Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,7
he’d banished her in here five years ago, she was surprised to find him in here. She still wasn’t sure what happened. One day, she was stuck in a cramped, tiny office with too much light, squeezed in between the bathrooms and the break-room, making it impossible for her to focus, and the next…
T.J. was meeting her by the back door one morning with a sympathetic smile and announced that he was supposed to show her to her new office. When he gestured for her to follow him upstairs, she’d hesitated when she realized that the only other office available was the one by the stairs. A moment later, Charlie was following him upstairs, debating on handing in her two weeks’ notice immediately or waiting until she found a new job because there was no way that she would have been able to get anything done if she had to deal with the noises coming from the shop below or the sounds of people coming and going all day.
She just couldn’t do it.
Before she had a chance to figure out what she was going to do, he was walking past the small office by the stairs and heading towards the back-storage rooms. Curious, she followed him, noting the sympathetic glances that he kept sending her, and couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing when he opened the door to the extra storage room that nobody used and announced that this was her new office. Since it worked for her, she’d absently waved off his apology and set to work creating the perfect workspace.
“What did you want to talk about?” Charlie asked, unable to help but wonder why he was in here talking to her when he normally had T.J. deal with her if he had a question or needed to tell her something.
“I wanted to…” Devin started to say only to frown when his gaze shifted to her desk. “Where did you get this?” he asked, already getting up so that he could run his hand over the top of her desk.
“I found it?” Charlie said, watching as he leaned over so that he could run his hands over the front of her desk as his curious gaze took in every detail as well as the dents, and scrapes that marked her desk.
“Where?” he asked, running his hand over the top as he moved around the desk and-
She found herself jumping out of her chair and stumbling out of the way when he moved to crouch down so that he could run his fingertips over the drawers, nobs, and-
Click.
“Those aren’t mine,” Charlie found herself saying when a hidden drawer slid open, revealing her secret stash of candy bars.
Devin looked up from the drawer that could really use some more Reese’s peanut butter cups as he reached over and-
Click.
“Okay, those might be mine,” she reluctantly admitted when he found the bag of M&M cookies that she picked up from Dixon’s Bakery yesterday.
Keeping his gaze locked on her, he pulled out the bottom drawer that she used for extra wires and-
Click.
“I have no idea how those got there,” Charlie said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she tried to fight back a wince when Devin slowly turned his head and took in the office supplies that she’d been hoarding.
“I’ll have T.J. bring up a new desk,” he said, sighing heavily as he closed the drawers.
“Why is he bringing up a new desk?” Charlie asked, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“To replace this one,” Devin said, gesturing to her desk.
“What’s wrong with my desk?” she asked, unable to help but frown as she tried to figure out how they’d ended up talking about her desk in the first place.
“Too many flaws,” Devin said, shaking his head as he gestured towards the desk that she loved and planned on buying when she left.
“I don’t want a new desk,” she said, but he wasn’t listening.
“I should have thrown this thing out years ago,” Devin said, moving around her desk as he continued his inspection, shaking his head in disgust as he took in all the imperfections that covered her desk.
“Umm, you’re not throwing out my desk,” Charlie said because this was her desk.
“If you can’t find anything that you like downstairs, I can make you a new one. It might take a little time, but I should be able to finish it by Halloween,” he said as he moved back around her desk so that he could finish his inspection.