Accidentally On Purpose Part 2

I was so embarra.s.sed, that it sobered me up some. Who forgets they're half naked when they open the door? This was the second time in twenty-four hours that I willingly appeared in my SpongeBob booty pants in front of my boss. He probably thinks I'm all loosey goosey.

I went downstairs, in pants, and immediately said "I'm sorry. I am usually here alone. My parents spend the winters in the south. No one really comes over, so I never have to really worry about answering the door, drunk, and undressed. This isn't typical behavior, to find myself undressed in front of men."

"I have seen you in less," he said quietly.

"Are you hungry, Mr. S?" I asked, ignoring his comment because it made my neck hot and my palms sweaty.

"Call me Kyle, and sure, I could eat."

"Calling you Kyle is a little strange for me."

"You called me Kyle last night. In fact, you screamed it at least...how many times?"

I threw an oven mitt at him. "You're being a d.i.c.k, Kyle. Kyle."

He smiled. "I'm sorry."

I smiled, too, hesitantly. "You never smile," I said quietly as I set the table. "You're always scowling and growling. It's almost as if you hate your job, you hate being there."

"That's not far from the truth." He looked at me seriously, leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed.

"Then you should find another career, because you're not being fair to your employees and you're certainly not being fair to yourself."

"I'm doing what is expected of me."

"If I were doing what's expected of me, I would be married, popping out a kid every couple of years."

"You don't want a family?"

"Of course, but look at me. I'm the poster child for Alcoholics Annonymous. I don't think I'm quite ready to raise any children." I took another swig of tequila to prove my point. "My mom thinks I'm throwing my life away, that my best years are behind me."

"It's like they have no confidence that you can be anything else other than what they've set you up to be." He was speaking from experience. Kyle's dad was always nice to me, but he had extremely high expectations for his children.

We sat down for dinner, but I traded the tequila for iced tea. We sat at the table for a long time after eating, talking and laughing. I was amazed at how easy he was to talk to; my embarra.s.sment from earlier in the night was forgotten. Kyle was also attentive, when I spoke. He listened and asked real questions to show he was listening. I was surprised at this, too. He never seemed to give a c.r.a.p about any of his employees before. Very confusing.

"You're Mr. Hyde is really good," I said sometime later. He was helping me clean up the kitchen after dinner. He washed and I dried.

"What?" He asked. The confused expression on his face was comical.

"At work, you're Dr. Jekyll. Now you're Mr. Hyde."

He thought about this a moment.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"It's kind of scary, because I don't know which one is the real you. Are you more like Kyle the d.i.c.k or Kyle the good guy?"

"I'm not going to lie..." He started slowly. "I am a well-meaning person, but I can be a jerk sometimes. I was raised that way, to have a hard exterior."

When I remained silent, he turned off the sink and looked at me.

"I haven't been nice to you and I'm sorry. You're brilliant, always five steps ahead of me, and you work really hard. I would fall flat on my face without you. I have to be tough, though. Everyone there, including you, knows that I only have this job because my family owns the business. No one respects me because of that. So, to keep order...I have to be a d.i.c.k."

"That's stupid."

He blinked at me. "What?"

"That's stupid stupid. You're right, everyone pretty much believes you're a spoiled brat who never had to work for anything in your life."

"Thanks. You're making me feel so much better."

"Kyle, you could have just chosen to be a good guy. You alone made the decision to be mean and nasty. Because you are the boss's son, there would have been order. But that's all you have is order. No one is happy working for you. If only you knew how detrimental that is to your your job." job."

I turned the faucet back on. We finished the dishes in silence.

"Do you want coffee?" I asked when we finished.

He was staring at nothing, deep in thought. I was beginning to feel like a d.i.c.k myself. He was being something like a normal human being and I was beating him down. It must have been hard for him to open up to me like he did.

"My mom tells me all of the time that I talk too much, say all of the wrong things." I said softly, not adding that I get that from her her.

He finally looked at me. "You're a little harsh, but..." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "You're not wrong."

"I didn't have to be so blunt."

"I like that you're blunt, but it's such a drastic change from how you are at the office."

"If I start talking to you however I want, everyone else will think they can, too. Then it would be a mess."

He nodded. "I understand."

We were standing very close. The way he was looking at me made me feel a little funny, a fuzziness in my belly. As a distraction, I went to the back door and pushed the curtain aside to check out the weather.

"Holy snow!"

Kyle came over and looked out. "d.a.m.n."

The snow was falling fast and heavy. Visibility was very low and there were several inches on the ground. We looked at each other and without a word rushed to the foyer and opened the door. If Kyle left then, he would have to dig himself out first, and dig a path out to the street, which had yet to be touched by a plow.

The temperature had dropped significantly. I shivered in the open door. Kyle pulled me back a few steps and closed the door. He rubbed my arms until I stopped shivering.

"How much snow are we supposed to get?" Kyle asked.

"I don't know. I haven't watched the news."

