Page 86 of Claiming What's His

He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck and looked away. “No.”

“Damn.” I said, falling down into my seat. “It’s been four years Dex.”

“I know.” He huffed and then sighed. “Believe me man, I know.” He threw himself down in the chair across from my desk that he always sat in and crossed his ankle over his knee. “I just can’t seem to make myself do it.”

“She really fucked you over didn’t she.” I asked, toeing a line that Dexter never allowed usually, but it had shared a bit so far.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Dex…” I started, but to be honest, I didn’t know what to say. Cora was better at this than I was, but I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell Dex would talk to her about it. I had been his best friend for the better part of eight years at this point, and this was the first time he had dared to speak of his wife, since everything went to shit.

“Don’t worry about it.” He said suddenly, standing up and clearing his throat as he adjusted his tie. “I got to go. Sorry I was a weird fuck and listened to you screw your wife.” He turned away and I could see the self-loathing radiating off of him.

“Dexter.” I snapped in anger at hearing him put himself down. “Don’t walk away.”

“I’ll see you at ten for the quarterly meeting.” He said without turning around and walked right out of my door without a second hesitation.

“Fuck.” I muttered and sighed. I needed to find a way to get him to open up about whatever the fuck has been going on in his life, and I knew exactly who could help me crack the complex code that is Dexter Chase.

Reid.

Because that man could annoy a mime enough to get him to talk eventually. And lucky for me, the two of them would be trapped with us in the Hamptons for the next two days and the situation was perfect to let Reid loose on him.

I also had another task to get started if there was even a prayer of getting it done in time for my return to the office in a week.

I dialed the head of maintenance and construction for the tower and had him meet me in my office a few minutes later. Steve was a middle-aged man that had worked in high rise construction his whole life and his knack for small details was invaluable in this business. He’d helped me build Hawthorn tower from the ground up basically, and I knew if anyone could get this done, it was him.

“Mr. Jones, I hear congratulations are in order Sir.” He said as he walked into my office with his tablet and notebook under his arm. I stood and shook his hand, walking over to doorway to the conference room along the edge of my office and motioned for him to follow along.

“Thanks Steve, that’s what I need to talk to you about.” I hinted and stood along the wall of windows overlooking the city that mirrored my own. “I need you to renovate this conference room into an office for Cora, my soon to be wife.”

He raised his eyebrows at me and looked around the space. It was a large boardroom style space, with a large twenty-person table in the center and extra seating space along the walls. “You want this to be an office?” He asked, looking around before nodding his head. “Okay, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Not just any office though. I want Cora’s space to be as equal to mine as possible. Obviously my office is nearly four times the size of this space, but she won’t need as many different use spaces in here because she will be able to use mine for anything extra that she needs.” I turned and walked around the space as I talked. “She needs her own restroom for sure, no shower like mine, but toilet and sink with a large vanity. Then I was thinking desk over here along the exterior wall and then we can put a couch over here by the wall to my office and a small conference table opposite on the hallway wall. “I also want her to have the same mirrored glass and door mechanisms that I have. And it needs to be feminine yet powerful.”

He eyed me closely with a knowing smile on his face as I went into details on the color scheme I was envisioning for her and her future assistant’s space outside of her office. When I got it all out I got down to the part that was going to make him twitchy.

“I want it done by the Monday after next.” I said firmly as his eyebrows shot to his hairline once again.

“Ten days?” He specified.

“Exactly. Money is no consideration here Steve, hire thirty new carpenters if you need and pay them double to work around the clock, I don’t care. Work with Sasha from Lading Designs for the design and décor of the space and get it done as close to Monday as possible. We’ll be coming back from our mini honeymoon, and she wants to get right into work, and I want to surprise her with this. She’s working in the boardroom between Reid and Dex right now and I can’t have my wife in those kinds of volatile conditions.”

He chuckled, knowing exactly what kind of brute Dex was and what kind of shameless flirt and gossip that Reid was. “I’ll get the team on it right away.” He said, shaking my hand and taking a few pictures of the space before leaving with his task as I went back to my own office feeling excited to get this done for her to surprise her.

Chapter 20 – Cora

I sat at my makeshift desk in the board room between Reid and Dexter’s office staring out of the window while I tapped my pen against my notebook obsessively. The door to the boardroom opened on Reid’s side and he walked towards me with a shit eating grin on his face.

“One of two things are going to happen having you working here so close to me.” He said, as I looked up. Pulling myself out of my conundrum of a daydream. “I’m either A,” he said holding out his finger, “going to get absolutely no work done at all ever, because I’ll be too busy standing in here distracted and having fun with you.” He ticked off his other finger. “Or B, you’re going to find some way to become my boss and make me your slave, in which case I’ll be the most productive person in the world because I can already tell you run a tight ship.”

I rolled my eyes at him, and he laughed, standing over my shoulder and looking down at my blank notebook page.

“Or maybe you’re the one with a distraction and productivity problem.” He joked as I elbowed him in the stomach. He sat down in the chair next to me and leaned back. “What’s on your mind?”

I chewed on my lip and looked at him, but still didn’t say anything. I’d worked diligently for the first few hours of the day, clearing task after task off Maverick’s plate, including sitting in on an interview with HR for a new assistant.

Whom I positively loved.

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