Five

"It's such a pretty day," Olivia chimes from beside me as we make our way through SoHo from Luxure to Bryant CO's office a few blocks away. Taking advantage of the beautiful May weather.

"It truly is. I just hope it stays like this for a while before it turns into an inferno," I say, knowing how hot it gets on these city streets in the summer.

"Me fucking too." She laughs.

"Do you think he hates the counter tops we picked out?" I blurt out, my thoughts running rampant with why Parker only wanted to see Olivia and I today.

"I mean, how could he? They're perfect." She smiles over at me, and she's right, they truly are.

"No, I think there is something more to it. It seemed less about us and more about Logan," she states, and my brow furrows in confusion.

"Really? Why do you think that?"

"I can't put my finger on it, but he's different with you…almost territorial."

I scoff, trying to brush off the thought. Part of me knows she's right, but when it comes to Parker, I have no clue what that means. "No way… He's just an asshole to me."

"An asshole who pays you a whole hell of a lot of attention," she says matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters… Do you remember that night he showed up at the bar when we first hired you?"

Thinking back to that night, I recall her and Logan's strange reactions to him being there. "Yeah." I nod, unsure how to feel about where this is going.

"He never, and I mean never, cares what we do after work or even during work, as long as we get our shit done. The minute he heard you were coming, he had so many questions."

"Then the fact he showed up…" She slows her pace, moving both of her hands above her head and throwing out her fingers like the universal sign for mind blown. I laugh at her dramatics, and she continues. "The only time he has ever hung out with us outside of work has been at special events we all had to attend. And the occasional time he and Braxton get together. But never ever after work for drinks."

I take in her words, pondering what they could mean. If he wanted to make a move, it"s not like I haven't been willing. I certainly wasn't pushing him away when he was inches from my face the other night. Either she's overthinking this, or maybe he's the type that doesn't do repeats so he's fighting our tension. Regardless, I'm not going to wait around until he figures it out. No matter how good it was.

We stop at a crosswalk, and Olivia pulls me from my thoughts. "Can I ask you something? Don't feel like you have to answer."

"Of course." I nod.

"Do you guys have history? I mean, it"s obvious you know each other somehow."

I don't want to lie completely, but even though I trust Olivia, my two best friends in the whole world don't even know that secret.

We start walking again as I answer, "His college best friend, Eli Barton, dates my best friend, Quinn. And Eli's sister, Sloan, is our other best friend. But he decided the minute he heard my last name, exactly what he thought about me, which is why you guys had to convince him to even give me the job."

"I wouldn't say we had to convince him… In all honestly, I think Logan feels the tension between the two of you and says things like that about Parker as a defense mechanism."

Interesting.

"So today when he insisted it be me who brought you over and not Logan, it just solidified even more that I think he wants you… He may not even truly realize it himself, but he hates the thought of you and Logan alone together."

Could that be true?If it was true, he could have easily had me on Saturday. Instead, he let his male ego get in the way of what could have been an amazing ending to a good night.

"I don't know… I think he is more worried that Logan or I will fuck things up within our team if we get involved. Plus, there is the no fraternizing rule."

She stops right as we approach the building. "The what?"

"Parker told me about the rule against fraternizing within the company."

Olivia laughs, shaking her head. "That shiesty fucker is smart."

"Huh?" I ask, not following her accusation.

"Girlfriend, there is no rule against that. Mr. Bryant himself has been banging every secretary he's had since the 90s."

My mouth falls open.

That son of a bitch.

Maybe I will take Logan up on that date after all. He's hot, extremely interested, and not a complete asshole.

Parker's assistantTasha greets us, lacking the enthusiasm she normally shows when Logan is around.

"Mr. Cole will meet you in here," she says as she sashays out of the meeting room she showed us to. I can't help but wonder if he fucks his secretary the way Mr. Bryant apparently does.

"Do you think we should also tell him we want to change the color scheme he and Logan decided on for the cigar lounge?" Olivia asks, interrupting my wayward thoughts.

I giggle because we totally agreed to let the boys have complete say over that room, but we had an idea today when we were picking out countertops, and now we can't unsee it.

"Let's feel him out first and make sure he isn't giving off over-the-top asshole vibes."

We both laugh until a deep voice interrupts, "What in the world could be so funny?"

"Oh, nothing, Ava's just hilarious," Olivia says, brushing him off.

"Could have fooled me. I figured it must have been the asshole Ava was referring to. But then again, I know she has many talents…" The pause in his sentence makes my skin prickle. "I just didn't realize comedian was one of them."

Many talents, huh?Those talents didn't mean much to you the other night when you couldn't get me out of your Uber quick enough.

But I guess we're pretending that never happened, which seems to be our MO.

"She really could be, but anyways…what did you need to see us about?" Olivia tries to change the subject. And I have to give her credit, because she's dodging this awkwardness like a pro.

"I wanted to commend you guys on the vanity countertop choices."Pride swarms my insides at his praise. I guess that's one good thing about someone who never gives positive feedback. When they do, it"s like a drug.

Again, red flag central. And I can't stop myself from wanting to play capture the fucking flag.

I pull my head out of my ass when I hear Olivia thanking him and follow suit.

"And because of that, I have decided to hand the task for the actual bar tops off to you two as well. I know I said I wanted that decision, along with the cigar lounge, to be left up to me with the help of Logan, but you two proved yourselves today."

"Wow, thank you." I'm so surprised by this, and by the look on Olivia's face, she is as well. "So you are saying that we will now have full control over those areas as well?" I clarify.

"Yes, I trust you both as manager and designer, but any bigger changes or decisions, I still expect you to run by me."

Who knew he could be so reasonable?

"I'm going to be pulling Logan to help on a smaller project at times, so this will free him up and take some of his responsibilities off of him."

We both nod, barely containing our excitement about the opportunity to have more creative freedom. Parker and Olivia discuss a few things that Mr. Bryant wanted her to focus on, and my mind wanders back to our conversation on the walk over here.

Would Parker purposefully pull Logan away from this project just to keep our interactions at work to a minimum? I shake my head at the thought. I can't wrap my head around why he would go to that extent.

I stare at his side profile, taking in every detail. He's so handsome it"s sickening.

What are you and that perfect fucking jawline up to, Parker Cole?

We spend the next hour going over the final floorplan for the rooftop, including the décor. Olivia's phone chimes right as we're wrapping up.

"Perfect timing. That was my reminder for our class at Dance Hub in thirty minutes." We both stand to leave, and I grab my oversized bag with my gym clothes.

Parker raises his eyebrows in Olivia's direction. "So you took up a new hobby, after all?"

"Yeah, I was hooked after the first class. I get the hype. See ya tomorrow, Parker." She calls out the last part as she heads out the door.

I wave goodbye, catching his eyes trailing down my legs, and I swear I hear him whisper, "Yeah, I see the hype too," as I walk away.