He looked out of the window. "It's going to be a crazy ride home,"

"Are you crazy? You can't drive home in that! Thank goodness it's a weekend and you don't have to work. You have a few appointments, but they're lunch dates and such. Personal things." I went on about his schedule, telling him who to call, who to email. He was looking at me funny, so I stopped talking. We just stood there staring at one another.

"Hey," I said to break the freaky silent staring contest. "Let's go watch a movie. How about Transformers Transformers? I love Transformers Transformers. You know the third one will be out this summer."

"I've never seen Transformers Transformers."

I was walking to the family room, but when he said that, I stopped so suddenly he ran into me. I whirled around to face him.

"I'm sorry. Did you say - what did you say?"

"I've never seen Transformers Transformers."

"Do you live under a rock rock!"

"Jess isn't really into those kinds of movies," he said, but immediately looked away from me.

Jessyca Venner was Kyle's girlfriend. Hearing her name in that context threw me off a little bit, but I shook it off before he could look at me again.

"Well, Jess isn't here. So allow me to introduce you to one of the best movies in the entire universe."

In the family room, I ordered him to sit down on "our" couch while I got the movie started on our enormous flat screen. I sat down on the opposite side of the couch. I didn't want to give the impression that I wanted to cuddle and be all cute.

At first Kyle seemed unfazed by the awesomeness of the movie, but by the time it ended he was grinning and leaning forward.

"Do you have the second one?" He asked as the credits begin to roll. His face was lit up like a light bulb.

"It's like one in the morning," I yawned.

"You don't have to work tomorrow, and even if you did, you're snowed in." He stood up and stretched.

"I do so have to work," I scoffed. "My boss gives me too much work to be completed in the office."

"Your boss is a d.i.c.k."

"Tell me about it." I yawned again.

"Really. You don't have any work to do."

"Really. I do." I stood up to stretch, too.

"I don't believe you."

"Do you not realize the amount of effort it takes to run your office?"

"Well, I know it takes some some." He shrugged.

"Some?" I stared at him. "Oh, no." I shook my head and walked down the hall. Kyle hesitated and then followed me.

I went into my dad's office where I set up my own work station. On the large Mahogany desk were stacks of files, my laptop, a thick appointment book, post it notes stuck in various places with various notes scribbled on them, and a photo alb.u.m. There was also the usual office stuff - pens, staplers, and paper clips, etc.

"What's all of this?" Kyle asked, his eyes big.

"This is mainly where I do your schedule, research, and a few other things." I picked up the photo alb.u.m and opened it. "This has all of the guests for the gala. With everyone's picture there is a brief profile - or biography. Even the guests who are of little use or importance are in here. Some guests, of course, require a little more information, like this one. This guy has a whole page to himself."

Kyle looked through the alb.u.m in awe.

"Last year you didn't like not knowing who people were. This year, I am going with you to aid you, through text message, little notes, or a discreet whisper. I won't hang around you, but I will be watching you, there if needed."

He looked at me, mouth hanging open.

"How do you get this information? How will you remember all of these people? There must be two hundred people in here."

I smiled. "Two-hundred and six. I don't mean to sound conceited, but I'm good at what I do. You only see the surface of what I do in the office - if you really see it." My smile faded, because we both knew he didn't care to pay attention before. I put my hand on a stack of files. "These are various upcoming events, meetings, dates, and other things you have to be present for or acknowledge. Most of it you don't know about yet."

He put the alb.u.m down and looked at the desk in amazement.

"You're amazing." He looked at me. "I had no idea you worked so hard...I feel like such a douche bag."

"You're worse than a douche bag. You're a douche puddle, the excrement of a douching."

"Fine. I'm a douche puddle, you're right. No wonder you think I'm a d.i.c.k."

"Yeah." I nodded.

"As your boss, I'm giving you the weekend off."

"I don't know...it still needs to be done."

"I will hire someone else to help you,"

"Yeah, right," I rolled my eyes. Convincing him to hire Eliza the receptionist was like pulling teeth.

"I mean it. You can't spend your life planning mine."

"That's why I get paid the big bucks." I shrugged.

"Emmy, seriously. I'm really sorry. I really want you to leave the work. Just for a day."

"I don't know. I don't want you to fall behind..."

"I won't. I will be fine." He put his hand on my waist and pulled me away from the desk, toward the door. I looked back at the desk, actually feeling a nervous pang about leaving it.

We stood outside the office, looking in. Kyle closed the door because I wouldn't walk away.

I looked up at him and opened my mouth to speak, but before I could speak, he leaned over and kissed me, hard. I started to back away, but he pulled me into him and held me so tight, I thought he was going to break a rib. I gave in, not only letting him kiss me, but I kissed him back.

He pressed me up against the wall, moved his hand down to my thighs, my a.s.s, and then slowly back up my body. He stopped just under my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, just enough to tease me. When he finally took his lips off of mine, I couldn't even catch my breath before he simultaneously started to kiss my neck and flicked his thumb across a nipple. I gasped and my knees just gave up.

Kyle didn't let me fall, he lowered me to the floor. Right outside of the office where I spent countless hours working for my boss, he gave me a bonus I'd never forget.