The fight with Brooke put me into a funk for the rest of the day. I kept to myself, which was easy since I only left the conference room to use the bathroom and refill my water bottle. Fortunately, I didn't see Brooke on any of those trips, and I started to breathe a little easier as lunch time passed because I assumed she would be out to lunch with her family. But my stomach was in knots, and I just didn't feel like eating anyway.

               I had started to admit to myself that I liked Brooke, that is probably what hurt the most. Was she lashing out because she was jealous? It was possible. Probable even. But she still said what she said. Hell, even if Hilda had said yes and come back to the hotel with me, I wouldn't consider myself a whore. I was really hurt, and it was throwing me off my game. I broke down in tears at least three times during the day, and I was already dreading the following morning because I didn't want to see her again.

               With my mind all over the place, and unable to concentrate, I put the TDFL stuff off to the side and pulled out some of the other work I needed to do. There was a local supermarket chain that just needed a new spot to show off the seasonal fruit that they wanted to highlight, and I worked on that instead. We'd done the same thing for them multiple times over the last few years, and so it was almost a cut and paste job. Honestly, I should have given this to Neil and Harriet, and the next time they needed it updated I would.

               Not that I expected to be here for the next time.

               With that done, I just sat there at my desk. I was feeling useless, and I knew I wasn't going to get any more done tonight. For the first time in a while, I decided to go home. At this point, even if they gave me the promotion, I was probably going to leave. I hated this whole damn situation!

               I packed up my laptop with a sigh, and then headed out of the room. Worst case I could pick some food up on the way back to my condo and then relax for a night. Honestly, I didn't want to risk being woken up by Brooke again either, so going home was a much better idea than sleeping here anyway.

               I walked over to the elevator bank and pressed the down arrow. It wasn't a long wait, but when the doors opened after the ding to announce the car's arrival, I was shocked to see Brooke standing there, her eyes wide and holding her backpack, a small duffel bag, and a brown paper bag.

               "You're leaving?" she asked timidly. She was looking down at the floor, and her shoulders were slumped as though she were just exhausted.

               "I was, yeah." I was still trying to regain my bearings after seeing her here.

               "I'm glad I caught you. I was hoping to find you. I really needed to apologize. I was so, so, out of line." She was already beginning to cry, and I had to admit I was happy that she'd done this so fast. "Oh, and I brought dinner! Do you like Chinese?" She lifted up the paper bag and suddenly I was famished.

               I smiled softly at the gesture, then stepped back so she could get off the elevator. "Come on, let's go talk."

               We walked side by side back to the conference room, and I opened the door so she could go in first. We both sat down, and Brook pulled out several cardboard containers of food, as well as chopsticks, forks and paper plates. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got a lot," she said with a soft smile. "It was the least I could do after everything I said."

               "I said a lot of mean stuff too, Brooke. That was... that was not true. I'm sorry for reacting so poorly."

               "No! Stop! I know you were lashing out after I said all that. You have nothing to apologize, I was so out of line and I wish I'd never said any of it!" She was upset at herself, and I know she was feeling guilty, because she said some things that were completely wrong. But it still didn't excuse my behavior. I could have tried to maintain my cool. Or just removed myself from the situation maybe.

               "Lashing out or not, I said a lot of cruel things that I didn't mean."

               "And I had no business calling you a whore. I... I was jealous, and it was completely unprofessional of me." She was blushing furiously but had the guts to admit it. "Can you ever forgive me?"

               "I can forgive you, yes. And you were jealous huh?" I asked with a smirk. I was happy she hadn't let things fester to apologize, and had come back tonight to do so without me having to prompt her. That went a long way towards me forgiving her. I think I'd known it was jealousy anyway, I was just glad to hear it.

               She breathed deep, then looked me in the eye. "Yes. I like you. Maybe it's a silly crush, but you're beautiful, tough, and smart and I was jealous that you might like those kissing girls." She was still blushing, but held my gaze, and I was impressed.

