Conklin's Blueprints (17 page)

“Our food will be here shortly.  I hope you don’t mind, but I ordered sushi for us.”  I tried to give him a pleasant nod.  I think he bought it. I was picky about sushi and was more interested in the California rolls. 

“So, Becca.  Is there anything I can do to make your job better?  More comfortable?”  he asked me smoothly, pouring some sparkling water into a very fancy glass that looked more like a wine glass.

“Everything is great RJ.  I really like everyone, and I am always busy.  It’s been a dream come true.” I said honestly.

He gave me a dazzling smile.  It reminded me of Tyler’s.  Then my mind drifted to his unhappiness with my meeting his dad.  The pleasant thought of Tyler’s smile vanished.  I hoped he was stewing in his office.  I could picture his sulk.

“Well, I’m glad you like it,” he said, waving one of his assistants inside.

Our food came just as he was talking, and I was relieved when RJ’s assistant placed California rolls in front of us.  There were six other types of rolls, only one other one looked like it might have some promise to be good.  His assistant was one of the leggy blondes that walked in with him on Monday.  She gave me a look over and huffed, then turned to RJ and asked him in a very seductive voice if he wanted anything else.  He shook his head then shooed her away.  The blond was clearly upset by his reaction to her and glared at me as she left.

“Please, help yourself.  I like everything but the California rolls,” RJ said, starting to put pieces on his plate.  I let out a small smile.

“Good thing that is the only sushi I like.” 
Sort of like.

His grin widened.  “Are you getting along with all of your co-workers?”

“Yes, everyone is great.”

He studied my face for a moment, and then tilted his head.  “What about Tyler?”

I chewed my sushi roll slowly, as though that would give me more time to think about how to answer him.  I wanted to say we had secret rendezvous, but I didn’t have it in me.  If Tyler didn’t want his dad to know about me then I wasn’t going to be the one to spill the beans.

“”Tyler… is great, a bit grumpy sometimes,” I said trying to sound nonchalant.  I slowly moved my eyes to meet his. 

His grin faded.  “He can be a bit of a grouch.”

I let out a slight laugh.  He could be more than a grouch.   RJ cocked his head at my laugh, his grin reappearing.

The rest of the lunch we continued with small talk and the trip out to Ludington for the Enterprise Yachts account.  He eventually brought up my dad.

“You should talk to your dad about the expansion on the arena.  We would love to have him as a client.  I’m sure he would be proud to say his daughter had a hand in the remodel.  You could be the lead architect if he decides to sign with us.”

There it was--my father’s name being thrown in my face again.  Being the lead architect would be a dream come true, but not if I only got the job because the building was my father’s.  If I’m going to be a lead on a project, I want it to be because I earned it, not because of my last name.

I shrugged my shoulders.  “Maybe I will bring it up at family dinner.  We don’t really talk about work though.”

“I will make sure you receive a nice bonus for the sale.  It is a big deal for us to keep getting local commercial accounts.  It would mean a lot to me if you could land this,” he said, crossing his legs.

The businessman in him was starting to come out.  I could see where Nathan got it.  I glanced at the clock above RJ’s desk and started to stand.  He instantly stood with me.

“I should get back to help Will and Corey prep for our meeting this afternoon,” I said politely.  RJ started to walk over to me, putting his hands on my forearms and leading me past the table towards his black couch as though he wanted me to sit down.  I felt uncomfortable with his hands on me.  When he moved me towards the couch he pulled me to sit down.  He took his hands from my arms and sat down next to me, turning his chest to face me.

“You don’t have to rush back.  I’m sure everything is prepared just fine.”

I fidgeted in the seat, crossing my legs and folding my arms across my lap, worried if I were to look exposed he would take that as a sign he could touch me again.

“I like your necklace,” he said as he reached up to finger the yellow and gray swirled teardrop shaped piece of clay.  It was laced through a black string.  I quickly stood up before his fingers could touch my skin.  He quickly stood with me.

“Thank you for lunch and for making me feel welcome,” I tried to sound sincere.  I’m sure it was in my head, but a slimy feeling came upon me when he reached for my necklace.

