A Curve Ball Called Love

Chapter 9

After the wild romantic evening Douglas and Tiffany spent in her office, she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d made the right choice in sleeping with him. She’d been going back and forth, thinking about the pros and cons of being in a relationship with someone she worked with. The situation was actually worse for her. It wasn’t just that she was in a relationship with someone she worked with, she was in a relationship with her boss. She was in a relationship with the majority shareholder of the magazine she worked for. For the two of them, it wasn’t just as simple as going down to human resources and making their relationship public. There was more to it than that. simply letting the world know. More to it than simply choosing to be two people in love. Their world was different. Their world was complicated and difficult. The only thing that made sense was to keep their relationship under wraps. It was the only way that their relationship could work. At the same time, Tiffany was scared. This was the first time in a long time that she had allowed herself to be vulnerable. The first time she was giving her heart to someone even though she knew that there was a chance that a relationship between them wouldn’t work out. Douglas wasn’t just a man. He was a high profile man. He was a highly sought after man. The kind of man every woman out there fantasized about but that wasn’t the case for Tiffany. As far as she was concerned, Douglas Ingram was just a man. A man who just happened to be born into a wealthy family. He’d shown her that much and he hadn’t been the jerk she’d thought him to be.

After their steamy evening in her office, they didn’t talk about the situation for a couple of weeks. They both wanted to but Entity was swamped. Every time they tried finding time alone, there was always an emergency or other to figure out. The two weeks it took for them to finally have the ‘talk’ seemed like an eternity. It was a Thursday morning when he finally managed to get to her office.

“Hey Ian,” he said as he walked past his desk.

“Good morning, Mr. Ingram.”

He knocked twice on Tiffany’s door before he poked his head through the doorway.

“Hey.”

Tiffany looked up.

“Hey. Everything okay?” she asked and he nodded as he walked in.

“Can you spare two minutes for a chat?” he asked and he nodded.

“Sure, I’m headed out in a few minutes but I think I can do that.”

“Good.” He walked to where she was and took a seat in front of her desk.

“What’s up?”

“I thought of getting some time to talk…out of the office because clearly, that isn’t happening at work.”

Tiffany smiled.

“Yeah. It’s been like a carnival in here lately.” She looked at her desk that had stacks on stacks of files. “But I only have three more meetings. I should be done by six.”

“So, coffee?” he asked and she shook her head.

“Honestly, I would much rather just stay indoors after the last few days… how about breakfast tomorrow?” she asked. “I have a slow morning tomorrow,” she added, guiltily.

He nodded.

“Sure.”

“I’m sorry about this… I know that…” she started before he shook his head.

“I work here too, remember?” he smiled at her. “I’m just happy that you aren’t avoiding me.”

She forced out a laugh and bit her lower lip.

“I don’t think that would ever work even if I tried,” she said in a low voice. “You should rest easy. That theory has already been tried and tested if my office couch and your bar are anything to go by.”

Douglas ran his fingers through his hair and stood up.

“Yeah,” he whispered.

She got up and picked up her files and her purse.

“You know, if it was after hours, I would gladly take you on that couch—or better still, on the desk,” he said as they walked towards the door.

She turned and looked at him, her cheeks slightly flushed. She knew that he meant it too.

“I know and I would let you.”

He opened the door for her and waited for her to walk out before he followed her, leading her all the way to the elevator.

***

When Tiffany got home, it was way past eight. She was exhausted. She’d barely had ten hours of rest in the last forty-eight hours. She had half a mind to get some take-out but she was kind of sick of take-out. She’d been having take-out for dinner for almost a whole week and there was only so much you could get anyway. Chinese, Indian, sushi and fast food. The only thing she hadn’t had was soul food and all the joints that served the best were just way too far from her apartment or work. So, when she got home, she first took a shower that refreshed her before she went to the kitchen. She noticed that there was still a little coffee in the coffee maker from that morning.

That will do, she thought as she poured the coffee into a mug and then put it in the microwave to heat up.

The half mug of coffee she had was all she needed for that jolt of energy. She then went ahead to make some donuts from scratch. It was her grandmother’s recipe and one of the few things she knew how to cook. When she was done, the apartment had come alive with the aroma of the vanilla and coconut milk donuts coupled with the chai tea that she’d also made from scratch. It wasn’t exactly a healthy dinner but for some reason, that was all she wanted to have for dinner.

As she sat down, she thought of the weird things she’d been craving lately. Her grandmother’s donuts, Jamaican bean stew, chicken fried rice… she was usually a chicken salad dinner kind of person. Or just a salad really. She looked at the donut in her hand and sighed loudly.

Maybe it’s all these long days and short nights, she thought as she started on her tea and donut.

Sometimes when she was a little overworked, she got the munchies and considering how fast things had been moving lately, that was probably it.

She’d just finished her first donut when she heard a knock on her door.

What does a girl need to do for a little peace and quiet over here? she wondered as she stood up and walked to the door. She didn’t even care that she was in a tank and sweatpants. Whoever was at her door would have to understand the aspect of her down time.

She was a little irritated as she opened the door but her mood changed almost immediately when she saw Douglas standing at her doorstep.

“I hope you don’t mind me coming over,” he said. “I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”

Her eyes ran down his body. He looked so different, no longer in his suit and tie. He’d probably left his jacket and tie in his town car, leaving him with just a pair of fitted pants and a shirt that he’d unbuttoned a little at the top. Part of her wanted to throw herself at him. To kiss him and run her fingers through that lustrous mane but another part of her held back. The fact that it had been so long since they had s*x on her couch was just too much. It was like a burden weighing on both of them. The tension between them had been loud even in their little flirtatious talks at work.