Page 35 of Reaching Gavin

Chapter Thirteen

I woremy nerves to work on Monday, doing my best to cover them up with a cute, black wrap dress. The encouraging phone call I received from my best friends on Friday night had been so discouraging that I thought about it all weekend long. What was I doing? I was risking everything and for what? I did not have a good track record with relationships, so why should I risk one now. As soon as I walked into the lobby of NorthWest Investments, I wished I could turn around and leave, especially since Trevor was coming off the elevators, his hands shoved into his trouser pockets and a smug grin on his face. He spotted me before I could run.

“Did you hear?” he called over.

I had no idea why he was so early on a Monday morning. Technically, I was early, but even he had beaten me here. A note of panic crept up the back of my spine. Trevor wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have a good reason. He’d probably been hanging around the lobby, waiting for me to come in, so he could rub that reason in my face.

“I’m just getting in. What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“The permits came through. We’re going to be doing our presentations next Monday.” He looked a little too happy about that—like he was prepared to face the hiring squad. If only I felt the same way.

I shrugged my bag higher on my shoulder and shifted uncomfortably in my heels. “Next Monday?”

In truth, I was ready. I knew that. There was really only so much more I could do to perfect my plan for dealing with the preservation committee and getting the neighborhood on board for the restoration. But despite all of that, it felt like a teacher had just announced a pop quiz. I hadn’t even begun to think about the actual presentation. The part where I had to stand up and wow a bunch of people who didn’t even know my name was Cassie and not Kathy. I was so screwed.

“You okay?” Trevor asked, looking not the least bit concerned.

“Don’t get all touchy-feely on me,” I scoffed. “People might mistake you for human.”

“You sure now how to start a fella’s week off right. I’m going to miss you when you aren’t here in a few months and I have the job.” He hit me with that parting shot as he strode off. At least, he was finally showing his true face.

“There wouldn’t be enough room for me and your ego to work in the same office anyway,” I called after him. I limped over to the receptionist desk, my pride wounded, and dropped my bag in a heap with a heavy sigh.

“I thought you were supposed to relax over the weekend,” George said as he eyed me with concern.

I couldn’t tell him that I had relaxed. Friday night had been perfect. I’d blown off steam just the way Gavin usually did. Then I’d spent two days over-analyzing every second of it. Trust a girl to negate whatever R&R she managed to get. “It’s no big deal. How was your weekend?”

“I binge-watched Netflix and ate an entire pizza in my pajamas. So it was pretty much like every weekend,” George said.

“Maybe I need to hang out with you on the weekends.” It seemed like a much safer choice for everything but my thighs.

“Any time, girl. Consider that an invitation.”

I left him at the desk with promises of a coffee run later and decided it was time to get to work. I might be ready in theory for this presentation, but I needed to hustle if I wanted everything to go off smoothly by next Monday. But no matter how hard I tried, my eyes kept wandering toward the corner office area, hoping to see Gavin coming in or out of it. His blinds were closed, but the door was cracked open. Was he in there? I kept expecting to see his head poke out and look in my direction. Wasn’t he the least bit interested if I had come in for the day?

Cut it out, Cassie, I scolded myself. If I had spent half as much effort tweaking my presentation, I would be done with it already. Hell, I probably would’ve won a Nobel Prize by now.

Meanwhile, Jillian and Jess had decided that they needed to be more involved in my off-limits, office romance. The texts had started arriving at ten and hadn’t stopped, despite my trying to ignore them.

Jillian: Have you seen him yet?

Jess: I bet he’s waiting for you to go in there.

Jillian: She can’t make the first move.

Jess: She didn’t. He did when he kissed her. The ball’s in her court.

It seemed like I didn’t have to actually be a part of this conversation that they were having about me. I wanted to tune it out, but I was thinking all the same things that they were discussing. Maybe Jess was right, and he was waiting for me to make my move. That kiss. That kiss. It had been one hell of a first move, so it would only be fair for him to wait for me to respond. The trouble was that after 48 hours of analysis I still didn’t know what I should do. We’d crossed the line. That much was clear. If he hadn’t been such a gentleman, we probably would’ve crossed more lines. Maybe even dotted a few i’s and checked my list twice. But things hadn’t gone too far.

Yet.

Or maybe he would pretend like nothing happened. If so, I would follow suit. Perhaps he had spent the weekend realizing what a huge mistake he made. What if he was in his office right now hiding from me?

I stood up, my chair rolling backwards so hard it hit the cubicle wall. Well, I wasn’t going to just sit here while he pretended I didn’t exist. Before I’d really processed what I was doing, I was marching toward his office. My courage faltered as soon as I got there. I peeked inside and nearly collapsed with relief. Gavin was nowhere in sight. Agnes, the redhead from the meeting, came up behind me.

“Oh, he’s not in here,” she said. I stepped to the side to allow her access, and she bustled in, picked up a pen, and began scribbling a note. When she was done, she straightened up and smiled warmly at me. “You’re the new intern, right? If you need something from him, you can leave a note. He’ll get back to you sometime today.”

“Thanks, I’ll do that.” Now I was on the spot. I took the pen and paper she held out to me and waited awkwardly for her to go.