Playing Dirty (Risky Business, #2)(11)

“Good morning, Sage,” he said, tucking his folded newspaper underneath his arm. He carried his briefcase in one hand and reached for the stack of messages I’d set on the chest-high counter that served as the “wall” for my cubicle.

“Morning,” I replied, wondering if he’d say anything about seeing each other Saturday. His hair had the usual wave that made a lock of it fall over his forehead, which always made my fingers itch to push it back.

“Did you have fun this weekend?” he asked, still flipping through the messages.

A generic kind of question. I decided to push a little. “Yes. A friend of Ryker’s has a boat he invited us on.”

“Thought that was you,” he said.

“It was.” I was dying to ask about the woman, but I didn’t dare. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known Parker dated around; I just hadn’t seen a face to put with the fact like I had yesterday. Ever since he’d turned me down so blatantly a few months ago when I’d been up front about wanting more with him, we’d gone back to our professional interaction. Nothing too personal. Just business. I didn’t talk about Ryker, and he didn’t talk about the women he saw.

“You have a nice boat,” I said, hoping it would coax some more information out of him, but he just smiled and said, “Thank you,” then it was back to business.

“Conner left a message that he needs to reschedule,” he said. “See what I have open on Wednesday.”

“You had a two o’clock so I moved him there,” I said, scrolling through his calendar on my computer.

“I thought I had the Bartholomew meeting with Gash and Knight then?”

“That’s Thursday,” I said. I knew Parker’s schedule better than my own.

“Great. And make reservations for two at Everest for tomorrow night, will you? Eight o’clock.”

“Sure,” I said, jotting it down. Everest was this awesome restaurant I’d been dying to go to. Maybe Parker would bring in his leftovers for me. “Which client am I billing?”

“It’s not for a client. It’s personal.”

Reflexively, I glanced up at him. Rarely did Parker go out to an expensive, exclusive restaurant on a weeknight unless it was with a client. I couldn’t remember the last time. On the weekend, yeah, he’d take a date somewhere I guess; I didn’t really know since I never made those reservations for him. He’d take care of those himself, so this was new on two fronts.

“Um, okay, yeah, sure,” I stammered, my mind immediately flying back to the woman on the boat.

“Thanks, Sage.” Then he was gone, disappearing through the glass door into his office.

I made the reservations, having to name-drop Parker in order to get them on such short notice. Then I was immersed in the day-to-day work of my job, filing a stack of trades that had come in from last week, replying to e-mails that Parker sent with requests for documents, and a thousand other things that filled up my morning.

“So how was your weekend?”

I turned to see Megan leaning on my counter. She was holding two Starbucks cups and handed over one to me.

“Thanks,” I said, taking a sip. Megan was awesome—she never forgot to have them add extra whip. “It was good. Went on a cool boat with Ryker Saturday and met some of his friends.”

“Ooh, the friendship test,” she said. “How’d it go?”

I shrugged. “It was going better until they found out I work for Parker. Apparently, they all hold a grudge.”

“Wow,” she said. “I get friendship and all, but that’s a little much. It’s not like you had anything to do with it.”

“I know, and they came around. Well, most of them did.” I decided not to worry about Anisha. “But that’s not all that happened,” I added.

Megan leaned forward, her unerring spidey sense twitching that I had something juicy to say.

“Tell me tell me tell me,” she said, rapid-fire.

I glanced around, but no one was near, so I said in a low voice, “Saw some chick with Parker on his boat, which happened to be right next to ours.”

Megan loved gossip the way I loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and she eagerly leaned forward for more. “Really? You usually don’t see his flavors of the month,” she said. “What did she look like?”

“Thin. Tall. Gorgeous. Big tits.” I rolled my eyes.

She grimaced in understanding. I’d told Megan about how close Parker and I had come to taking our relationship to a different level, and how he’d turned me down. I’d decided to move on, but it didn’t make seeing his new, beautiful girlfriend any easier.

“Not surprised,” she said. “It’s not like he’s looking for a woman who can actually walk and chew gum at the same time.”

I grinned at her description.

“Wanna go to lunch today?” she asked, but I shook my head.

“Can’t. It’s Monday, you know. Parker will eat at his desk so I’ll need to get his lunch. I’ll grab a hot dog like usual.”

“That’s right. Sorry, I forgot it was Monday,” she said. “The day’s been so long it already felt like Wednesday.”

I laughed. “I hear ya.”

“Catch you later,” she said, moving off.