First Sight (40 page)

Good Morning
Maddy
,
I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  ;)  Will you have lunch with me today?
Travis

I smiled to myself
because we
already
had lunch together almost every day.  Even last week when we hadn’t been on good terms, we had ended up in the same group one day by default.  It was a small office—we couldn’t exactly avoid each other.  I wrote him back as soon as I finished reading his message.

Travis
,
My weekend
was perfect.  How about yours?
Lunch sounds great.
Maddy

His reply came back immediately.

My weekend was amazing.
T.

***

Travis was stuck
in his
meeting
for most of the morning, so I didn’t get to see him
again
until lunchtime.  He stopped by my office just as Marissa was getting ready to go meet Rob. 
“Hey
Maddy
,” he said, leaning on the doorframe, an easy smile on his face.  I took in his dark hair, deep brown eyes, and strong jaw, thinking again how handsome he was.  He
looked
so
big as he stood there
gazing
down at me, and I felt my heart
beat quicken as I watched him.

“Hi,” I said, breaking into an eager smile.  I grabbed my purse from underneath my desk and stood up, smoothing out my dress.  I’d worn a sleeveless navy dress that had cream
accents
at the neckline and waist and had paired that with a pair of strappy
high-
heel
ed
sandals.  I felt Travis’s eyes still on me as I looked back up at him.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, his voice suddenly sounding very deep.

“Sure, let’s go,” I said with a smile.

“Ahem,” Marissa interrupted loudly.

“Marissa,” Travis said, looking over at her for the first time.
“How are you?”

“And how was your weekend, Travis?” she asked coyly, completely ignoring his question.

“Oh, I figured you already heard all about it,” he said, laughing easily.  I walked over to him and noticed that even now I felt a slight thrill as I approached him, despite the fact that I’d spent most of the weekend with him by my side.  H
e
remained in the doorway, and I paused
beside
him, looking back to Marissa as she spoke.

“I heard
Maddy’s
take on things,” she teased.  “Of course I’d love to hear your side of the story.”

“Maybe some other time,” he said with a grin.  “I’m tak
ing
Maddy
to lunch right now.”

“
All right,” she said, pretending to pout.  “By the way, y
ou two look really cute together.”

Travis held out his hand, and I reached out and clasped it.  I felt the electricity between us as his warm hand tightened around mine. 
I wondered if anyone would see us holding hands as we walked down the hallway together and decided that I didn’t really care.  I loved the feel of him beside me too much to worry about
what anyone else was thinking.

“Cute?” Travis asked as we walked away.  His thumb absently traced circles on the back of my hand, and I felt a thrill shoot through me at his touch
on
my skin.

“
Well
,
like I said before, s
he’s been hoping we’d get together for months.  I got to hear about it all morning.”

“She’s too much,” Travis said with a laugh.

“Don’t I know
it.
”

“But I can’t argue with her logic on this one,” he said, grinning down at me.
  I laughed and grinned back at him.  We happened to run into Jeff in the hallway, and a look of understanding suddenly flashed across his face.

“See you guys later,” he said as he headed into the break room.
  Poor Jeff had looked so confused this
morning,
he was probably relieved that we were heading out so he didn’t have to deal with the two of us.

“Is the café okay with you?”
Travis
asked
politely, interrupting my thoughts.

“Sure, that sound
s great.”

After we exited the building, we headed down the block to our favorite café.  Usually we just went there to grab some carryout, but there was a small dining area.  We both ordered burgers without even glancing at the menu above the counter, and then laughed that we had obviously been there too many times before.  I walked over to a booth, and Travis followed me, carrying our tray of food.  I slid in, and he sat down across from me. 
I grabbed my plate and diet coke from the tray
. 
Travis s
e
t the basket of fries between us, pouring some ketchup on his plate
a
nd not on top of the fries since he knew I didn’t like it.

He dipped a fry into his ketchup and popped it in his mouth.  He
looked so completely relaxed
and
at ease
today
. 
Just like me, he must
also
feel
relieved that the stress of last week
was
gone. 
Sure, we were crazy busy at work, but
everything was
easier when you didn’t have to worry about not speaking to a member of your own team.  “We should definitely eat out of the office more often,” Travis said with a grin.

“Totally agree,” I said, taking a bite of my burger.
  “I wonder if Marissa and Elizabeth will miss us.”

“
I think they’ll manage,” he said lightly.  “
So, Marissa grilled you, huh?” he asked, giving me a sympathetic look.

“Of course.
 
Did you expect anything less?”
I
asked.  I took
a sip of my diet coke
and looked over at him to see his response
.

