I want You Deeper

Jeremy couldn’t believe how excited he was to show Alyssa where he worked.

It was silly. The only thing he could compare it to was childhood, when his parents had shown up for parent-teacher night. Showing them where he sat and introducing them to his teacher had felt so thrilling, like merging two sides of his life into one.

As they exited the elevator onto the third floor, he realized just how much he longed to impress Alyssa. He wanted her to see his offices and think more highly of him, not because his business had earned enough to pay for nice digs, but because he’d worked hard to get here. He was pretty darn good at his job, too, and he wanted her to appreciate him for that.

Mostly, he wanted that same respect she’d seemed to have for him as a kid. An adoration, almost. He’d squashed that by disappointing her on prom night and never making up for it. If he could gradually win his way back into her heart, maybe he could think about moving forward from there.

“This is where the magic happens,” Jeremy said as they reached the big door with the opaque window that read, Data Industries, Inc. His name wasn’t on the door, nor was the name of his business partner, but he felt like the title of his business was as much a part of him as the name he’d been given at birth.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Owens.”

The woman behind the desk just inside the door was new-at least to him. But then, when you’d been overseas for a couple of years, things tended to change back home. Not that his business partner hadn’t cleared everything with him along the way. He had. Jeremy was just struggling to adjust to the way things were around here now.

“Good afternoon, Lilly. This is a friend of mine, Alyssa. I’m just showing her around.”

Friend. He felt weird using that word. Wasn’t she more to him than that? It felt like it, but he couldn’t exactly describe it in any other way. They were friends.

Lilly flashed a big smile. “Nice to meet you, Alyssa. Not many people around this late in the day but have fun.”

“Everyone works from home these days,” he explained to Alyssa as he led her back. His partner jumped from one meeting to the next and Jeremy -well, Jeremy had been so distracted since returning, he hadn’t resumed his fourteen-hour days just yet.

“That seems to be the norm in this town.”

Alyssa looked around as they walked through the large area where most of the team worked. A few people were scattered around, but they were mostly administrative staff. He headed for his own office, which he still hadn’t set up yet. He wished he’d taken some time to settle in, but he kept feeling drawn to the cafe.

“It’s a bit empty at the moment.” He stepped into his office and flipped on the light. He was going to have to get better about being here all day, every day. The cafe could run things on its own. “I haven’t unpacked yet.”

He pointed to the corner, where a box of office items remained. Nothing major-just some photos of his parents and his sister and all the folders and paperwork he’d brought with him from overseas. The rest of the office was bare-bones because he’d never really made himself at home before leaving. He’d always gone with the thinking that all he needed was his laptop to have an office wherever he was.

But now he had this odd urge to make a more permanent home.

“Let’s do it.”

Alyssa’s voice-and enthusiasm-caught him off guard. He turned to look at her. She was already headed toward the box in the corner.

“Wait…you’re unpacking? Now?”

She didn’t even look up at him as she pulled the picture frames from the box and stared down at them. “Why not? Do you have other plans?”

“I thought…” His voice trailed off as she headed around his desk and set the pictures up in the corner. She was very methodical about it, even stepping back and straightening them several times.

“You’ll enjoy coming to your office every day when it’s more like home.” Alyssa looked around. “Don’t you have any plants?”From NôvelDrama.Org.

“I’m not a plant person.”

Mostly because he’d never thought to buy them. His home growing up hadn’t even had plants that he could remember, aside from the occasional bouquet his dad brought his mom for anniversaries and Valentine’s Day. Besides, plants required a commitment to regular watering, and he didn’t want to deal with a bunch of dead leaves all over the place.

“There are some artificial ones that are unbelievably realistic looking,” she said, turning to check out the credenza that held the big monitor he rarely used. “We’ll go shopping.”

“I’m sure we can buy whatever it is online. Just pick it out and send me the link.”

She turned to look at him, eyes narrowed. “You can’t just pick out plants online. You have to see them in person, touch the leaves. Pictures can be deceiving. Besides, it’s not all that easy to ship an artificial plant. They’re kind of bulky.”

His initial instinct was to hand her some money and tell her to pick some out for him. He could pay her to decorate his entire office. But she was offering him an excuse to spend more time with her. How could he turn that down?

“Sounds like a plan.” He shrugged. “I can put the rest of that away later. Let’s go.”

Not until he was in the doorway to his office did he realize she hadn’t followed. She was still standing behind his desk.

“Now?” she asked.

“That wasn’t what you had planned?”

“Well, I thought maybe we could do it this weekend or something when it isn’t so late in the day. Your sister will be expecting us for dinner.”

“I’m invited for dinner?”

“It’s curry night. We get takeout and watch our favorite show.” He was afraid to ask. “What show is that?”

“The Next Runway Superstar.”

Yeah, just as he’d feared. He’d grown up dealing with his sister’s taste in entertainment. Not that there was anything wrong with reality TV-but Emily’s taste couldn’t have been more opposite his. He’d rather watch the news or sports recaps. It had caused many arguments until his parents had finalloke down and bought them small TVs for their rooms.

“Do I have to?” he asked, but he gave her a teasing smile as they exited his office. He realized then that he hadn’t shown her around. “You have to see the break room. Come on.”

She wasn’t all that impressed by the pinball machine and pool table in the break room, but the free chocolate and chips got her attention. Then there was the espresso machine, which his partner had bought while he’d been overseas. When he’d left, it had just been a one-cup coffeemaker and some free creamer. The snacks had been a popular job perk-so popular that they were considering offering catered lunches like other companies in Silicon Valley did.

“I think I have an idea.”

Alyssa had stalled in front of the espresso machine and was staring at it. He walked over to stand next to her, staring, too, as though that would explain her idea.

“A coffee truck.” Alyssa turned to face him, and he could see just how excited she was. “Think about it-all these parking lots, all over the South Bay Area. You just pick a different one each day of the week and show up with everything you need on the truck.”

“We already own a coffee business,” he pointed out.

She gave him a knowing smirk. “Not another business. The same business. The Technologia Cafe Coffee Truck.” She frowned. “Okay, we might want to work on the name.”

“There’s a startup cost associated with that. With the restaurant operating in the red-”

“Let’s look into it.” She was already around him and out the door. Did she ever slow down? “I’ll bet we could rent what we need, and it’d pay for itself in a few weeks. Plus, it would be great publicity for the cafe.”

Although she was opening her own business, Jeremy had a feeling Alyssa had no idea what was involved in starting up something like a food truck. There were licenses and permits and approvals and employees to hire and payroll to handle and insurance… He didn’t have the heart to tell her all that, though, she was so excited about things. There were so many other ways to drive business to the location they already had that didn’t involve throwing large chunks of money at it.

So they just went shopping. If buying fake plants didn’t get her mind off starting a spinoff business to the coffee shop, he didn’t know what would.