Chapter 14
Finn
The next morning, I accepted the offer. I’d hoped I’d get a chance to see Daniel, but he’d already accepted over the phone. He’d been in a meeting and six hours had already passed, and I’d not seen him yet.
I’d not slept all night.
I’d felt ashamed of myself.
Lashing out due to embarrassment wasn’t an excuse. I’d said something inexcusable, and I wanted to make things right. I just needed an opening.
With a sigh, I got up to stretch and use the restroom. I walked in and was instantly shocked. But my hands were faster than my brain. Without thinking my next steps through I locked the door behind me.
Daniel looked up with a frown from where he’d been washing his hands.
He wore a hunter-green button-up with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of pressed and form-fitting khakis, and burnt-umber dress shoes. His hair which was normally styled lay loose and shaggy, he had a slight wave to his hair that I’d never realized existed before. There were dark circles under his eyes, as though he’d not slept the entire night.
My heart squeezed at the sight of him. He looked good but dead tired and I knew part of that was my fault. I twisted my lips as the guilt continued gnawing away at me.
“Finn?”
I leaned against the door, using my body as a blockade to keep him in. That’s how desperate I was. My heart pounded. I had a thousand thoughts and no idea where to start or what to say.
“I didn’t sleep last night.” I almost groaned. Smooth. Real smooth.
Of all things, you could have said, Finneas, you led with that? Ugh…
His lips pursed. Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, I doubted he had either.
“I tried to text you, but you’d already unmatched us. Daniel,” I bit my bottom lip, glanced at the floor for a split second, drew in a fortifying breath, and then said what I should have said from the beginning, “I’m sorry. I had no business saying something so cruel to you.”
He took a deep breath, before padding like a panther slowly toward me. Our bodies were so close we could almost share breath when he’d finally stopped.
“Yeah, but you think it. Everyone does. So, whether you say it or not, doesn’t change facts. Does it?” His words were gentle, but the look in his eyes was far from jovial. For once Daniel was being totally serious and I hated so much it was because of something I’d said.
He paused and my heart clenched. I’d gone back and forth in my head all night, vacillating between anger, shame, and if I was honest… hope. I’d really liked the guy over the text. So much so that I’d thrown all caution to the wind to meet him in person.
If I’d misjudged Daniel then I needed to be a big boy and own it.
I could lie and this thing would be dead and done before I could blink. Or… I took a trembling breath before saying, “I’ve been burned before in love. It hurts. And I… I don’t want to be anyone’s fool again.”
“Yeah, I get it.” He snorted, and gave his head a slight shake, squeezing his eyes shut for half a second and I saw it then. The burn of humiliation. I’d wounded him last night and I hated myself for it.
I winced.
“We’re not a good match,” he said softly and made to move.
I placed my palm on his chest, gently nudging him back. Squeezing my eyes shut for a split second to gain my nerve.
“I don’t know…” I said haltingly, “that I trust a dumb app, but I know this. Talking to Eggplant every night made me really happy. I laughed. I looked forward to each evening. You were interesting and I saw a new side to you that you’d never shown at work. I’m too old to play stupid games, Daniel. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt.”
“You didn’t just say that like some Boomer,” he chuckled.
I glared at him, before shaking my head and frowning grumpily. “See that. Stop it. I’m used to acting a certain way with you at work and I think you are too. But the Daniel on the texts, I liked him. So maybe I didn’t know you. And maybe you don’t know me.”
He stiffened, looking at me up and down. His look was still wary, but there was a glint of something else in his brown eyes.
God, he was handsome. No person had a right to look that good. Seriously.
“Do you want to know me, Finn?” his voice had grown deep, husky. It made me shiver.
“I accepted the offer today.”
He frowned, probably confused by my sudden change of subject. “Oh yeah, I heard.”
“That means we’re gonna be working together. A lot. Sometimes… alone.”
He swallowed.
“I’m not asking for anything or promising you anything, but maybe we can start by being a little more real with each other. What do you think?”
That grin of his that was pure sin and made me breathless spread across his face. He held out his hand. “Deal.”
I shook his hand and call me crazy, but I swear I felt an electric jolt travel from his hand to mine.
The door suddenly jerked.
“Hey, it’s locked! Why’s it locked?” Some guy grumped.