“From Marissa?
No
,” he said, smiling wryly. 
“I’m pretty sure she’s itching to do the same with me.  Luckily I was stuck in that meeting all morning.” 
He picked up his burger and took a large bite.

“Did you say anything to
Elizabeth
?”

“Nah, she’ll figure it out soon enough
.
”

“You know Marissa has a big mouth.”

“Then I guess it will be sooner rather than later.”

I laughed and thought that he was such a typical guy, not bothering to explain anything.  I couldn’t really imagine him walking into the office this morning and randomly announcing our new status to Elizabeth, but she must have wondered what had happened after our big fight last week.  I don’t think she actually would be surprised though that we had made up and gotten together.  She had been just as bad as Marissa recently
with
her interest
in
Travis and me. 
I took another bite of my burger and noticed that
Travis
was already halfway finished with his.

“How do you eat so fast?”

He shrugged.  “I’m a guy.
So how was your morning?”

“Aside from Marissa’s interrogation?
 
Typical Monday.
 
Lots of emails to go through, stuff to sort out, etc. 
Tomorrow’s going to be rough though. 
I think we finally have all of the reviews in, so we’ll be doing the final layout and proofing.
  It seems like something is always coming in at the last minute though, so I have a feeling it will be a late night.
”

Travis nodded as I spoke.  “I was
in a meeting with one
of the freelancers this morning,
going over the last of his reviews
.
  I mean, the reviews were fine, but he hadn’t fact-checked the hours or correct addresses of some of the places.  I mean, that’s what we’re paying them for.  It’s kind of a waste of my time to be doing his job.
”

“I’ll be so relieved when this week is over,” I said, sighing.  “But on the bright side, we’ll be done with
this publication
.”

“Yeah, I won’t be too sad when we can stop working late every night.”

I glanced down at my watch.  “Ugh, do we really have to go back to the office?  Spending the afternoon with you sounds
like
much more fun.”

“Unfortunately, I think they might notice if we’re gone,” he said with a
laugh
.

“
Yeah, you’re probably right.”

I slid out of the booth, and Travis stood up as well.  “Come on,” he said, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling
me
to him.  It was the closest
we
’d been all day, and I relaxed against him as I
felt the warmth of his body against mine
.  We slowly walked to the door, neither of us eager to return to
work
.  “
Let’s make a quick detour,” Travis suggested.  “
I’ll buy
us
coffee
s
on the way back.”

The
next
couple of
day
s
were
so busy
that
I
barely had time
to think about
anything but work
.  At our weekly meeting
,
we’d
discussed
the remaining aspects of the project.  Although it had gone much more smoothly than our
disastrous
meeting last week, everyone was
stressed out from
the heavy workload and tight timeline remaining. 
I was desperately looking forward
to sending the publication off to press
so that I wouldn’t be stuck at the office
late
each night and Travis and I could spend some quality time together. 
Starting a relationship
couldn’t have come at a worse time as far as stress from work was concerned.  Although it had b
een wonderful spending last weekend
together,
aside from lunch on Monday,
we’d barely had time to reconnect this week.  I was looking forward to some quiet time alone with him this weekend.

I spent
all of
Wednesday
aft
ernoon
with Marissa in the large conference room, the
pages of the layout spread
out
across the table
.
 
As Marissa was explaining some
of the graphic elements she’d incorporated, m
y mind drifted, and
I recalled stopping
by Travis’s office that morning
. 
His eyes had brightened when he sa
w
me, and as he
bent down to quickly brush his lips against mine
, he’d
said that I looked beautiful.

“
What do you think
?”
Marissa
asked,
bringing me back to the present. 
I looked
down at the page she was gesturing at
.

“Yeah,
it looks great
,” I said,
telling myself that I needed to focus.

Elizabeth
peeked in the doorway. 
“How’s
everything
going?” she asked.

“Ugh—it’s
very
slow going
.
  How’s
the website stuff
?”

“
It’s in good shape
.
”

“
Well
I’m glad someone is making prog
r
ess
,” Marissa muttered.  “Come over and tell us what you think of this layout.”

Elizabeth walked over, h
er brown h
air
cascad
ing
down
around
to her shoulders, and I realized she was dressed nicer than usual, wearing a green twin-set and knee-length
cream
skirt.  “You look nice today,” I commented.

“
Thanks,
”
Elizabeth
said hesita
n
tly
, and
I knew
immediately
t
hat she was about to
broach the subject of Travis
. 
B
ecause the two of them shared an office
, she must have some idea of what was going on in his life. 
“
So, y
ou and Travis?”