Chapter 29

“This is… not what I was expecting you to pick.” His eyes widen as he takes in the scene in front of him.

Neither was I. Mostly because I didn’t pick this. Not really. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had no idea what I wanted to do if working was off the table. And so, I stole an idea.

“Welcome to Coffee and Karaoke,” I say proudly, gesturing widely at the scene in front of me.

It took some finagling, but I convinced one of the local karaoke places to open early. I promised to pay them triple the cost to use one of their little rooms. Then, since all the charges would be reversed come midnight anyways, I also had a local place cater in a full spread of breakfast treats and coffee. Not quite as much food as what Grant’s mom made yesterday, but still enough to feed a dozen or so people.

Which is needed.

“I also invited some people,” I add. I don’t know if that was strictly part of our agreement or not. “It’s just this was all Beth’s idea. I stole it off her desk, so I figured it would only be right to invite her.”

Grant raises an eyebrow. “Look who’s lying now.”

Fair.

“Okay, I picked this because it was out of my comfort zone and then I had a major freakout because, well, it’s outside my comfort zone. I figured if I invited a bunch of people from the office, I could go heavy on the coffee and light on the karaoke.”

I sent out the invite just after I sent out my ‘doing okay’ status update. Look at me, learning from the loop.

Grant nods. He picks up a pain au chocolat and takes a huge bite. He looks at me while he licks an errant bit of chocolate off his finger. Suddenly, I’m flushed. I had no idea coffee and karaoke would be so sexy. How could I when it was sandwiched on a list between escape (mail)room and shorts?

“Maybe I should cancel on everyone else,” I suggest, raising my eyebrow.

Grant just looks confused, like he seriously had no idea that licking chocolate off his finger was heart-stoppingly sexy. Then he gets it. With a smirk, he gets it. He gives me a little half nod and my heart jumpstarts back to life.

Cocky Grant is just as sexy as nerdy Grant.

Not fair.

“Well that depends—have you fallen for me yet? When I fuck you in the way that I fuck my soulmate, is it going to scare you?” he asks slowly, dipping his finger back into a pocket of chocolate on the pastry. It oozes an impossible amount of chocolate, getting it all over his hand. He goes to suck on it, but hits his chin instead because he’s trying to nod his head suggestively at me.

“No,” I say blandly, doing my damnedest to keep the laugh out of my voice.

“Then, no,” he answers seriously, despite the chocolate smeared across his chin. He sighs. “Guess I’m going to have to serenade you with love songs until I break down those walls of yours.”

“And, at some point, are you planning on wiping the chocolate off your face?”

Grant slaps his hand to his cheek, smearing even more chocolate on his face. “Do I have chocolate on my face?”

“Yes. On your chin and cheek now.”

He rubs his chocolatey hand across his other, previously clean cheek. “How’s this?” he asks, in what I now understand to be a playful voice.

“Perfect,” I deadpan.

He just grins. “You think this ole mug is perfect?” He gestures to his ridiculously handsome and ridiculously messy face.

The truth is, yeah. All in all, it’s completely perfect.

“I decline to answer that.”

“That’s lawyer speak for yes.” He grins even wider. “Then here, let me help you with your own face.”

He reaches towards me with his hand still somehow soaked in chocolate. Seriously, how much chocolate can one pastry hold?

“Don’t even think about it,” I warn him.

Grant nods absently. Then, quick as a flash (but not the Flash, despite how similar their suits look), he rubs several finger streaks of chocolate across my cheek.

“Better?” he asks, smiling like a jackass.

“No,” I answer, a cross between stunned and shrill. No one in the history of ever has pulled a stunt like that with me.

He looks at me completely serenely. He reaches up to cup each side of my face in my chocolate-covered hands. For a moment, he just stares into my eyes. Contentment, bliss, joy, call it what you will, stretches over us like a protective blanket. Then, he leans forward. I close my eyes, anticipating the perfection of his kiss.

Except, it doesn’t come.

Instead, he rubs the side of his face against mine, rubbing infinitely more chocolate all over my face. With two hands, I shove him backwards with hell in my eyes and a smile on my lips.

“Well, I say that you look absolutely perfect now. Just like me.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “I told you not to even think about it.”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t,” he says, still grinning. “I rarely think about anything before I do it.”

“If I didn’t want to fuck you so badly, I swear I’d kill you right now,” I hiss at him.

