with a step back. “We shouldn’t be discussing this.”
“Why, are you going to sue me for sexual harassment?”
“Can you be serious?”
“I am being serious, Rosie,” I said, my tone much more lighthearted than I meant it to be.
Rosie sighed, dropping down in the chair, holding her head in her hands. For a second I was afraid I had pushed her too far.
“It doesn’t matter what you want, Dex.” She looked up at me again. I could see the seriousness in her bright eyes. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”
“Of course it does-”
She cut me off, her voice as hard as steel. “I don’t want you, Dex. If you keep trying to pursue me, I’ll walk out that door and leave you to deal with your horribly disorganized life by yourself.”
I nodded. “Alright, okay. I’ll drop it for now, but just because you’re doing such a great job helping me get my shit together.”
5
Rosie
About a week after the incident in Dex’s car, and the slightly more tense one in his office, I was woken up by someone banging on my front door again. Filled with frustration and a little bit of rage, I angrily wrenched the door open. I was fully expecting to see my disgusting landlord on the other side, or even worse, Dex. Instead it was a woman, around the same age as me and just as tall, with shoulder length dark brown hair and light brown eyes. She had a gleaming little stud in her left nostril and a large floral tattoo along her right shoulder. The woman stood there so casually, confidently gracing my doorway in nothing but a pair of denim cutoffs, a lacy bralette, and an expectant expression on her dimpled brown face.
“You gonna let me in or what?”
Before I could reply, or slam the door in her face, she brushed past me into my apartment.
“Huh.” She looked around, fiddling with my things. “Your place is bigger than mine.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Nora. I live across the hall.” She pointed behind me, towards the apartment directly across from mine though my still open door.
“And why are you here, Nora?”
“The crappy air conditioner in my place is out again and I don’t feel like having to park my gorgeous ass in some douchey downtown cafe all day so-” She waved her hand in front of her in a flourish, as if her explanation made perfect sense.
“That still doesn’t really explain anything.” I tried, but Nora had already made herself comfortable on my ugly little blue couch, flipping through the smutty romance novel I had facing down on the coffee table. “Do you always just barge into unknown people’s houses?”