               "Brooke, I'll be honest, okay?" I took a deep breath and forged on. If she could do it, I could. "I told you that Hilda, the champion, gave me a kissing demonstration. It was over fast, but it was a little overwhelming. I don't even know why I offered, but I'm glad she said no. When she said she liked someone, and that she was trying to be with her, even though they weren't together, it made me think of you." Her eyes lit up when I said that, and I could see her breathing quicken. "I like you too. I just don't know what to do about it. I really haven't been enjoying my time here. I don't want you to get involved in a relationship that probably has no future. How would it even work when I really don't like your family, and they obviously feel the same?"

               Her face fell at that, but then she smiled again. "But you like me?"

               "I do. I like you. I think if you were able to spend time here, you'd be really good at this job, and I love your smile. You're obviously gorgeous, and you pick out good Chinese food." I lifted up a forkful of beef and broccoli and chewed happily.

               "Well, can we just enjoy our time together until we figure things out?" she asked shyly. "I don't want any repeats of today's events. I would like to know you're mine, so I don't get jealous."

               "Yeah, we can do that," I agreed. "If it makes us both smile more, I'm down for that."

               "Can I ask one more thing that I meant to ask before?"

               "Of course. I'm supposed to be teaching you."

               "How did you send the campaign to the resort without Bryan or Jax reviewing it? I thought all of those go through the creative director?"

               I almost choked on my bagel, then quickly swallowed it instead. "Going right for the good stuff, eh?" I gave her a little smirk as she blushed, then continued. "Jax and Bryan haven't reviewed anything our team puts out in over four years. They used to at first, but they had no clue what they were looking at, so they made me do it instead. Now as long as the clients pay their bills, they don't care what happens."

               "Oh, come on! Do you really expect me to believe that they're not doing anything?" she scoffed. "They told me all last week about how involved they are."

               I laughed out loud at that. "Brooke, you've been out with them every afternoon, all week. Did it look like they were concerned about work while they were enjoying themselves? They may have said they were involved, but how was that possible without being here? And yet here I am sleeping in the office because I'm doing their jobs on top of mine. Do you really think they're doing a lot of work?"

               "But they have to do something!" she exclaimed.

               "You saw exactly what Jax does on your first day. That's probably the most work he does," I pointed out with a shudder.

               She was silent for a few minutes, and I let her think. I didn't want to influence her one way or the other. After a bit, she raised her head, looking me in the eyes. "Show me what you have for proof that you're doing their jobs."

               I gave her a quick nod. "Okay, come on over, and I'll show you how this all works."

               I was meticulous in my communications with clients. Each one had a subfolder in my email that was then further divided into requests, approvals, and generic questions. It should have been quite easy to run through several clients with her, showing several years' worth of emails, and let her see with her own eyes what I was doing. And yet it wasn't easy at all.

               Because Brooke smelled amazing.

               It was a subtle aroma, one I hadn't noticed before, like a light mix of orange blossom and coffee. But when she came over, she pulled a chair right up next to mine and leaned in close to look through the email folders. As close as we were, I should have just asked her to sit on my lap! With her that close, my mind was transfixed by the scent of her, and I couldn't concentrate. It was bad enough that she was a beautiful woman, now she had to smell good too? We just confessed to liking each other, I didn't think she'd want me pushing too fast!

               "Ahh..." I slid my mouse over to her, as she looked at me in confusion. "Just pick any client and look at the emails. Most go back several years, and you can see everything that we've been discussing. If people were doing their jobs, most of these would be done by the account manager, though some of them by the creative director too. I shouldn't be communicating directly with the client on any of them."

               She leaned in a little to read a few of them, her hair tickling my nose as her face pressed closer to the screen, and her scent was almost overwhelming me now. It took everything I had to not bury my face in her neck and just bathe in her aroma.

               Yeah, I was in trouble. Other than Hilda, I hadn't been near a woman I was attracted to in a while, too much work didn't allow for that, but Brooke was hitting every one of my senses right now, and it was driving me a little crazy.

               "This is amazing," Brooke whispered. "I can't believe you've been doing all this on your own!"

