The way he treated me when my cramps took over… I’d never really asked him to do that. He’d noticed early on that I suffered. My period only lasted two or three days, but the cramps came straight from hell. And he just knew. Three days every month, he was more attentive than any boyfriend had been throughout our entire relationship.
For God’s sake, Adam had canceled on dates when I felt like ripping out my uterus.
Fuck. The babies were supposed to cheer me up this morning. Because yesterday had been too much. Pretending to flirt with Adam…? Torture. He was too great at it.
“Can I hold a baby, please?” I asked hopefully.
Jack smiled uncertainly. “I mean, you can, but he hasn’t burped yet.”
“Oh, that’s fine. Gimme. Come to Zia Alessia, topolino.”
“And then maybe the love of my life can leave the room?” Isla batted her lashes at Jack. “I’m this close to convincing Alessia to wear something revealing to work tonight.”
I cleared my throat and looked away from Jack. Isla had already convinced me to buy those ridiculously short PJ bottoms, so I wouldn’t put anything past her at this point. Maybe she was more stubborn than I was.
Or maybe I was just desperate.
* * *
Oh God.
Definitely desperate.
Bordering on I-wouldn’t-let-my-staff-wear-this.
I blew out a nervous breath and adjusted my boobs in front of my bathroom mirror. Isla was a demon. She’d made it sound so reasonable. “Rip off the top two buttons so you can’t change your mind. That’s what we do when we’re standing on a precipice. We take a few steps back and get too scared, and then we live with regrets.”
I couldn’t button up, dammit. I’d removed the top two buttons.
The black vest was an additional problem because it was low-cut and only pushed my breasts together. I had a solid three-inch cleavage.
“You almost done, love?” Adam called. “Tracy and the others are waiting downstairs.”
“I’ll be right there!” I hollered, on the verge of panic. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Oh God. Okay, I wasn’t doing the lipstick tonight. It would be over the top. I went with a pale lip balm instead.
I tried to pinch shut my snug button-down, to no avail.
I couldn’t have my hair down either, because I was working the floor tonight.
After tightening my ponytail and fixing my side bangs, I had no choice but to face my doom.
Holy shit, I’d never shown this much cleavage before. It wasn’t inappropriate per se, even for work, but it was a lot for me.
Here goes everything.
At the very least, I wanted him to see me as a woman, not the awkward girl his family had sort of adopted.
It was best to be all business about it, so I merely walked out of my bathroom, snatched up my watch on the dresser in my room, and joined Adam in the living room.
I avoided his gaze entirely as I attached my watch.
“Okay, let’s go.” I went straight for the door and tried to calm down my pounding heart.
“Uh…yeah. Sure.” He followed me out, and I locked up.
I didn’t want to stand still in an elevator for even a second, so I took the stairs. Not all that uncommon anyway. It wasn’t the fastest elevator.
“Are we gonna talk about this?” he asked behind me.
“Talk about what?” I took the next set of stairs, my heels clicking too loudly.
“Oh, I don’t know. The fact that you look like you just walked out of the Playboy magazine I hid under my bed when I was a kid?”
I stopped short and whirled around in complete shock, and he almost walked into me.
“What?” I choked out. Had I misheard him? “Are you serious?”
He took the last step so we both stood on the landing between the two flights of stairs. “No. I think it was a Hustler.”
I swallowed audibly, and my ears began ringing. There was amusement in his handsome eyes, and it was mingling with something darker. I didn’t know if he was fucking with me. Regardless, I was undoubtedly overanalyzing.
Adam was a blunt guy, and if he found me attractive in the slightest, I was going to take it as a win. It didn’t mean anything beyond that.
I didn’t know where I found my courage, but I straightened and asked, “I never responded to your last text, did I?”
He shook his head, his gaze growing a bit more intense.
I swallowed again, this time a bout of nervousness. “I’ll have something to do on my break later, then.”
He smirked slightly, just a small twist of his lips. “Can’t wait.”
What the hell was happening? Wait, nope. No. I wasn’t going to question it. Isla’s advice. I was going to be open and accepting and…whatever else she’d told me. The woman could talk a lot.
* * *
“Did that guy just give you his number?” Adam asked with a cocked brow.