He smiled as though nothing strange had happened.  RJ went to open the door for me, and as I walked by, he placed his hand on my lower back.  I tried not to tense; he was just being friendly.

“I will see you in a few hours Becca.  It was great doing lunch.  We should do dinner sometime.”  His smile was mischievous.

I gave him a friendly nod and continued to the elevator.  Before getting into the elevator, I decided to walk down the other hall to see if I could find Tyler’s office.  The door was closed.  I decided to knock.  I heard an irritated ‘come in’ and I slightly pushed open the door.  I wanted to give him a piece of my mind.

I slowly stepped in and closed the door behind me.  Not taking but a foot in the door, I put my hands on my hips and stared him down.  Tyler was standing next to a table that had fancy glass liquor jars.  He was pouring himself a glass, his back towards me.  His office was a lot like RJs, gray walls with black fixtures.  He didn’t have a couch, but two large, black chairs that sat in front of a white desk.  He didn’t have any pictures hung up.

“Nathan, I’m not in the mood,” he started to say without turning to me.  I decided to take a different approach.  Not sure where my courage was coming from, I slyly came up to his back, tracing my fingernail down his spine.

He quickly spun around, nearly spilling his glass.  “Jesus Becca, you scared me!”  he gasped, taking a step back from me.  I narrowed my eyes at him and took a step to fill the space between us.

He gulped at my expression nervously, but then put on a cool exterior.  Taking another sip from his glass, he let his eyes bore into mine.  I wasn’t going to shy away from him this time.  I was going to tell him exactly how I felt and exactly what I thought about our encounter before my meeting with his father.

“What the hell was wrong with you earlier?” I glared at him.

His eyes became intense.  “I didn’t know you were going to have lunch with RJ.  You never told me.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  “What?  Do I have to ask for your permission?”

“No, but I would like to know when you are going to be alone with him.  You didn’t have to go behind my back about it,” he spat.

I scoffed at him, “Behind your back?  He is my boss!  I can’t say no to him because my secret friend doesn’t like the idea of me being alone with him!”

“What did you do with him?” he shouted.

“I had a meeting with him!  We talked what else would we be doing!”

Tyler’s jaw clenched tight.  “Anytime a pretty girl goes in there for lunch, they normally aren’t talking.”

My jaw dropped.  “You thought I was having a nooner with your Dad?  For God sakes Tyler he is in his 50s!”  How could he ever think that I would ever sleep with him!  Yeah, he was attractive for his age, but I would never have any type of physical contact with the man or none that I would start.  He did touch me a few times which made me feel uncomfortable, but I wasn’t about to tell Tyler that.

Tyler didn’t take his eyes off me.  His face suddenly looked pained, like something had been taken from him.

I waited for him to say something, but the silence irritated me even more.  I turned around to leave.  “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about our drunken night together or any of our other times we have spent hanging out.  Have a great night!” I nearly shouted while storming out the door.  He didn’t try to follow me.  He didn’t say a word.  I was so mad at him.  Why on earth would he be so jealous of his father?  His parents were still married, although I guess that doesn’t matter to some people.  I stormed into Corey’s office where Will and Corey were staring at the plans they had been working on.  They both turned their heads towards me, and then looked at each other, then back at the plans.  I let out a sigh.

“Sorry I’m a little late.  My meeting went longer than expected,” I huffed, trying to gain my composure.  I hoped they weren’t able to see the steam that was radiating off of me from being so mad.

Corey stifled a smile.  “Did RJ get you all flustered?  He has that effect on Will, too.”

Will furrowed his brows at Corey and then turned to me.  “Don’t worry about it Becca, RJ can be a lot to handle.  Are you okay?”  He was being sincere, which made me feel horrible.  Will was so worried about this account, yet he still wanted to make sure I was okay.  I felt bad for Will, he talked about his wife and two young boys all of the time, and with this account happening he hadn’t been home to see them nearly as often as usual.  I knew what it was like to not get to see my father very often.

