Page 87 of Getting Down to Business

What are you doing tonight? I’m having an awful day.

She answered him quickly:

Do you want me to make chicken encyclopedias?

With a smile he waited for the correction:

Enchiladas.

He replied, Yes. Please, and waited.

Do you think this looks trustworthy?

A picture then came in. It was a cowboy walking a horse into a parking garage. Clever.

Horses inspire trustworthiness. Good job, he responded.

Thanks. I worked on it with marketing.

He already felt better just thinking about dinner with Alyssa.

The more he thought of her, the more he found himself counting the minutes until he could get home and have her in his arms. They would be leaving the next morning for Connecticut for his family reunion, so this was their last night to be together before switching into friends for the weekend.

He met her at the elevator, his heart pounding in anticipation. Damn all their coworkers. He wanted to push her up against the wall of the elevator and sink into her.

“Grayson!” Chuck Borne called out. Someone held the door. “I need to see you before you go.” Gray muttered a curse as he squeezed out of the elevator. He watched as the doors shut on his dreams.

For the next hour, he and his boss dissected the conversation with Grayson’s client and tried to come up with a way to make the man happy while keeping to the laws of mathematics.

When Chuck stepped out to check on something, Gray took the moment to send Alyssa a text to tell her what was happening.

Focus on the future, she texted back.

I am. Sex and enchiladas. A three-day weekend with you and my family.

No, she answered. Your client. Push what will happen in the future.

Oh.

Chuck returned looking just as unhappy as when he left.

Grayson quickly looked over the reports for some uptick in the numbers.

“Girls!” Gray shouted in excitement.

“Excuse me?” Right. That didn’t sound so good.

“The Girls’ department had a profit. A small one, but it was still in the black. I’m going to drill down to see what it was. We can use this to focus on the upward trend of the next quarter.”

“Good thinking. Dig into it and we’ll call him back with the data.”

“It wasn’t my idea. Alyssa Sinclair came up with it.”

“I didn’t realize she was working on this account.”

“She isn’t. But we work well together.” He remembered helping her with her presentation. They made such a great team.

Chuck nodded his approval.