“Oh. Law. I guess you’ve seen, huh?”
I turn to find Anya standing behind me wringing her hands.
“Special project?” I gesture to the boxes.
She huffs out a sigh. “No. I think I made a mistake. My usual order must have been doubled somehow. I’m really–”
Before she can even finish the sentence, I reach over and take her hand. “None of that. If you made a mistake, it’s no big deal. We’ll just store these until later. We can ask accounting to check on it for us. The mistake might be on the other end.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Anya. Of course I’m not mad.”
She shrugs. “I just thought… it’s whatever.”
“You thought that I’d be mad at you just because you left work for a date?” I grit my teeth, frustrated that I said what I was thinking.
“No, it wasn’t because of that.”
“So you were on a date?” I give up any pretense that I’m not interested. That ship has clearly sailed.
“It was no big deal. Seth just wanted to meet for coffee.”
At the sound of his name, I’m slammed with the memory of the two of them laughing in that stupid closet like schoolgirls. Then his hand on the small of her back as they’d left together. Clearly he isn’t giving up.
“Right. No big deal.”
She turns to her desk and hits a key to wake the computer up. “Anyway, I’ll get these boxes taken out of here by the weekend.”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and send an email. Five minutes later, Wallace, Kevin and Milo appear in the hallway.
“Where do you want ‘em, boss?” Wallace rolls up his sleeves.
“Anya, did you already get what you needed from the boxes?”
She looks at me in shock. “Yes, I put all the stuff I need to distribute in this box right here. But you guys don’t have to carry them. I can do it.”
I turn back to the men waiting in the hallway. “Take them to the empty storage room for now.”
The men move quickly, each grabbing a box and heading out. I take one as well. When I get back to her office, the guys are already carrying their second boxes back down the hallway.
Anya leans against the doorjamb. “I was going to huff and puff and blow smoke about how I could carry them but I won’t. That was a lot. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She brushes a stray hair away from her forehead. “Um, did you need something? I mean, was there a reason you came looking for me earlier?”
Now it’s my turn to shrug. “No, I just figured I’d check in. See how things were going.”
She nods slowly. “Okay. Well, thanks.”
I continue down the hall toward my own office. When I get there, I stand in the middle of the room feeling lighter than when I left even if I’m now covered in dust and slightly winded from lugging that box. If I hadn’t gone down there, Anya would have tried to carry all those boxes by herself. It bothers me that she thought I’d be angry with her over a simple mistake. Anya knows me. She knows I would never treat any of my employees that way but especially not her. All I’ve ever wanted was for her to be happy.
As happy as she makes me.
My ass lands in my desk chair with a thud. I wipe my face with a shaky hand.
Because I suddenly know exactly what Mya meant.