               Mmmm, amazing is right I thought to myself in regard to Brooke. "It needed to be done, the branch wouldn't have made it otherwise. We would have folded after a year."

               "They told me they were letting you help out because you needed to learn it to get promoted," she said angrily.

               I nodded, my face almost descending into her hair each time. Why was I even nodding if I was facing the back of her head? I was losing my mind here. "If you look at the emails, there are many that are four to five years old. That would be a lot longer than any training I would need."

               "Yeah, I can see that. I'm so sorry, Kris. I shouldn't have been such a bitch today. I hated myself when I left here."

               "It's your first few weeks, and you barely know me. They're your family, so you gave them the benefit of the doubt. I can understand, so don't worry about it."

               She leaned back into her chair, and I immediately missed the scent of her. She turned to look at me with a serious expression on her face. "Okay, so then I need you to teach me. What is the next thing we're doing on the Nike project?"

               I thought about it for a minute. I'd already told her how much I'd done, but I still needed to make sure Nike was on board. I wondered if she'd like to go to their headquarters in Oregon this weekend. "What are you doing this weekend?"

               Her face immediately turned crimson as her mouth dropped open. "Uhh... this weekend? I umm... Oh shit. I'm supposed to be on my dad's boat." Her face fell at the realization.

               I simply nodded. I didn't want to hurt her by telling her what I was doing, so I let it go. "No big deal. That should be fun."

               She leaned back, blowing a gust of air out and up. "Maybe we could go out another time?"

               Oh shit, she thought I was asking her out! But she sounded like she wanted to, right? That was a good thing! We could do that now! Could I take her out? She already told me she liked me. She smelled amazing, and was a beautiful woman who seemed smart, even if she was a part of a shitty family. "Maybe we could try some time after work next week?"

               And when I suggested that her whole face just lit up in a smile, showing off a cute little dimple on the left side of her face. "Yeah, I'd like that! Isn't this dinner kind of like a date?"

               "Dates don't include work laptops!" I pointed out.

               "That's a good point!"

Her smile was addictive, and I couldn't help but share one of my own. Considering how the day had started, this was a much better outcome than I would have expected. I didn't even know what I should think. I hadn't been out with someone in a couple years, and this was completely accidental. I hadn't expected to date anyone, let alone Brooke. If I was really leaving after the pitch, then I was setting us both up to be hurt.

               And yet...

               How could I not? I mean, you're just reading my story, you didn't really see the way her face lit up. You didn't see that dimple, or the excited twinkle in her eye. You didn't smell her hair or hear the soft tone of her voice. I had to see if it would work. Maybe if she got the promotion, we could change things at the company together. Or maybe if I left, she could come too, since she didn't like being under her father's thumb.

               That was a pretty nice thought. I could get on board with that.

               "I guess that's a date then."

               "I'm sorry, I completely got us distracted from the work. What do I need to do next?" she wondered.

               "I can show you more videos of the TDFL. I'm trying to decide between two different slogans, but I might have a possible answer, I just have to make some decisions." If she liked my idea. then we could move even faster, and she could pitch in more.

               "This isn't just an excuse to show me porn in the office, is it?" Brooke was giggling now, and I had to play along.

               "Absolutely not. If I wanted that, I'd want to film some of our own. Then we could watch them together." Her face turned as red as a tomato, and she just gaped at me. "I'm sorry, that was too much!"

               "You're so bad!" she groaned before giggling. "I don't do that in the office, so don't go thinking I'll be here naked on top of the conference table!"

               Yeah, well you know very well that is all I'll be able to think about now. Shit. "Too bad!"

               "We can start with a nice dinner. No thinking naughty thoughts!" She was still blushing, but there was a little smile too.

               "You got it. Have you been to many places around here?" I wondered.

               "No. I know a lot of places out of the city, but not downtown. I assume you do?"

               I gave her a little shrug. "Not as many as I'd like. Most nights I'm just doing take out or reheating leftovers. But I know a couple, so I'll make sure I treat you to a nice dinner."

               "I can't wait." The smile she gave me was another perfect one, and I was so glad that I'd accidentally asked her out.