I want You Deeper

Charlie glanced at her phone, smiling at the text on her screen. Things were on the right track. After work tonight, she was meeting a group of friends for dinner-a girls’ night she’d beggedText property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

out of multiple times because she didn’t go out on work nights. This was her first step toward moving out of her comfort zone and experiencing life.

It was a welcome change. It took her mind off Nicholas. She woke up every morning saddened that things hadn’t worked out between them. She kept waiting for it to get easier, but it hadn’t yet.

So she’d reached out to her friend group to see if they were still doing “Hump Day Dinner,” as they called it. It was the same group she sometimes met for dinner on weekends, only slightly smaller because it was a work night.

Turned out she wasn’t the only one who loved her routine.

Charlie glanced at the clock on her computer screen. Just a couple more hours until lunch. It was around the time of morning when things calmed down long enough for her to get some work done, but she never knew when someone might come walking up the small hallway that led to her semiprivate corner of the office, ready to ask some question or request paperwork. That meant she had to power through her to-do list while she had the chance.

“She’s right over here. We’ll just check in with her.”

The sound of her boss’s voice made Charlie groan inwardly. An interruption. Hopefully, it would just be brief.

But when she looked up, she saw it wasn’t just Justin coming toward her. Nicholas was right behind him.

Charlie’s heart shifted into double-time as she stared at the men walking in her direction. She knew she should look away. Staring at Nicholas wouldn’t do anything to hide her feelings for him. She needed to remain cool, composed, completely indifferent…

“Hi.”

The greeting slipped out of her. She wasn’t even sure where it had come from. She pulled her gaze away from the two of them and stood, turning to face them with a stiff, perfectly straight posture.

“Hi,” Nicholas returned, seeming oddly nervous. He wiped at his forehead, then stopped behind Justin, who was standing just inside the low wall that set the boundaries of Charlie’s office.

“We were wondering if you could help us with something.” Justin glanced back at Nicholas before continuing. “We’re planning a surprise bonding trip for the staff, and we need your help.”

Charlie frowned. This was not a coincidence. Justin and Brooke were up to no good here, and she really should do something about it. If Nicholas didn’t want to be with her, the last thing she wanted was for him to be forced into it. Besides, if she was around him all the time, how would she ever get over him?

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be all the time.

“What exactly is the trip?” she asked.

Justin smiled, the left side of his mouth curving upward more than the right. “It’s for this weekend. I know you’re not a big fan of spontaneity, but this needs to be a surprise.”

“Like the surprise a couple of weeks ago?”

Even as Charlie asked the question, she mentally calculated whether it had been two, three, or four weeks ago. It seemed like she’d known Nicholas for years. How was it possible that a month ago at this time, she hadn’t even been aware of his existence?

Could she go back to that time? It certainly would make it easier to get over him.

“Oh. I guess we did just do this whole last-minute surprise thing.” Justin gave Nicholas another glance before continuing. “Anyway, Nicholas has a place in Lake Tahoe, and he was able to pull some strings and get us some rental cabins.”

“It’s the off-season,” Nicholas jumped in to explain. “They were sitting empty.”

It took Charlie a second to realize what was going on with that, but she quickly figured out he was trying to be humble about things. Someone had a bunch of rental cabins that could be loaned out to the team at the last minute. Nicholas didn’t want to sound pretentious. She got it. It was one of the qualities she loved most about him.

Loved?

The thought shook Charlie up. Since when had the L-word entered the picture? Sure, Brooke had said it, but Charlie had refused to go there. Until now.

It couldn’t be a mistake that it went through her mind while she was standing near him, trying not to look at him. Seeing him again had stirred up emotions in her, whether she wanted it to or not.

She shook off the thought and pushed forward, forcing the words out. “So you need my help arranging payment?”

“Nicholas is taking care of that.” Justin stepped back, which prompted Nicholas to take a step back, too. It seemed to be a signal they were about to exit. “There will be other guests staying in a couple of the cabins, but we’ll have most of them to ourselves. There’s a view of the lake, too.”

“Okay.” Charlie hated to be rude, but they still hadn’t answered her questions. “How can I help?”

Justin gestured toward her computer. “We need you to put together a presentation. Three separate presentations, an hour each. I’ll take care of everything else. I’m going to break the news to the staff now.”

Charlie bit her lip to keep herself from speaking what was on her mind. No, she didn’t like spontaneity, but even the employees who did may not be available to give up an entire weekend at the last minute. People had plans, spouses, roommates, friends, kids… There were things that had to be rearranged to make something like this happen.

That wasn’t her argument to make, though. If her boss said they were going to a cabin for the weekend, she would do her part to make sure she was prepared. Her co-workers could figure things out on their own.

“We’ll be leaving Friday morning, so it’s a free day off.”

At Justin’s comment, Nicholas laughed. “A free day sitting in a van for a four-hour drive.”

“That reminds me. I have to go find a bus big enough for all of us.”

With that, Justin exited Charlie’s office, rushing off in the direction from which he’d come. He seemed to have forgotten about Nicholas. That left Charlie and Nicholas alone, with an awkward silence hanging in the air between them.

“I guess we’ll be spending the weekend together,” Nicholas said.

That pulled Charlie’s gaze from the wall behind him to his face. Her eyes widened. “How far are the cabins from your place?”

He shrugged. “Few miles. But I don’t feel like driving back and forth, so I’ll be staying in the cabin with Justin.”

“Justin and Brooke aren’t sharing?”

Nicholas shook his head. “Wouldn’t be appropriate, he said. It sounds like Brooke will be sharing a cabin with you. They’re two-bedroom cabins, along with a few three- and four-bedrooms. The developers have to group up.”

“They’ll love that.”

That wasn’t meant sarcastically at all. The development team got along pretty well, for the most part. She imagined they wouldn’t be able to wait to get back to the cabin to close the door and play video games. That seemed to be all they talked about.

Charlie was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t realize Nicholas was staring at her until she glanced over at him again. He not only looked like he wanted to say something, but his lips were parted as if the words were on the verge of spilling from his mouth.

Before he could say anything, though, his phone’s ringtone began blaring.

He winced. “Sorry. Forgot to silence it this morning.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get a word out, Nicholas turned and started walking away.

Only when he was several steps away did Nicholas seem to remember she was still standing there. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Then he walked off, leaving her standing there, staring after him. That gave her all the answer she needed. The entire interaction told her that he definitely wasn’t interested in her. Knowing that, she could go on with her life.

She just had to get through one final weekend with him.