Accidentally Amy(9)

“I think they probably just hated you.”
“Can it.” He thought he heard the Little House theme song in the background just before she said, “Okay - number two. Were you mad when I spilled coffee on you this morning? Honest answers only.”
God, had that really been the same day? Talk about a long one. He reached for his beer and said, “The honest answer - and I’m only saying this because we will not be talking after tonight - is that you spilling coffee on me was a fucking lovely surprise.”
Her voice was quiet when she said, “It was?”
“Sure. It’s not often that a funny, charming, beautiful girl – though no longer beautiful to me because she’s now just an employee - appears out of nowhere and starts rubbing your chest in a coffee shop.”
“I am all of those things.” He heard a breathless laugh as she said, “Including the no-longer-beautiful employee.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, feeling oddly unsettled by that.
“Okay, um, number three,” she said. “What is your--”
“Number three?” he scoffed, startling Hole with his raised voice. “How is this number three? I’m beginning to have serious reservations about our hiring process.”
She laughed again. “Shhhh. Number three--”
“Number three. When you stepped into the elevator at Incite,” he interrupted, “I had an instant daydream about hitting the stop button and seeing what transpired. So when you actually did it…hell, it felt like a Big Fate kind of moment.”
She didn’t laugh, didn’t say anything, and he let his head fall backward so he could stare at the ceiling and fucking regret his idiotic mouth for actually saying those words out loud.
After a moment, he said, “You there?”
He heard her clear her throat. “So is there any way for us to go back--”
“No.” He looked out the window, out at the city lights, and felt a heavy load of disappointment settle over him as he said, “There are rules, and I have ethics. Regardless of the Amy thing, Isabella Shay is on my team, therefore off-limits.”
“But I--”
“Actually, I should probably go now.” He grabbed Goodyear and Hole, stood up, and walked toward the kitchen. He needed to feed the cats and get on with life sans Starbucks Girl. He said, “You know we can’t text and call anymore, right?”
“Um,” she said, and something about her tone made him stop walking. He listened as she said, “Isabella Shay is your employee, so you definitely shouldn’t be communicating with her after hours. But if, from time-to-time, you were to get a random text from Amy, a girl you met at Starbucks, would that be such a bad thing?”
Shit-shit-shit-shit, he thought, knowing what the correct answer was. There were no grey areas regarding ethics in the workplace - he wholeheartedly believed that. So he didn't know what the fuck was wrong with him when he heard himself say, "I suppose not."
"Okay - I have to go now. Bye."
Before he could say a word, the call ended. He shook his head, went into the kitchen and grabbed the cat food, holding the guys against his chest as he wondered who Isabella Shay really was.
And just as he was setting the bowl on the floor and putting down the cats, he got a text.
Hi, it's Amy from Starbucks.

Chapter Four

Izzy
“This isn’t something you’ll normally be involved in, but since you’re shadowing me, it’s your lucky day.”
Izzy grabbed a notepad and her coffee before following Pam toward the conference room.
“Boring?”
“If you make it to lunch without nodding off,” she said, giving Izzy a look, “I’ll be surprised. Be sure to bring a large cup of coffee with you.”
Izzy wasn’t looking forward to sitting through a boring meeting, but she was a little interested in the process. It was the annual benefit renewal strategy session, where their current insurance advisor would be reviewing their options for the upcoming year, which Pam would in-turn review with Ellis’s board of directors, who would ultimately finalize the plan. Exciting? No. Interesting? Izzy kind of thought yes, but she’d always been into administrative red tape; as a kid, Businesswoman With Many Files was her absolute favorite game of pretend.
Pam introduced her to the advisor - Kelli - who would be presenting before they took their seats around the huge conference table. They were early, so Pam chatted with people as they filtered in while Izzy doodled on her notepad.
Just before the meeting was about to begin, she heard his voice. He was talking quietly, but her ear definitely picked up the Blake in the room and it took every bit of discipline she had not to turn and look toward the doorway. She’d texted back and forth with him for a couple hours the night before, nonsense texts about TV shows and house pets, but she was Izzy in HR now, not Amy from Starbucks, so there was no point in even looking his way.
Kelli launched into her presentation, projecting slide after slide of workplace trends, benchmark data, and cost analysis of what their plans had cost the year before, as well as projections for the upcoming year. Izzy took copious notes at first, but after a couple hours, she lost her verve and switched to mere listening.
Pam’s advice regarding the large cup of coffee was now making more sense.
Just when her eyes were getting heavy, a question came from the other end of the conference table. “Do those numbers reflect the mid-year change? I didn’t see that in the data.” Since everyone looked at the question-asker, Izzy allowed her eyes to seek him out. She turned her head toward Blake’s voice, and her stomach dropped when she looked at him. Awwwww, geez.