We walked down the hall and into Lee’s office, which was more of the same but with a bigger desk. I was shocked when I entered, it was obsessively neat and tidy. A sleek coffee mug sat on a leather coaster on the desk, the mug shiny clean. A laptop also was on the desk, closed and positioned perfectly at an angle to the side. Fancy leather and wood desk accessories adorned the top as well, but they were empty except for a pencil holder filled with perfectly pointed pencils and one folder sitting in the in tray.
“This is scary, you’re a neat freak,” I said.
Lee walked behind the desk, opened the laptop and hit a button. “Dawn keeps it like this.”
That was not surprising.
“I bet she does.”
Lee’s eyes came to mine. “I’m not exactly in the business that allows me to keep open files on my desk.”
Hmm.
Locking away confidential files is one thing. Keeping your boss’s designer coffee mug shiny clean is another. I gave myself one guess as to who bought Lee that mug and that guess was Dawn. I wondered if it was a thanks-for-the-great-sex gift or a wish-we-were-having-great-sex gift.
I didn’t answer Lee. I made a show of studying the cowboy print on the wall and decided not to tell him that it was likely that Dawn would clean his Crossfire with her toothbrush if he asked.
Knowing Lee, he probably already knew.
“She’s dating a Bronco linebacker,” Lee told me, as ever, in my brain.
“Un-hunh,” I told the wall.
There was a big difference between dating a guy who, on Sundays a couple seasons of the year, played at being a tough guy, badass while wearing pads and a guy who simply was a tough guy, badass. The linebacker may get big bucks but he was not the real thing and, anyway, Lee wasn’t hurting money-wise, that was certain.
When I looked back at Lee, he was studying the file but he had the eye-crinkle going.
I was amusing him.
“What’s funny?” I asked.
He didn’t even look up. “You’re jealous.”
As if!
“I am not!”
He shook his head but didn’t answer and kept scanning the file.
“Lee, if you think she doesn’t have the hots for you, you aren’t as clever as I thought. And if you’ve already screwed her, you really aren’t as clever as I thought.”
He closed the file, dropped it on the desk and moved around it, toward me.
“Dawn’s organized, cordial, always on time, willing to do overtime at a moment’s notice and doesn’t get flustered easily. I know she’s attracted to me but she’s my employee and she’s a good one. No way I’d touch her. You don’t shit where you live.”
He was backing me up across the office and doing his disarming straight talk thing. I had to admit I was a little pleased Lee hadn’t sampled his receptionist. Not only would it make things potentially difficult for me in future, it was tacky. Though, thinking about it now with a clearer head, she wasn’t his type.
“All righty then,” I said when the backs of my legs hit a leather couch.
His hand went to my jaw.
“You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I wasn’t worried.” This was almost not a lie. Dawn was pretty but she was super-thin. Lee liked a woman with curves, always had and (hopefully) always would.
“No?” Lee asked, his eyes warm, his face wearing what had become a familiar soft look, a look I’d only ever seen him give to me.
Still, he didn’t believe me.