Raising the Bar: A Curvy Woman Office Romance by C.L. Cruz

Author:C.L. Cruz [Cruz, C.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Octavia

After a weekend apart and with the air cleared between us, things at work start to go much smoother. That’s not to say I don’t still feel my stomach clench every time Baron walks through the door, looking charming and professional, but the attraction between us is no longer the elephant in the room. We’ve acknowledged it, agreed that we can’t act on it, and now we can move on.

As we relax into this new routine, I get to really see him in action at work. He’s an incredible lawyer, and it’s exciting to work alongside him and learn from him. I’m a little bit in awe of him, actually. In some ways, it makes the attraction worse, but it also serves to remind me precisely why he’s off-limits. He’s older, more mature, and an influential player in the corporate world. I’m an assistant who’s just starting out in this business. It might be fun for a fling, but it’s a terrible combination for anything more. No, we absolutely made the right decision.

Not being constantly consumed by Baron comes with the added benefit of giving me the chance to get to know my coworkers. Gavin Macleod’s assistant, Vicky, becomes a fast friend, and she introduces me around to the other assistants and paralegals. A group of them even invite me to lunch on Wednesday at an Italian sandwich shop a block away.

I’m standing in line, listening to everyone else order as I try to puzzle out the foreign words—rapini? Soppressata? Tallegio?—when Lucas, one of the paralegals from another department, sidles up to me and leans down to whisper conspiratorially in my ear.

“Need some help?” he asks.

I put a hand to my heart. “Oh, God, yes, please.”

With a laugh, he helps me decode the menu, and we spend the rest of lunch talking to each other. He’s nice and good-looking, but he’s no Baron. The chemistry doesn’t sizzle between us, which makes it easy for us to be friends.

Which is why I’m a little surprised when he asks me out to dinner on our way back to the office.

“Just something casual,” he says. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

After what I’ve been going through, dating someone at work shouldn’t even be a consideration, but Lucas is in a completely different department, and he’s not my boss. There’s no conflict of interest, and if the date is bad, we’ll barely see each other anyway. Plus, I’ve been single a long time now, and although work is my priority, I’ve been missing the companionship of a boyfriend.

If I’m being really honest with myself, though, my true motivation is to get Baron out of my mind. If I’m dating someone else, I can hopefully finally stop thinking about him in a sexual way. And if Lucas and I do end up getting serious, that will put up some very clear boundaries between us.

“Okay,” I tell him as we step onto the elevator to ride up to our offices. “I’d like that.”

We exchange numbers and arrange a dinner date for that night.

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