The Design(35)

Grayson shrugged, glancing between the two of us. “She likes Cammie, she’s a family friend.

“Cammie?” Nicole bristled.

Grayson stared up at me expectantly. “Is that really the only reason you have for interrupting?” he asked incredulously.

I straightened my shoulders and crossed my arms over my chest.

“I just thought you should know that your mom is asking about you. Maybe give her a call every now and then, Grayson.”

I purposely used his first name.

“Is this why you’re breaking up with me? So you can f*ck your jailbait employee?” Nicole blurted out.

Excuse me, we’re having a conversation here… wait, did she say they were breaking up? I was back to looking like a confused guppy as she pushed herself onto her feet and leaned over Grayson’s desk. I should have excused myself at that point, but I couldn’t. It was like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion.

“You’ll never find a woman as good as me. You’re about to lose the best thing that ever happened to you.”

Wow. She was really confident in her ability to quote movie breakup lines.

“Nicole. Calm down,” Grayson instructed with annoyance.

She reared back as if he’d slapped her. Her hands flew up in the air and I could tell she was about ten seconds from losing it. Should I call security? Nah. Let Grayson defuse the Botoxed bombshell.

“Calm down! Calm down?” she yelled. “You string me along for a year and then just break up with me in your f*cking office, Grayson? I never met your parents. I never stayed the night at your place. You said you weren’t ready for commitment?! Bullshit.” Her hands were flying everywhere at this point. “I’m done.”

She turned and rushed past me, making sure to subtly swipe me with her purse on the way out. I stared out after her, mostly to ensure that she wasn’t going to come back and attack me from behind.

When she was at the elevator bank, furiously typing away on her phone, I finally turned back to Grayson.

For two seconds, we stared at one another, letting the last few minutes settle. Then, finally, I cracked and let the edge of my mouth hitch into a smile. He followed suit, trying to conceal his grin.

“Nice girl. Better watch out though, she's going to start a hate club with that secretary you fired.”

Grayson grunted. “She was exaggerating.”

I narrowed my eyes, thinking back to my experience with Grayson. “You probably did string her along.”

He glanced up and studied me for a moment before nodding. “Probably.”

…



Around lunchtime, Alan left for a job site with Hannah, leaving Peter and I with thirty minutes of freedom. We decided we deserved some good takeout since most of our lunches consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches supplemented by vending machine granola bars.

“Oohh! What about Thai? I haven’t had Thai food in forever,” I said, scrolling through Yelp reviews for a restaurant down the street.

“Nah. Not a fan. What about Italian?” Peter asked.

The idea of eating a giant plate of fettuccini alfredo was almost too tempting to pass up.

“Yum. I can always eat—”

“Peter I need to speak with you for a few minutes. Are you busy?”

We both turned in unison to see Grayson hovering behind my desk with his arms crossed. Since I’d been hired, he’d never once talked to Peter one-on-one, and the visible shock on Peter’s face emphasized that point further.

“Oh, um, sure. I was just going to get lunch with Cammie,” he said, offering me a sympathetic frown.

“That’s fine. I’ll have Beatrice order us something. Cammie can run down and grab herself lunch.”

Oh thanks, asshat.

Grayson completely ignored me even as I stared daggers at him, so I scooted my chair back so that he had to jump out of the way before I slammed into his legs. It wasn’t a very classy move, but at least he finally met my eye. I almost wavered—those blue eyes were a lot to take in when they were aimed right at me—but I held strong.

“Thanks for stealing my lunch date,” I said, grabbing my purse from the back of my chair.

“You’ll manage,” he said with a cheeky smile. “Besides, it’s only fair. You interrupted mine earlier.”

…



As soon as I sat down at my desk after lunch, Alan began to ramble. “Let’s go over the design for the competition. We weren’t able to do our usual Wednesday morning meeting, so we’ll do it now.”

I perked up. Over the last few days, I’d become obsessed with the park design competition. I’d brainstormed a few ideas that I knew Alan would agree with. They would add a lot to the project without increasing the budget. As Alan pulled out the drafting paper we’d used the week before, I jumped into my proposals.

“Alan, I know you weren’t in love with some of my ideas last week, but I think I’ve figured out how we could incorporate a few things without blowing the budget.”

I reached for my notebook, where I’d been scribbling down my ideas on the last few pages. The ones I thought Alan should hear were highlighted and circled so that they’d be easy to find.

“I think the changing rooms near the splash pad could fit into budget if we combine them with one of the park’s bathrooms. The building material could be sourced from the recycling facility downtown so that the cost would be nominal. Not to mention, using recycled materials would look really good for the city.”