Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
But alive seemed something of an exaggeration.
While his suit was tidy as usual and hair perfectly styled, he appeared off to me. His tan complexion appeared sallow, and heavy shadows had settled under his eyes as if he’d not slept once in the past week.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir. May I come in?” Parker inquired in a low voice.
My eyebrows jumped, and I sat mute. Sir? He’d never once called me that.
“Yes. What…I…” I stammered and stopped to clear my throat. What was wrong with me? Why was I rattled? “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, sir. Thank you for asking,” Parker murmured, keeping his eyes lowered as he crossed my office to my desk. “And thank you for allowing me to take that time off last week.”
My frown returned. He didn’t look fine at all, and I didn’t want to be thanked for allowing him to take his PTO. It was wrong that he’d needed to take sick time to attend to this person’s funerary needs in the first place, but as a contract worker, he didn’t have the same flexibility as our regular employees.
“What can I do for you?” It seemed better to move away from that bit completely and head to safer territory.
“Here are the projections you requested for the leisure line. I’ve begun working on the report regarding raw materials and supply costs for the same division. It should be ready by the end of the week, unless you need it sooner.”
I shook my head, still feeling like I was in some weird nightmare. Any second now, an ax-wielding madman or a ghost was going to fly into the room. “Friday should be fine.”
Parker stepped forward and laid the thick document on my desk. I was grateful for the physical copy. My employees had long gotten used to my preference for reviewing reports on paper, giving me the chance to make notes right on the document as I read it. “The file is also in the usual folder on the network if you need to access the digital copy.”
Without another word, he turned and walked out of my office. My mouth hung open, a knot of words lodged in my throat, but I didn’t know what to say. I felt like I should ask about this person he’d lost or check to see if he needed more time off. But how could I offer him more time? Under his contract, he had only five days of PTO. After that, any time he took was unpaid. Not to mention, this was his last week with Courtland under contract.
Should I have asked him about the dead person? Would he find that comforting or too invasive? Would I be tearing open wounds that had just begun to heal? My goal wasn’t to cause him more pain.
But I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing to his retreating form with the slightly slumped shoulders and lowered head. Parker Cain was a complicated creature. In our private moments, he was a reckless, mischievous gremlin who loved to drive me crazy. In the office, he was friendly to all the employees, even if his gremlin side peeked out during the times we were alone.
This was the best example of why Sebastian Courtland was the most important thing to ever happen to me. Sebastian showed me how to interact with people, reassured me when I was trapped and didn’t know what to say. Part of me still wished he could stand beside me every day and act as my interpreter, smoothing every awkward incident and picking up on every social cue that I missed.
Maybe it was best to leave Parker alone. Let him deal with this loss in his own time. He wouldn’t want his boss butting into his private business. Besides, he was finally acting appropriately in the office. Why should I go messing that up by acting any differently than I usually did?
Except his “appropriate” behavior didn’t sit well with me. It wasn’t him. After three months of his silliness and flirting, he seemed beaten down and hurting. How could that ever be better?
A sigh slipped past my lips and my eyes dropped to the report he’d left on the edge of my desk. I snatched it up and set it off to my right to examine later. There were emails to answer first. Maybe I would try to catch Sebastian for lunch and get his opinion on the matter. He could help me find that line that allowed me to be his supervisor and a human being.
I rubbed my eyes and fell into work, losing myself for a couple of hours. I didn’t even notice when I grabbed Parker’s report, intending to skim some of the highlights. Except entire sections of the report were missing. There was one page where he’d left himself a note to pull the data from another report. It was incomplete.