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Just The Best Friend's Daughter

Gray

Jackie showed me what needed to be done and showed me where my desk is as well. It’s directly across from Mark’s office and is near the photocopy machine. Jackie places more paperwork on the desk as I place my bag in the desk drawer and take a seat. When I look up, I see Mark in his office, busy going through documents, and I can’t help but pause what I’m doing and just stare at him, admiring him. As if sensing that I’m looking at him, he looks my way, and I quickly grab a document and roughly skim through it, as my hands are shaking. I release a breath, I should stop staring at him when I’m seated here. I’m going to have a hard time concentrating while being able to see directly into his office.

I quickly pick up on everything Jackie is teaching me, so she can return to her duties. I distract myself by working through the backlog which I try to complete first before moving on to the other emails and documents.

I am so buried in my work, that I didn’t notice someone standing in front of my desk. I look up and I am met with Sam’s infectious smile. “Hey,” I say smiling, “sorry, I’m just buried in my work.” I chuckle.

“I can see that, I don’t need to ask you how work is going because you are pretty busy,” he says, his hands in his pockets. I see Mark exit his office and he is coming our way. My heart rate is spiking. He walks towards the photocopy machine, oblivious to us.

“So what can I help you with?” I ask Sam because I do not want to get into any trouble with Mark just being close by.

“It’s lunchtime, so I wanted to know if you can grab lunch with me?” Sam doesn’t seem to care that Mark is around.

“Um, I have loads of work so I can’t,” I say, looking down, gesturing at the documents on my desk. “I’m still learning and adapting to this work.”

“Don’t bother Gray-Lynn during working hours.”, Mark says as he is standing with a document in his hand looking at Sam with a serious look in his eyes, and I take in a sharp breath, and then his gaze moves over to me, “Gray-Lynn, you are always free to take your lunch during lunch breaks.” Then he turns back to make more copies of documents.

“So I take it as our cue to have lunch,” Sam says smiling, still with his hands in his pockets, moving back and forth on his heels awkwardly. Mark walks past us to his office, without even looking our way. Well, what do I expect?

I take my purse and phone out of the desk drawer and then I get up from my seat. " I’m just going to see if Mr. Stern needs anything,” I say and I walk into his office. He is typing away on his laptop. “Do you need anything for lunch?” I ask nervously.

“Just a cappuccino please,” he says without looking up at me. He takes something out of his desk drawer and holds it out to me while looking at me without any expression. I walk over to him. “This is a credit card, keep it and when anything is needed, use that card.” I nod, as I take the card from his hand, my fingers brush softly against his and I feel some sort of spark from the touch and I gasp, I quickly take the card.

He holds my gaze with so much intensity in it. “Will do,” I say, I swallow and then I walk out of the office.

There was so much intensity in the air, I’m thankful now that I’m walking beside Sam to the coffee shop that is next door to Sternpoint. We entered the coffee shop. It’s a bit small but it’s comfortable, so I’m glad that we went here for lunch. We sit at a table by the window, cars pass by and people are walking on the sidewalks, talking on their phones, and talking to each other. Sam went to order our meals with the barista.

Sam comes back with our coffee and a sandwich for us both. He takes a seat. “You seem on edge after coming out of Mr.Stern’s office,” he says, looking at me with those gorgeous blue eyes.

“Well, I’m just thinking of the amount of work that is still left to do.” I lie and shrug, I break a piece off of the sandwich before placing it into my mouth.

“I hope that he isn’t too hard on you,” he says, taking a bite from his sandwich.

I shrug “Only time will tell.” I say.

“At least he is cool with you going out to lunch and not making you work straight through it,” he says before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Yes.” I smile, “He would let me take my lunch.” I know that Mark won’t let me starve, he’s known me since I was a kid. He looked after me, so I know he won’t be very strict with me. I break away from my thoughts. “So how is work on your side?”

“Well, it’s okay. Sometimes it’s boring, but it keeps me busy.” he shrugs.

“Boring? I thought you loved web designing.” I say with a smirk.

“Well, I only studied because of my mom. She wanted me to pursue it, so I did and look where I am now,” he says.

“Well, if web design isn’t what you wanted to pursue, then what is it that you want to do?” I’m curious to know.

“I wanted to become a pilot, but the reason my mother did not approve of it is that she doesn’t want anything bad to happen to me. Like a plane crash, my uncle was a pilot and the plane that he flew crashed, the engine failed, and he died,” he says, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say as I look at my coffee while thinking back to how it feels to lose someone that you love so much.

“How about you?” I look at him, eagerly wanting to know my story.

“Well, web design is something that I have always enjoyed. My mother died when I was four years old. She had cancer which was too far along. She passed away within a year of being diagnosed. She loved creating web designs. I would always sit by her side as she designed, so I love it.” I let out a little laugh.

“I’m sorry to hear that too,” he says.

I shrug. “It’s been a very long time. My dad is into real estate, so he travels a lot on business, so I don’t always get to see him, and let’s not forget about the relationships he had after my mother. None of those ever lasted, and I do hope that one day he gets to settle down and be happy again.” I say with a small smile. I think back to what Mark told me, he took care of me too. His words stuck with me.

I finished my sandwich and coffee, lunchtime was over, and Sam and I exchanged our phone numbers. I went over to the barista for Mark’s cappuccino. Once I got it, we went back to work.

I walk into Mark’s office, he is standing and stacking documents into booklets, he looks handsome. I reach his desk. “Your cappuccino,” I say as I place it gently down in front of him.

“Thank you,” he says. I went to turn on my heel and stumbled to the ground. My heel broke, just great. I sit on my ass to inspect the shoe.

“Are you okay?” Mark is by my side, worry visible on his face.

“Yes, my heel broke,” I say as I try to stand up, but he takes my hand and helps me stand up. He pulls the chair out for me and I take a seat. I can feel the heat of his touch burn into my skin. He kneels in front of me, taking my foot in his hands, and gently untying my shoe. I lose my breath, all the air is sucked out of me. I look at him and he is already looking at me with that intensity that he always looks at me with. I swallow.

He takes my shoe off and places my foot down, then he stands up, and walks around me, and all I can do is take in as much as possible from what just happened. Moments later, he is back in front of me with a shoe box. He opens it up and gently removes my other shoe, the heat from his touch lingering.

He replaces mine with new shoes, black heeled ankle boots. He gently zips it up at the back. His hands linger for longer than necessary, he looks at me one last time before he places my foot down. He packs my other shoes in the empty box and stands up very quickly.

“Thank you, I will return the shoes tomorrow,” I say as I get up. He turns to look at me and then he looks at the new shoes on my feet.

“No, they look pretty on you, keep them.” He says with a type of hunger in his eyes, “They match your outfit.” he says, as his eyes take in my outfit as if he is undressing me. He walks back to his desk.

I clear my throat, “Thank you again.” I say as I take the shoe box from the ground and I walk out of the office. I place the box on the ground next to my desk and I take a seat, taking in a deep breath. I can still feel his heat on my skin.

I avoid looking at his office the rest of the day and I continue with the work that Jackie taught me. Mark is bombarded with work, preparing for the meeting tomorrow. I sneak a look into his office, and he is glaring at me, but it seems more like he is in thought.

I squirm in my seat because I feel uncomfortable, maybe all of it is just in my head and my stupid crush on him. I know that I could be taking what happened differently because, after all, he made it clear how he feels about me. I’m just the best friend’s daughter and he cares for me as any uncle or father would.

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