I spotted Calloway in the corner of my eye, his shoulders positioned toward the two of us. His fingers rested against his mouth, blocking the crushing way he clenched his jaw. His eyes were trained right on Dean, prepared to rip his head off.
I pushed through the conversation so Calloway wouldn’t stab Dean through the eye with a pen. “You’re so sweet, Dean. But I’m seeing someone.”
“Oh…” He hid his disappointment with a curt nod. “I guess I should have known. You’re such a beautiful—”
“Let’s get this started.” Calloway rose to his feet, looking terrifying with his squared shoulders and clenched hands. His pitch-black suit matched his sour mood, and he maneuvered to the front of the room with an alarming grace. He opened his folder on the table then rose to his full height, his tempered eyes immediately landing on Dean. “Where are we in the budget plans? I asked you to put them on my desk this morning, but yet, they are nowhere to be found.”
Oh no.
Everyone sitting at the table flinched slightly at the anger in their boss’s voice. They glanced at Dean, hoping their coworker had a good answer.
I had a feeling Dean was going to get fired today.
Dean was just as shocked by Calloway’s hostility as everyone else. He watched his boss with trepidation before he finally opened his folder and looked through his things. “I just thought I would wait until the meeting—”
“I don’t care what you think, Dean.” With both hands on the table, Calloway leaned forward and stared him down. “I’m your boss, so if I ask you to do something, you do it. You think you know how to run this company better than I do?”
“Uh…” Dean stumbled before he found the right answer. “No, I just—”
“Just, what?” Calloway’s ice-cold eyes stared into Dean’s, combustive and nuclear.
This was bad—really bad. “Mr. Owens.” I paused and waited for Calloway to meet my gaze.
After a heartbeat, he did. His gaze wasn’t as threatening when he looked at me. It was slightly soft, the same expression I saw when he screwed me with both aggression and passion.
“Dean just told me he had some technical difficulties, so he wasn’t able to get the budget report printed. He actually came to my office to use my computer, but I was having the same problem.” I wanted to save Dean before he lost his job, and I wanted to counteract Calloway’s rage. If I didn’t put out his fire, he would burn everyone to ash.
Calloway stood up straight, some of his senses coming back to him. He didn’t say another word on the subject and moved on. “Vanessa, where are we on the new donors?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her, slowly returning to his calm self.
Now that the attention was off Dean, he sighed in relief. “Thanks. I’ve never seen him act that way. And I’ve been here for years.”
“He must be having a bad day,” I whispered, unable to come up with a better excuse for a grown man having a tantrum.
“A really bad day,” Dean said. “I’ll make sure I don’t cross him again.”
That was definitely the smart thing to do.
I went home after work, finding Christopher on the couch playing a video game.
“Yo,” he said without looking at me, his fingers hitting the buttons sporadically.
“Yo,” I said back. “Calloway flipped out at work today.”
“Why?” He paused the game. “Because you suck at your job?”
“Ha,” I said sarcastically. “You’re funny.” I sat on the other couch and slipped off my painful heels. “One of my coworkers asked me out in front of Calloway.”
“Uh oh,” Christopher said with a chuckle.
“Calloway flipped out and nearly fired him. I had to redirect the conversation so Calloway wouldn’t be a complete ass.”
“Did he tell the guy you two were dating?”
“No,” I answered. “But he yelled at him about something related to work…even though his anger had nothing to do with work.”
Christopher seemed amused more than anything else. “Man, that guy has it bad. I hear wedding bells.”
“I don’t know about that…” I didn’t mind the idea of spending forever with Calloway, but I was still annoyed with that little performance during our meeting.
“If a guy gets that jealous, then he’s head over heels. Trust me.”
“You don’t know anything about relationships.”
“Exactly. I’ve never been jealous over one of my ladies. I slept with this girl named Jessica, and the next day, I saw her on a date at a bar. Do you think I cared? Nope. Couldn’t care less. When a guy does care, you know it’s real.”
“So, I’m supposed to think that was sweet?”
He shrugged and unpaused the game. “It’s better than him not caring, right?”
“I don’t mind that he cares. I just—”
A knock on the door stopped me in mid-sentence.
Christopher paused the game again and smiled. “Wow. Wonder who that could be?”