Gaudi and Gehry, fashion designers such as McQueen, cars such as the DeLorean...people talked about them. Remembered them.
But controversy wasn’t what Reddyflora was going for, so Teddy kept his mouth shut about that part.
“Fine, then,” he said. “We need to figure out how to make the vase both look good and work well. Without going over budget.”
“And we have two days.”
They exchanged bleak looks, for once in complete agreement.
When no miraculous solutions descended from the heavens—or from the personal injury lawyer with the offices above them—Teddy slumped in his chair. “So how do you want to start?”
Romeo looked slightly startled at the question. Then he grabbed his tablet and scooted his chair around the desk, placing himself next to Teddy. “Let’s begin with another look at what we’re dealing with.” He poked at his screen for a moment before leaning in close so that Teddy could see too.
The vase was still a monstrosity. That hadn’t changed overnight. The black plastic casing clung to the beautiful streamlined shape as obtrusively as possible. “It’s like an alien in a really bad horror movie. It’s injecting its seed, which will soon burst forth as alien larvae to infect all nearby items of home décor.”
“Yeah, except this alien has all the brains. Your vase is as dumb as a rock. It’s a symbiotic relationship—mutualism, not parasitism. Like ants building fungus farms. Your vase is the fungus.”
Teddy turned his head to give Romeo a look, and it would have been a wonderfully withering look too, enough to make Romeo withdraw his stupid analogy. Except when Teddy looked at him, he suddenly realized exactly how close Romeo was. Inches away. Near enough for Teddy to see that the man had perfect pores, dammit, and his eyes were so deep and soft and warm you could fall into them and never be cold again. And looking down didn’t help one bit, because then Teddy focused on those long, strong fingers hovering practically over Teddy’s lap.
“Lunch!” Teddy hopped out of the chair, nearly sending the tablet flying out of Romeo’s hands.
“What?”
“It’s, um, eleven oh seven. Which I guess is early for lunch, but this way we’ll avoid the crowds. Plus I ate breakfast at oh-dark-thirty today and I’m starved.”
“We have a deadline.” Romeo’s scowl was mighty.
“But we have to eat. We can get right back on this afterward, and if I have to stay late, I will.” But if so, he really hoped Imani was also planning to stick around, because being alone in the office with Romeo at night... Oh, that idea sent Teddy’s brain in all sorts of NSFW directions.
“You’re not going to settle in until you’ve eaten, are you?”
“Nope. We can do something quick, like the sandwich place downstairs.”
Romeo jerked his chin toward the far corner of the room, where a backpack was propped. “I brought mine.”
Teddy shouldn’t have felt rejected. It wasn’t as if he’d asked Romeo on a date, for God’s sake. It wasn’t as if Teddy wanted to date anyone, let alone this particular man. That bitter little twist in his heart was annoyance at Romeo’s impatient expression; that was all.
“Fine. Enjoy your whatever. I’ll be back in a while.”
Teddy absolutely did not flounce out of Romeo’s office. Nor did he have a fleeting hope that Romeo noticed the nice fit of the vintage slacks over his ass.
* * *
Teddy strongly considered going somewhere across town, maybe that Greek place with the heavenly moussaka and glacial service. But sleet had started to spit from the sky, and since he wasn’t in the mood for braving the weather, he settled on the sandwich place downstairs after all. They had soup too, but it was split pea with ham, which didn’t move him. He ended up with PB&J on multigrain, a side of mac and cheese, and a large serving of self-pity. All washed down with a bottle of Vitamin Water that would probably do little to flush the toxins from his system.
He couldn’t quite face returning to the office once his meal was done, so he decided somewhat masochistically to visit Instagram. At the top of the feed was @gbrewes with his 47.5K followers and photos of himself and the new boyfriend in fancy restaurants and scenic locales. Teddy knew he should have unfollowed Gregory immediately after their ugly breakup two years earlier, but he hadn’t been able to click the button. As if repeatedly ripping the scab off his broken heart was a better idea.
But if Teddy and Gregory had been still