I’d been working through IT problems and through the holes of JUNIPER the whole week, trying my best to ignore the man who caused my body to heat up with desire. I was exhausted. And Cade lurking around the office, putting everyone on edge had been even more draining.
No one dressed casually anymore, and everyone sat like they had rods up their asses, typing away with purpose even if they had nothing to do—which was absolutely not the case for me. I’d had numerous calls from various companies umbrellaed under Stonewood Enterprises. Troubleshooting IT issues was the worst position in the office because Stonewood Enterprises was a parent company for hundreds of others, and some of them didn’t have their own IT teams, so we took the calls.
Just that morning, I’d helped a Mr. Rogers turn on his computer. I’m not joking. He’d headed into his office after months off and called to tell us he didn’t know why it wasn’t functioning. I’d actually told Lucas that I felt like my ears were bleeding after that call. He’d patted my shoulder.
Add to that, I had Cade standing over me, announcing we all had to go together to a remote location. Now he had the audacity to question whether or not my duties were too difficult for me. Why did everything he say have to be an insult?
“Well, it’s not exactly easy, Mr. Armanelli.”
Lucas cleared his throat, and I knew he was gearing up to speak on my behalf.
“I beg to differ. How many calls have you handled this morning?”
My eyes bulged. Lucas even slid the candy canes toward me like I should take another before responding to the asshat in front of us. Candy canes calmed us. It was a bad habit I’d started when I got cravings, and I passed it onto him. Instead of nicotine or a bump of cocaine, he had a candy cane. That’d begun during wintertime last year. Now we both had a problem eating them throughout the year.
We’d been sharing a table in our office space. Most of us had utilized the communal tables near the back because we wanted to lounge together and chitchat while we worked. But since Cade had been around this week, most everyone had migrated back to their desks. The floor wasn’t separated by cubicles, but when posted up behind your laptop, it could still feel pretty solitary.
I needed my team—especially when dealing with the terrible IT calls—and Lucas ventured over to the empty tables with me, even if there was some unspoken perception that we might get in trouble.
“Are you getting any work done?” Cade continued, and his eyes flicked between us and narrowed.
“I’ve taken more than enough IT calls, Mr. Armanelli.” I shouldn’t have sneered it. I knew it was wrong. In my defense, it’d been a long week. My boss had fucked me in his office, I’d been recently dumped by a guy who kept calling me, and I’d been given a new position. I was tired. Containing my attitude wasn’t on my list of to-dos, and my reflexes to stop it were quite slow.
“You have a problem with IT?” Cade asked quietly. And of course the room was silent. Most of my coworkers had even stopped typing.
“It’s just . . .”
“Just what?” He crossed his arms and waited.
No one was going to jump in and help me on this one. “I’m sorry. It’s fine. I’m a little stressed.”
“With IT work? Because I guarantee you the election security is going to be much more taxing.”
I swear I heard Juda snicker. I started to pick at my nails, trying to curb my irritation. Everyone knew IT was shit. Cade himself knew that. Unless, maybe he’d never had to do IT work.
“Have you ever taken an IT call?”
“What?” He appeared perplexed. “Why does that matter?”
“I’m just wondering, since you find it so easy, have you ever done it?”
His eyes narrowed, and then he zeroed in on my nail picking. He tapped his shoe in rhythm with it as he smirked. “I’m sure it’s not hard.”
My picking got faster, and so did his shoe tapping. Fucker. “Well, why don’t you take Jodie here that I have to call back. She’s struggling to get her internet up and running for her medical practice.”
He cracked his neck, and I saw a little bit of tattoo peek out from his collar. It made me wonder if he was tattooed across his whole chest, all down his arms, everywhere. I’d never ripped his shirt off the way I wanted to.
And I never would, I reminded myself.
“Give me the phone, Izzy.”
Of course, now Lucas was smiling and leaning back to watch the show with his candy cane, while Cassie giggled to Penelope.
“Here you go, boss.” I emphasized his title, and his eyes cut to me.
“You really think this is going to stump me?” He grinned and dialed the number. “Yes, is this Jodie? I’m calling on behalf of Stonewood Enterprises IT. You’re having an issue?”
We all waited. I swear it was like we were at the movies. Cade was not personable. Not approachable. And he didn’t give directions. He worked alone.
“Okay. Start with checking to see if your Wi-Fi is on.” Another pause. “What do you mean what’s Wi-Fi?” he practically squeaked.
Lucas nearly spat out his candy cane, and I silently cracked up. Cade glared at both of us.
“I’m sorry. Do you have anyone else in the office with you? They will most likely know where it is on your screen. Wi-Fi connects you to the internet and—”
I watched Cade’s jaw get tighter and tighter.
“No. You can’t restart your computer. That won’t help.” Another pause. “Well, if you already pressed shut down, then I guess we’ll have to wait.” Pause. “No. It’s not a common occurrence through Stonewood Enterprises, Jodie. It’s because your Wi-Fi is probably off. If you could get someone—”
He was cut off again, and I had to get up from my chair to offer it to him while I laughed, tears streaming down my face.
He grabbed my arm and shoved me back into my chair. “No, Jodie. I actually have a great coworker here who’s going to help you with all this. My apologies. If you’d just give me a moment.” He pressed the hold button and handed me the phone. “I’m not dealing with that.”
“Why?” I placed my chin in my hand as I leaned on my elbow on the table and stared up at him with big eyes.
He glanced around at everyone, and I could see that Cade was flustered, like he wasn’t sure he belonged in this space all of a sudden. “Who normally handles those calls?”
“We all split them until you assigned them to Izzy,” Penelope piped up.
“Are they all like that?” His tone was full of disgust.
“I literally had a guy ask me if I could fly in to help him install email last week,” Braxton piped up, a soft smile on his face.
Maybe it was that Cade was finally approachable in that moment, or maybe we all bonded over the fact that our tech savviness made dealing with some individuals like pulling teeth.
Either way, we all chuckled when Cade shivered off the thought of the phone calls. “We’ll be outsourcing these in the future.”
“Okay,” I murmured, my heart suddenly beating fast, and he nodded, turned on his heel, and went back to his office, closing the door behind him.
We all glanced at each other like someone had cut the equivalent of Medusa’s head off our boss and replaced it with that of an approachable kitten.
“Well, I’m pretty obsessed with him now,” Penelope blurted out.
“I know I just went through a breakup, but I’m going to start reading the HR handbook,” Cassie laughed.
“Well, I already did, and it’s not against the rules. If we get to pick bunkmates, I know who I want.” Penelope winked at Cassie, and they giggled to each other.
Lucas elbowed me to get my attention. “You and I are going out for a drink at this remote location.”
“Why do you think I need a drink so bad?” I murmured, still not taking my eyes from Cassie and Penelope. Why was I already comparing myself to them and wondering if one of them would really try to screw our boss like I already had?
“Because you look like you’re ready to skin a person alive, Izzy Bizzy, and we’ve got to travel with them for two weeks.”
Knowing his tone, I held up a finger to shut it down immediately. “Don’t start, Lucas. I don’t even want to hear you breathe your next thought into existence. We’re not getting drinks. We’re going home, we’re packing, we’re getting our shit together to make sure we kick ass at this team building next week.”
“If they don’t have alcohol, I’m going to die.”
“But not too much, right?” Lucas nodded and we fist bumped because we always noted the limit we could handle. We never wanted to slide back to a place where we didn’t have control. Then, I sighed, “But, honestly, me too.”
