Most Likely To… Deny Love

MIA

Mia Emerson came back from her lunch break, grateful for the air-conditioning in her office. The scorching summer heat had poured over her on the way back and she felt flushed and sticky as she made her way through the cubicles to her glassed-in corner office. Unable to help herself, she flicked a glance at Jack Sullivan as she walked past his desk, trying to ignore the tightening in her chest when their eyes met. He was one hot systems administrator, that was for sure. Tall, well built. A mop of brown hair and dark eyes a girl could get lost in. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill nerdy tech guy.

As she stepped into her office, Mia sighed with satisfaction. The floor to ceiling windows looked over the Esperance River, the same river she could see out her bedroom window growing up. Moving back home from Charlotte sure had been the best move. She’d been promoted to manager just a few weeks before and now led the sales department. She believed in what they were selling—digital health products—and her team of twenty was strong and competent. Although moving back had felt sometimes like going back in time five years, she was already a lot further along in her life than she would have been if she’d stayed in Charlotte. And who would have thought her sleepy little hometown would become such a corporate epicenter?

“Any messages?” Mia asked her assistant, Emilia.

“Just the one stuck on your desk,” she replied cheekily, standing in the office doorway.

“Honestly, Emilia,” she tried to sound stern but failed. “I don’t know why I hired you.”

“Because I’m your favorite cousin, and I needed a job, and you love me.”

“Lucky for you,” she mumbled distractedly, reaching down for the post it note on her desk.

I like your blouse. Looking good, Emerson!

As she opened the top drawer of her desk and dropped the note in on top of all the others, Mia tried not to smile. These mysterious sticky notes left on her desk were an almost daily occurrence that had been going on for about three months. Just nice little notes, like I hope you’re having a great day and You look lovely today! And I love what you’ve done with your hair. Always very cheerful and uplifting and sometimes even flirty, not that she had much experience with flirting. She just wasn’t the type, and she wasn’t the type of person who got flirted with. There was a tone to them that just made her feel good, and her instinct was telling her that that was the point.

As always, when she got a note, she felt Jack Sullivan’s eyes boring into the back of her head. She often felt his eyes on her, which made her feel weird but not in a bad way, necessarily. Mia was just used to being invisible. And she didn’t know what to do about being noticed.

“Oooh, he went for the cutsie last name thing!”

“Emilia,” she said warningly as she sat down, knowing it would do absolutely nothing to stem Emilia’s enthusiasm. She was a hopeless romantic, and the mystery notes were right up her alley.

“I can’t help it. It’s so romantic. I even tried to spy on your office the other day, but there is literally nowhere to hide. We should get some plants.”

“We have plants all through the office. And you should be working or on break, not spying on people coming in and out of my office.”

“I just want to know who it is. Who do you think it is?”

“I have no idea.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie, since she had her suspicions. But they were just that, suspicions. “But I do wish they’d stop.” Now that was a lie. “It’s a shame I’m not the type to make a scene.”

“Fascinating,” Emilia said cryptically, leaving to sit back at her desk. Mia breathed a sigh of relief.

Left alone with her thoughts, Mia tried to distract herself with work, but it was no use. She couldn’t concentrate at all. The notes had started after her promotion as soon as she’d moved into the corner office. At first, they’d been left every couple of days. She’d thought at the time that someone was just playing a prank on her. Since she’d hired Emilia around the same time, she thought it was her perky, happy cousin. It wasn’t. She’d had one waiting for her when they’d been on break together.

She took a careful glance towards Jack, the only one on her floor who didn’t sit in a cubicle because he didn’t work for her. He was the guy in charge of a whole lot of tech stuff Mia had no idea about. She looked quickly away when his eyes lifted from one of his three screens and his gaze collided with hers.

Fuck, she’d been trying to avoid giving him any kind of attention. She felt weird when she was around him, flustered and jittery, so she didn’t want to give him an excuse to come and talk to her. Get a grip. Taking another deep breath, she forced herself to focus on her work.

* * *

An hour later, Mia looked up at the knock on her office door to see Jack standing there. Rock climbing. That’s where all those muscles came from, apparently. His brown hair was slicked back. Normally, Mia would laugh at the “mafia” look, but on Jack, it didn’t seem sleazy at all. His chocolate brown eyes always seemed to be smiling. Or laughing at her. She hadn’t worked him out yet. Realizing he’d been standing there for an awkwardly long time, she asked. “Ah, can I help you?” Was her voice squeaky?

“Yeah, have you got a minute to go over the new emergency system protocols I’m working on?” He held up the thick manila folder in his hand.

“Oh, it’s a big one!” she said, hoping to break the ice. Realization hit her as he grinned and held out the folder, his eyes sparkling with mischief. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. She did her best not to blush as she reached out for the folder and scooted her chair over to make room for him.

He smelled of expensive cologne and something else so remarkably Jack that Mia had no words to describe it. Their knees brushed as he pulled his chair in, but Mia refused to move. Holding her ground was her way of not letting Jack see the effect he had on her. He leaned towards her, going through the system outages with her, as well as which servers were looking to be replaced, and which drives were filling up with data. Or something. The heat radiating from his body was going to drive her crazy. Honestly, Mia had no idea what he was talking about, no idea about all that tech stuff. She could hardly concentrate, anyway.

“And then I can take you out for drinks.” Her head swung to his, so their faces were just inches from each other.

“I’m sorry, what?”

He grinned at her. “I was just seeing if you were listening.” His eyes, though, didn’t leave her face and there was a question in them Mia didn’t know how to answer. “Unless,” Jack continued, and Mia’s eyes involuntarily moved to his lips. “You want to go out for drinks?”

“We can’t,” her voice was soft, almost foreign. Heat was pooling in her belly as the air suddenly thickened around them.