Daniel yanked me gently into him. I was instantly blasted with his scent of wine and chocolate. I inhaled deeply.
“You’re so gonna fall in love with me, Mr. Byrne.”
“Ha,” I laughed. “You are so full of yourself, Mr. Anderson.”
He smirked, but there was a tenderness on his face that hadn’t been there before.
A fist banged into the door. “Open up! I’m about to take a shit on myself.”
I unlocked it, and the large guy bolted in, holding onto his back, farting with each step he took.
Daniel and I laughed as we walked back to our cubicles.
~*~
Daniel
“I’m starving. What’re we having tonight, again? Did we decide?”
I heard someone pipe up which caused me to glance at my watch. Was it time already for yet another company dinner?
What was it about this place that we seemed to have so many every month? I understood team building, to an extent, but this was a little excessive.
Pressing “return” I shot off the final email I needed to in order to transfer over one of the accounts I’d been working on for the past three months. I was now officially freed up.
With a sigh, I stood and stretched. My neck and back were stiff. I’d been hunched over for hours. What I needed was to relax.
Shaquita came up to me and patted me on the back. “C’mon, boss. Just waiting on you.”
I looked at her sky-blue hair bow and nodded, before passing a cursory glance over the others gathering before the elevator. Noticeably absent was Finn.
“Where’s Finn?”
She shook her head. “He started running a slight fever about four hours ago. He left for home. You didn’t know?”
I frowned. “No. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Well, you weren’t here, boss. Think you were at a meeting then. Anyway, he got it cleared with HR.”
Blowing out a breath, I glanced at my wristwatch. “You guys go find us that table. Here.” I fished my wallet out of my pocket and handed her my company card. Thirty a plate got it. Anything beyond that, you guys are responsible for. I have to give him the case file, anyway, might as well check on him while I’m there.”
She took the card, giving me a knowing look.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m only going as a concerned boss.”
“Mmhmm. I know,” she said, even though that smirk didn’t leave her.
Rolling my eyes to hide my own need to chuckle, I grumbled as I snatched up my belongings, tucked them into my leather messenger bag, and headed out.
It paid to be a team manager because every employee's home of record was accessible to me.
I was just going to do what any good boss would.
I passed a food vendor selling vegan steamed buns. I paid for two mushroom buns and a bowl of rice porridge. Maybe he’d not eaten. Did he like chives?
Probably not. He hated green onions. “Hold the chives,” I said in quick-fire Korean.
The ajumma was quick and efficient and five minutes later I had my steamed buns and porridge. I was a block away when I noticed a CVS. Shaquita had mentioned him having a fever.
Did he have medicine?
I didn’t have a clue what to get him, or how sick he was. For all I knew he had the medicine he needed at home.
Still, that didn’t stop me from running in, grabbing some fever and heat reducer, just in case this was his time of the month. Omegas did mark their heats on their work calendars so that they were always given those three days off to recover. It was a law that’d been passed several decades prior. When an Omega went into heat, Alphas could become… well, pricks. To put it mildly. Not all. If you were raised with manners, you wouldn’t just assault a poor Omega in heat, but sad to say it’d happened with a frequency that’d required the laws to be changed. Hard to believe that even twenty years ago many Alphas had advocated for the permanent ban of Omegas from the workforce because they were thought to be too much of a distraction.
By the time I was standing outside his apartment door, I was feeling stupid. I had three loaded bags in my hand full of food, medicine, and electrolyte drinks.
I cleared my throat.
Was this overkill?
Scratching the side of my head I thought maybe it was. I was just debating whether to toss a few of the drinks away when the door suddenly swung open.
Finn stood there in adorable duck print pajamas. The shorts were… short. Highlighting the curves of his waist and thighs. And the shirt was so damn cute if I hadn’t been holding onto so many bags, I might have embarrassed myself and pulled him into me. As though I had the right to.
I worried my bottom lip, feeling foreign and unsure in this situation.
“Ah,” I said lamely.
He frowned prettily. His long lashes framed his dark blue eyes. “Daniel? Why?”
The moment he spoke I caught a whiff of a scent and quickly took a giant step back.
He cocked his head, looking like a confused puppy and making my heart do crazy things in my chest.
“Flowers,” I said.
He looked confused for half a second more before he gasped, touched his uncovered neck, and then raced for his room.
My palms were sweating.
His gland was exposed.
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