Zero Forks - Cat Johnson Page 0,42
pour. You talk.”
Drawing in a breath, she finally settled on a stool at the kitchen island. “I’m embarrassed to even tell you this.”
My brows shot up. “Well, now I really can’t wait to hear. Sounds interesting.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Okay. Fine. So yesterday I heard your girl friends in the bakery—”
“Whoa. Let me interrupt you right there. Just so you know. None of them are my girlfriend. Never have been. They’re just friends who happen to be female.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Yes. I get that. Thanks.”
“Continue,” I prompted, sorry to have stopped her but happy I’d reinforced that I was free and available.
Completely available. For her.
She drew in a breath. “Anyway, I heard Bethany say bee's knees. And then her two friends both said something else equally . . . odd, colorful, out of character, I guess you could say. I jumped to the conclusion that these were becoming common phrases that Millennials, as a generation, were all using.”
“Oh.” I started to see what had happened.
Sarah glanced up and met my gaze. “I incorporated all the terms I’d heard into my marketing plan for a new product that’s targeting Millennials.”
I couldn’t control my smile, though I tried.
Poor Sarah. I did feel bad for her. I wiped my hand across my mouth to erase the expression before I explained to her what the deal was.
“It’s not a Millennial thing. It’s a Bethany thing. She says crazy stuff like that all the time. She lived with her grandma for a few years, who used to say stuff like that, so she does too. Bethany does it so often that Red and Harper tease her about it now by doing it too.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. It just never crossed my mind that you’d go and use anything Bethany said at your work.”
She let out a huff of a laugh. “Well, that’s the thing. I almost used it. I was planning on using it. It was in my notes for my presentation, but the bastard—” Her gaze cut to the swear jar.
I shook my head. “Swear jar penalties are waved for the moment. This is important. Go on.”
She drew in a breath again. “I found the guy on the account with me sneaking a look at my notes right before the meeting. The son of a bitch stole my idea. But it backfired. He presented first, made a big deal about using these hot new Millennial terms in the campaign and got completely shot down by the two bosses in the room because—of course—these aren’t hot new terms at all.”
“Good. Son of a bitch got what was coming to him.” The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. “Who is this asshole anyway?”
Feeling the frown settle on my brow, I was ready to put this guy up against a wall and teach him a thing or two about stealing other people’s shit. I didn’t care if it was an idea or something tangible. Stealing was stealing. He was a fucking thief.
She shook her head. “He’s just some dickhead who got hired a little while back.”
I enjoyed hearing her cuss.
Too bad the swear jar would be going back into effect at the end of this conversation.
I realized my attraction to Sarah had momentarily distracted me from my anger over the dickhead at her job. But now that I thought about him again, my full rage was back.
“You need me to take care of him for you, you let me know.”
A smile bowed her lips. “You would really do that for me?”
“In a heartbeat,” I said, with complete sincerity.
She evaluated me closely with those green eyes, and for a second, I swore she looked interested in more than my nanny services.
Her gaze dropped briefly to my mouth before she pulled it away to focus on the damn glass of iced tea instead.
Had she been any other woman, I would have grabbed her in both hands and kissed the hell out of her. But she wasn’t any other woman.
Maybe that was the point exactly. The reason I wanted her more. Why I pursued her less. Sarah was different. And I was ready, willing and able to rise to the challenge. But first I had to get her out of her work jam.
“So you didn’t make a fool of yourself at work because dickhead saved you by stealing your idea. Right? So everything is good. Correct?”
My gaze dropped to the rise and fall of her chest as