their house, my daddy put in as many windows as he could facing the mountains and trees because then she could still feel like she was outside, even when she wasn't."
I hummed. "Sounds like he loves her a lot."
She blinked, standing abruptly from the desk. "He sure does." Then she clapped her hands. "All right, if you've got a box cutter, let's open these up and get moving. They won't unpack themselves."
The abrupt end of the conversation had my head spinning a bit, but I guess normal people took time before jumping into the 'tell me all your thoughts' portion of a workplace relationship.
"Uhh, yeah. In that middle drawer. I think."
Again, she laughed as she took a seat at the desk chair and opened the drawer. Instead of the box cutter, she pulled out a butterscotch candy. "Now ... this is not what I expected to find."
My face went warm. "Yeah, I keep those everywhere. They're my favorite."
"That cannot be true," she said. "These are no one’s favorite. They're the candy you grumble about when you go trick-or-treating as a kid."
I leaned over and snatched one. "Unless you're me and have excellent taste." Unwrapping the candy, I popped it in my mouth and hummed happily. "Help yourself."
She shook her head and pulled out the box cutter. "That's quite all right, thank you."
"How do you want to do this, oh mistress of the spreadsheets?"
Her face lit with a pleased smile, and if I hadn't been so enamored with the change it brought to her already beautiful face, then maybe I'd have reacted quicker when she tossed the box cutter in my direction. Instead, I was staring at her like a goon, so I didn't even attempt to catch it. The box cutter hit me square in the middle of my chest and clattered to the floor.
I stared down at it. "Right."
Lia covered her laughter with a conspicuous cough. "You open, I'll enter it in, and for now, just label the box with what it is so we can figure out a shelving configuration once I know what we're dealing with."
My thumb pushed the razor out on the top of the cutter, and I sliced open the first box. "Just shelves? I wasn't sure if you'd want racks for shirts or anything."
She flipped open a MacBook and typed efficiently, then she pulled out a Bluetooth mouse from her bag and clicked a few times. I may have left my tech job behind, but if watching her maneuver through software was not the sexiest fucking thing I'd ever seen, I didn't know what was.
She was like a flower, blooming bright and pretty, in the middle of the concrete-colored office space, sitting at a drab desk and chair, on top of drab floors. Almost like I'd picked everything about this boring space simply to highlight how beautiful she was.
"I don't think we'll want racks," she said, eyes still on her screen. "If customers get apparel, it'd be nice to have it still in the wrapping so they know it's clean and unused." She glanced at me. "But we don’t need to talk about that yet because I'm still trying to figure out where you'll be getting those corporate clients."
"Yes, ma'am." I grinned and tore into the first box, then started listing off what I had. "Four medium long-sleeve windbreakers. Four large, four extra-large."
She tsked her tongue as she typed that in. "Now what do you need all those windbreakers for, Grady Buchanan?"
"I love that southern tongue cluck." I kept the piles neat, and then read off the next few items in the box. "I’ve got big plans, Lia. I know it probably doesn't seem like it now."
Her eyes flicked to mine over the top of the computer. "Let's hear 'em."
"Two pairs of men's hiking boots, size ten," I told her, flattening the first box and tossing it behind me. "When I was still in LA, we used to do these awful team-building days. They were cheesy and expensive for the company to put together, and figuring out the logistics was always a pain in the ass for the person in charge. Trust falls and 'stand in a circle and let's share your feelings.' Wouldn't you rather call a company that can pick up your employees from work, and you can spend the day out in the fresh air and sunshine, learning about the outdoors, and learn from each other how to navigate the wilderness? Maybe it's a daylong hike. Maybe it's a camping trip