Falling Into You (Geek to Chic) (17 page)

Before she
could turn around, Jim, the owner of male voice one, caught her looking at
them.
 
His eyes almost bugged out of his
head.
 
“Oh shit.” He mumbled as he looked
down and shook his head.
 

“Hey
guys.
 
Getting some caffeine so you can
make it through another long day?”
 
She
went for overly nice.

“You
heard?”
 
Craig cringed.

“Sorry, I
didn’t mean to eavesdrop.
 
I know he is
working everyone, including himself way too hard.
 
Maybe I can talk to him, so that you guys get
to see your families this weekend?”
 
She
wanted to defuse this situation.

“How would
that conversation go?
 
You telling him we
were whining like Jemma does?” Jim was clearly not a fan of Jemma.

“No, I will
leave you two out of it completely.
 
I
think all of you would come back with fresh ideas if you had more time off.”
She shrugged.

“Roni that
would be great if you can pull it off.
 
I
really need to spend some time with my wife.”
 
Craig was all but begging.
 

“I’ll do my
best. “
 
She turned to order her coffee,
ending the conversation.
 
Now she had to
figure out how to get Derek, CEO workaholic, to give his team a breather.
 
Yeah,
that should be easy!

***

Derek was
impatiently waiting for Roni at her desk.
 
Jemma never wandered off.
 
He
tapped his fingers along her desk, then stood and paced.
 
He needed the numbers she was going to
email.
 
Apparently she decided that a
break was in order first.
 
Derek knew he
needed to take a breath.
 
He should just
stomp back to his office and lock himself away from humanity until he could get
the asshole CEO under control.

He dragged in
a deep breath, ran his fingers through his hair, ending his pacing he turned
back to his office.
 
He took two steps
and saw Roni coming back from Alex’s end of the office suite carrying two cups
of coffee.
 
He is overloaded with work
and needed a focused assistant, and she went to get coffee?
 
Derek could almost feel the steam coming out
of his ears.
 

Roni smiled
hesitantly at him as she closed in on her desk.
Breath, don’t yell at her.
 
Breath, don’t yell at her.
 
This became Derek’s mantra for the day.
 
“Roni, the email you sent me didn’t have the attachment for the reports
for Alex.
 
I need those reports.
 
You need to resend them. Where did you go?”
 
Ok, he succeeded in not yelling at her, but
his tone was lacking any type of kindness.
 

She scowled at
him. She grabbed one of the coffees from the carrier and thrust it at him.
 
Spilling some of it on his pristine white
dress shirt.
 
She smiled.
 
“Oops, sorry about that.”
 
He didn’t think she was sorry at all. In
fact, he thought she would have dumped the entire cup on him if she could.
 
“As you can see, I went to get some decent
coffee.
 
I thought maybe, your shitty
mood had to do with a lack of caffeine and this would fix it.
 
Apparently I was wrong.”
 

He actually
rolled his eye, she was turning him into a teenager.
 
“I can see you went to get coffee, what I
don’t understand is why.
 
You just got
here after all.”

She scowled
again, her face tighter this time. “If you will recall, Mr. Callaway.
 
I was late this morning because I had to have
the stitches removed from my hand.” She help up her hand to show him. “And
thank you for asking how my hand is doing, sir.”
 
At that point she pushed past him slamming
her coffee on her desk as she sat down in her chair.
 
Her back was now to him.
 

He ran his
hands through his hair again with more frustration this time.
 
How could he have neglected to ask her about
her hand?
 
“Roni, I am sorry I was caught
up in my own crap.
 
How is your hand
doing, baby?”
 
He had moved closer to her
as he spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder attempting to turn her.
 

Just like the
first night in the bar when he had approached her from behind, she startled and
turn quickly.
 
Her elbow connected
directly with his favorite body part.
 
His eyes rolled into his head, as the pain radiated through his body and
he hit the ground with a big “oof”.
 
Kneeling, cupping his balls he looked up to see her looking at him half
in horror, half in amusement.
 

“Shit, I am so
sorry! I didn’t realize you were so close when I turned.”
 
Roni said looking down at him.
 

He wanted to
tell her it was ok, that he should have been known better than to startle
her.
 
And really at this point he
should.
 
However, he could not form any
words.
 
All he could do was whimper in
distress.
 

“Christ,
Roni.
 
What did you do now?”
 
Alex booming voice was over him now.
 
Maybe Alex could drag him to his office so
Derek could check to see if his testicles were in fact in his throat like they
felt.
 

She stood up
to defend herself.
 
“He came up from
behind me and I turned.
 
It’s not like I
meant to wrack him!” She folded her arms over her chest.
 
“Derek, I really didn’t mean to.”
 
She added softly.
 
All he could do was nod.
 

“Come on, I’ll
help you up.”
 
Alex reached down for
Derek’s arm, pulling him to his feet.
 
Standing straight hurt, but he manned up.
 

“Roni.”
 
His voice came out a few octaves higher than
normal so he cleared his throat before he continued.
 
“I know you didn’t mean to rearrange my
anatomy.
 
Although, I may have deserved
it for not asking about your hand.”
 
He
tried to pull off a smile, but was sure his face was still contorted in
pain.
 