We finished prepping for the meeting and headed to the floor where we were going to be conferencing. We all arrived early, wanting to get everything in place and perfect for RJ to examine.  Nathan, and to my surprise, Tyler, came walking in to take a seat.  I refused to look at Tyler.  Nathan noticed and sat down next to me.

“Becca, nice to see you again,” he smiled while watching Tyler.  When I got the courage to glance at Tyler, he was looking anywhere but at me.  He sat down at the far end of the table and pulled out his phone.  A minute later, my bag started chirping.  I rolled my eyes and ignored it.  Tyler peeked up at me and then looked down to his phone.  My bag chirped again.  I blew out air, crossing my arms glaring at him.  Nathan looked between the two of us. 
Chirp.
I rolled my eyes.  Everyone was looking at me now.

Trying to contain my heated cheeks, I searched to get my phone out of my bag.  I saw Tyler smirking out of the corner of his eye as though he had won. Narrowing my eyes, I looked at the messages.

I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have talked to you like that-Tyler

Will you walk with me to my car for our date tonight instead of me picking you up? -Tyler

I know you hear your phone-Tyler

I can do this all afternoon. -Tyler

My fingers couldn’t type fast enough for his reply.  I secretly hoped his phone was on ringer so everyone would look at him with each reply I made.

You’re right; you shouldn’t have talked to me like that. -Becca

Not a chance in Hell. -Becca

Yes, I did hear my phone.  I was obviously trying to ignore you. -Becca

You can do this all afternoon but it won’t change anything. -Becca

His phone constantly vibrated, and his arrogance quickly turned to distress.  Before he could reply, I silenced my phone and noisily threw it in my bag so he would notice.  Tyler cocked his head at me and gave me a pleading look.  I thought his lips might start to pout soon.  It was kind of cute, but I needed to remember that I was mad at him.  I quickly started fumbling with my iPad, as though I were preparing more for the meeting.  I heard Nathan let out a chuckle.  He clearly caught on that we were talking to each other.

RJ walked in with two of his super model assistants and was ready for business.

“Let’s see what you have come up with, Will,” RJ said leaning over the prints. 

The rest of the meeting was very typical.  We threw around ideas that could make it better and thought about different ways to make the buildings more eco-friendly. I had trouble following along because I was so worried about whether Tyler was looking at me or not.  I wanted to forgive him and wrap my arms around his waist, but I needed to hold my ground.  I wasn’t going to be walked all over anymore.

Once the meeting was over I hurried to gather my things and headed down to our department to grab my coat.  I didn’t feel like talking to any of the Conklins, they were giving me a major head rush.  I quickly put my coat on to leave, but then I caught something yellow out of the corner of my eye on my chair.  I went to pick up the single yellow rose that had a note attached to it.

I’m sorry.  Let me make it up to you tonight. -Ty

I smelled the rose, letting my anger subside.  Tyler must have come up here before the meeting to place it on my chair.  He was trying.  He did repeatedly say he wasn’t used to this, not that I knew what he was talking about half the time.   Maybe I should lighten up on him. 

I started to walk towards the elevator in a trance, holding the flower to my nose.  Before I could make it to the hallway where the elevator was, Tyler was leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets.  He was dressed in dark gray suit pants and a button up light blue shirt with a navy tie that looked a little loose around his neck.  His eyes were weary as he peeked up at me.  I walked right up to him, cocking my head, still holding the rose to my nose.  With a lopsided smile he reached his hand out to me, his eyes afraid to look anywhere but mine.  I sighed and took his hand, still holding the rose to my face. 

We walked to the elevator in silence.  Once the doors closed I spoke.  “You know a flower doesn’t fix everything.”

“I know.  I never should have assumed anything without talking to you.  I’m sorry I spoke to you the way I did earlier,” he whispered, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

“Thank you for the rose.  Why yellow this time and white this morning?”

“I thought you would like the white, and the yellow matches your outfit today,” he smiled.

I blushed, bringing the rose down from my face.  “So, what are we doing tonight?”

“Are you a hockey fan?”