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“Will do,” she said and let out a breath.
She wanted to snarl and ask why she was told to have it done by lunch if Stella was leaving at one and not returning.
At least it’d give her the afternoon to complete it easily.
She grabbed her copies and laid them on her desk, looked at her watch and saw she had two minutes to get to the lobby and meet Braylon.
He seemed like a guy with an important job and she didn’t want to keep him waiting.
She was all but running out the door in her heels and hoped she didn’t trip and make a fool out of herself. She walked to and from work in flats but changed to heels in the office. Might as well look a little nicer today.
When she whipped open the door to the lobby, she didn’t see Braylon and let out a sigh. At least he wasn’t waiting.
But five minutes later, she realized she was the one that was most likely being stood up.
She’d give it another five minutes and then go back to her desk and eat one of the granola bars that she kept there.
When the elevator doors opened, she saw him standing in the back behind six other people. Being tall worked in his favor.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, bugging his eyes out as he waited for people to get out of his way. “I got held up on a call and when I finally got off the phone, there was a backlog at the elevators.”
“Which is why I take the stairs. I find most are returning from lunch or going at one. It’s not a good time.”
“Now I’ll know,” he said. “I don’t normally leave for lunch exactly on the hour or even close to it. If I leave at all.”
“Bet you have food brought up more than anything,” she said.
Lots of people had food delivered in her office. It wasn’t always easy to leave.
“There is a small cafe in our office,” he said.
“That’s convenient,” she said. “There are a few cafes not that far from here. You pick.”
“You just lead the way,” he said. “I’m more interested in the company than the food.”
She felt the heat fill her face. It was on the sweet side and no man had ever said that to her.
“Maybe I’m thinking the same,” she said.
They walked out together and to the first cafe they came to and got seats off to the side. They were seated quickly like most places around here during lunch.
Once their orders were placed, he said, “I’m going to guess you’re new to the area.”
She wasn’t surprised he led with that. “What gave it away? The fact that men seem to come onto me like fresh meat on display?”
He grinned. “I don’t know I’d say it that way. But a lot of young women come to the city to find some kind of a dream. You’re younger and if you grew up around here, you’d have a different air to you.”
Since the air she had to her in a bigger city wasn’t the one she’d want to be portrayed to Braylon or anyone else, she’d keep quiet.
“Guilty,” she said. “I moved here from Lake Placid.”
“Oh wow,” he said. “Never been there but always wanted to. For a short visit. My family would say I love the noise and people around me. They might be right. Plus, I’m not much of a skier in a place like that. I’m lucky I’ve finally adapted to the colder weather in the past several years. I’m recently, or lastly, from North Carolina.”
“You don’t have an accent,” she said.
“No,” he said. “I’m an Army brat. We moved around a lot so we were only there a few years before my father passed.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
