Big Pickle: A Secret Boss Romantic Comedy - JJ Knight Page 0,55
to sweep the crumbs from the deli floor, his smile is so genuine, and his gaze is so earnest, I don’t think I can suspect him of anything terrible.
If he’s playing some game with me, I can’t see it. And even if I’m a short-term fling, it’s not as if I didn’t know he was temporary.
Although he does have a really nice condo for someone only visiting. Maybe it’s a short-term rental. That would explain the cleanliness.
Charlotte follows behind us, swiftly mopping the floor. We’ll easily be done in half the usual time, but I’m mindful of the hours they need.
As we finish up, I tell them, “Go ahead and write down the usual hours. We need to be able to shut down earlier tonight.”
The women ask no questions, happy for less work and an early night. When they finally close the back door, Jason asks, “So I guess we wait here for this guy?”
My annoyance simmers beneath the surface, threatening to boil into anger. “If he’s not here in the next half hour, I say we lock up and he’s fired. I can find someone else.”
But the words are no more out of my mouth when a tap on the front glass draws us back into the front. It’s the security guy. He’s mid-thirties, with a mega-beard and a beer gut.
As I unlock the door, I am ready to lay into him.
But he speaks first. “Thank you so much for understanding today,” he says. “My wife is due any day now, and twice she’s called me home thinking she’s in labor. I’ll get these cameras installed lickety-split; in case I get another one.”
“Oh!” I say. “Are you sure you should be here?”
The man waves me off. “This shouldn’t take an hour. You want everything remote and wireless, right? It’s running wire that takes forever.”
“Yes, wireless,” I say.
He wanders through the deli. “I assume you want something over the register, and front door? You asked for a five-camera system.”
I follow the man. “Yes. Front door. Back door. Cash register. Office. Safe.”
“Show me the other spots. Then I’ll get all the gear from my truck.”
I give the man a rundown of what I’d like, and Jason and I take down a couple of chairs from a table to sit and wait.
“Thanks for hanging out with me,” I say. “You don’t have to if you have something else to do.”
Jason leans in close. “The only thing I want to do right now is you.”
“We’ve been pretty insatiable, haven’t we?” It’s new to me, this every day, twice a day, can’t-stop-thinking-about-it one-track mind.
He waggles his eyebrows at me. “And now we can do it on camera.”
“What! No!” But he’s right. The camera in my office will keep us from going in there.
We didn’t think this through.
Within half an hour, the man tells us he’s installed the cameras, and we need to load the software on my computer to activate them.
The three of us head into my office, and the security guy shows us the varying views of the cameras and the settings to store the recordings.
“You might want to get an external hard drive for this,” he says. “They take up a lot of room.”
“This is great. Thank you.”
He scribbles some numbers on his clipboard and passes me the sheet. “Here’s the invoice. You can mail it in.”
I set the paper down. “Thank you. And good luck with the baby. Is it your first?”
He shoves the clipboard in his rolling cart. “Number six,” he says.
“Well,” Jason says. “That’s something.”
“Tell me about it.” He rolls his cart through the kitchen. “I can see myself out. Thank you for your patience today.”
“No problem!” I call.
I return to the screen, watching the image of the man pass under the register camera and then fall out of view again, picking back up on the camera to the front door.
“This is pretty good,” I say.
Jason picks up my keys. “I’ll go lock the front door.”
I turn to him. “And then what?”
His grin is full of mischief. “We get started on our own six kids.”
My jaw drops, but he laughs and heads out across the kitchen.
I watched him follow the same path as the security guy, admiring his confident stride.
And his butt in those jeans.
I know I should ask him what we’re doing, where we’re going, what his plans are. But this time together has been so full of magic, I don’t want to question it. Just live in the moment. Enjoy what I have while it lasts.