Alex turned to
Roni with a horrified puzzled look on his face.
 
“You wracked him because he didn’t ask about your hand?
 
Isn’t getting stitches out a daily occurrence
for you?”
 

“You remember
that she was getting her stitches out?
 
Wow, that makes me look really bad.
 
Go ahead Roni hit my boys again.”
 
Derek said, pulling off a true smile this time.
 

“Dude, I don’t
know what kind of kinky shit you are into but don’t offer a free nut shot to a
woman! Ever!” Alex interjected, covering his junk protectively.
 

Roni shook her
head at the two of them.
 
“Alex, did you
actually need something or did you just come over to annoy me?”

“I came to get
the numbers from you.
 
And to thank you
for the coffee.”
 
Alex gave his best
smile.
 

“Ugh, you two
and those numbers.”
 
She reached for a
folder on her desk, thrust it into Alex’s chest. “Here, take the numbers and
leave me be.
 
Both of you!”
 
With that, she sat down and turned
around.
 

“Um,
Roni.
 
Not to be a dick, but could you
please email this to me? I need to be able to extract the data.”
 
Alex took a step back as he asked her to
email the file.
 
Derek was glad that Alex
had posed the question, his boys were still recovering after all.
 

“Ugh, yes, I
will email it to you!” She mumbled without turning around.
 
They had obviously worn out their
welcome.
 

“Okey
dokey.”
 
Alex backed away from Roni’s
desk, Derek decided to follow his lead.
 
Making it to the safety of his office.
 
“Wow, Clumsy Barbie is in a mood today.”
 
He sat down in Derek’s guest chair.
 

“Make yourself
at home.
 
I have nothing to do today, but
entertain you.”
 
Derek sneered at his
friend.
 

“Oh, so your
winning attitude is why Clumsy Barbie is in a mood.
 
You should take a break, leave for a bit
before you really piss someone off.
 
Or
before Roni decides simply wracking you is not enough punishment for breathing
fire at everyone and takes your balls clean off.”
 
Alex was sitting in a relaxed fashion,
spewing his unnecessary and unwanted advice.
 

“She’ll be
fine.
 
I will avoid the human race in
general today to avoid pissing off anyone.
 
Thanks for the advice, now get out.” Derek sat down, put on his
headphones and focused on work.
 
Out of
the corner of his eyes, he could see that Alex was standing to leave, his mouth
moving.
 
Since Derek’s music was up full
blast he didn’t get the honor of hearing more of Alex’s great advice.
 
Derek smiled at the thought.
 

***

Roni tapped on
her keyboard with a little more force than necessary, but she was still a
little perturbed at Mr. CEO Asshole to care.
   
She couldn’t believe his attitude, all because she preferred paper and
pen to computers.
 
She tapped the keys
even harder.
 
She looked at the
clock.
 
“Fuck a duck.”
 
She mumbled.
 
It was already eleven in the morning and she had forgot to order lunch
and call Collin’s assistant.
 
At least
she had remembered to book the conference room, or Derek would have had another
CEO temper tantrum.
 

Changing
course, she started to look in the stupid contacts on the computer for a place
to order lunch from.
 
She scrolled
through the list and found a place that seemed to have a little bit of
everything on the menu.
 
Roni didn’t know
what the guys on Derek’s team liked to eat.
 
She ordered some salads, sandwiches, pasta, cookies and pops.
 
That should keep them happy for a bit.
 
Now she had to call Collin’s assistant.
 

Luckily, that
number she had in her notebook since Collin had given it to her.
 
No need for her to curse her way through the
contact list on the computer.
 
She dialed
the number she was given, surprised when a male voice answered.
 
“Collin.” That was all the voice said in greeting.
 
Great
another snotty CEO to deal with!

“Collin this
is Roni, I was trying to get a hold of your assistant so that I could set up
your tour of the facility and meeting with Derek.”
 
Roni stated in her most professional non
pissy voice.

Laughter rang
through the other end of the phone. “First, I don’t have an assistant.
 
No need with a company, our size.
 
And second, who pissed in your Wheaties this
morning?”

She stifled a
groan.
 
Usually this type of humor would
bring her out of her mood.
 
Today,
however, she was lumping all men into the asshole category.
 
“Men in general.”
 
She stated politely.

He laughed
again. “All men or just one up tight CEO in particular?”

She rolled her
eyes and despite herself smiled a little.
 
Just a little though.
 
“Just the
one, but the rest of you are slowly getting added to my list.”

Collin laughed
again.
 
“Well, I would like to apologize
on behalf of men for being royal assholes and beg your forgiveness.”
 

Roni had to
laugh at that.
 
“Ok, you Collin, are safe,
for the rest of your kind, though it is still not looking so good.”

“As long as I
am safe that is all that matters.”
 

“Now before
the CEO version of Godzilla comes out of his cave to be sure I have completed
his do now list, when would you and the guys like would to come for a visit?”
Roni’s voice was filled with a little more polite.
 

“Well, let me
ask you a question first, when will Godzilla turn back into Derek?
 
Is it like Cinderella and he turns back into
himself at midnight?”
 

Roni laughed.
 
“Let’s hope, but I think it is going to take
more than the clock striking midnight to turn him human again.
 
A little R and R would probably do the
trick.”