I settle for throwing a powdered donut at him. He lets it hit him, even though he could’ve easily used his gravity powers to veer it off track. The donut leaves a ring of powdered sugar on his cheek. A target of just the place I’d like to press a kiss onto to share this moment.

As if he knows exactly what I’m thinking, Grant’s smile grows. He’s beaming. Like this is all just fun and games.

Except, technically, maybe it is. Even though I’m pissed, I’m also smiling like an idiot. Like Grant.

“Hey, sorry. We knocked, but I don’t think you could hear us over…” comes a voice from the door.

Standing in the doorway, all finding a way to peer in, is the entire Blue Jeans Crew—all the employees who actually participate in Beth’s team building activities. The ones who wear blue jeans on Friday. The ones who I scoffed at constantly with Dominic.

The ones who I couldn’t hear knock over me telling Grant that I want to fuck and kill him.

Lovely.

“Hi.” Grant sticks out a still-chocolatey hand. “I’m Grant, Hailey’s soulmate.”

I swear, you can hear the gust of wind as every single one of the mini crowd’s heads turn towards me.

“You have to stop introducing yourself like that,” I spit at Grant. “He’s not my soulmate.”

“To be betrothed,” Grant amends.

“Acquaintance,” I correct with a cutting glance.

“Acquaintance with sometimes benefits?” Grant counters.

I pause for a second, then nod. “I’ll allow it.”

It’s like every single person there is seeing me for the first time. Jaws drop. Eyes pop. Gasps gasp. And I soak it all in. For once—and only because the day will reset—it’s nice to be known as more than the office workaholic.

“Come in,” I say, breaking the silence. “Thanks so much for joining us for—”

“Coffee and Karaoke?” Beth interrupts. Her normally soft voice has an intense edge to it.

She picks up a muffin, stares at it like it’s Louis St. Clair’s jockstrap.

I cringe. Right, this all was her idea… that I stole off her desk.

“Yeah, umm, you see…” I stutter.

She waves me off and looks right into my soul. It pierces me. I flush with the built-up guilt of every time she tried to make the office a better, more welcoming place and I rebuffed her. All she ever tried to do was be nice and I stole from her.

In that instant, I vow to be better. I’ll try to be a friend to her. I’ll stop lying to her about being busy or allergic to crepe paper. I’ll be just as good as she is.

“Is this for my birthday last week?” she asks with tears welling in her eyes.

“Absolutely,” I lie with zero qualms.

In a moment of mutually agreed upon deceit that’s possible only in a roomful of lawyers, everyone immediately picks up the lie and runs with it.

“Surprise!” a handful of people call out.

“We’ve been planning this for ages,” someone else says.

“Happy birthday, Bev,” adds a very confused-sounding voice.

If Beth hears any of it, she doesn’t show. She just runs up to me with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face and wraps me in a hug.

“Thank you,” she murmurs into my ear. “I can’t tell you how much I needed this.”

I just stand there, ill-practiced and ill at ease with hugs. Considering how happy I just made her, it’s strange that I now feel like shit.

I had thought that I was the master of the office, that I knew every single thing that went on. Now, I question if I knew anything at all. I’d given my heart and soul to Dominic, a man who couldn’t care less about me; and I couldn’t have cared less about Beth, someone who gave everyone her heart and soul.

Maybe Grant’s right. Maybe I really am wrong about everything.

“Let’s get this started,” comes Grant’s Garnet Defender voice from the microphone near the big screen at the front of the tiny room. “I promised my acquaintance-with-benefits/true-love-on-the-downlow that I’d serenade her until I made her mine. So, anyone want to join me for a Strange Steve cover song?”

I burst out laughing with Beth still holding onto me. We meet eyes and she gives me an indulgent smile. I roll my eyes a little.

“Do you know ‘Rake It Up?’” asks Jim, the awkward paralegal who exclusively wears socks and sandals.

Within fifteen seconds, our little Coffee and Karaoke crew is yelling out the spoof lyrics about a gardener who doesn’t care what other people think. By the end of the song, even I’m dancing, sweating off the chocolate on my cheek with an associate who I never even took the time to learn her name.

Talk about team building.

Grant shoots me a look as he holds my eyes and sings that he’s just going to “Rake it up, rake it up”. Then, he tosses his head back to hit the high note. With my cheeks hurting from so much smiling, I don’t know what Grant has planned for his day tomorrow, but I don’t see how it’s going to top this.

This is by far the best day I’ve had.

And it’s only just begun.