Be My Erasthai

Holy Mother of Eros

Adalia

"Girl, you are late as hell. A whole thirty minutes late, you're lucky Tina isn't here today. She would have had a long talk with you in the office. For hours." Addison whisper-yelled at me.

"I know, I know," I said, waving her off. I needed to catch my breath.

I hadn't stopped for a second to breathe ever since I found out I was late. I even had to run up the stairs to get here because the elevator was taking forever.

Addison, or Addy as I liked to call her, was one of my close friends in and outside of work. She was an interior designer just like me.

Pulling a chair, I sat down next to her and exhaled a lung full of air.

"So, any appointments for you today?" I asked her.

"Yea, just two, but that's not until later in the day. You?"

"I have nothing for today. Maybe I'll just take whatever walk-ins we get," I responded.

As we were chatting, Luke walked by our table and said, "Good morning Ladies" Then he turned to me and asked, "You were pretty late today are you okay?"

I gave him a small smile and responded "Yes I'm okay, thank you for asking."

"That's good," he said, giving me one last glance before walking away. This was one of the things I liked about him; he was the boss but was never too hard on me.

But just before he was completely out of range, he stopped, sniffed the air and his eyes snapped back to mine.

He stared at me for several minutes then said, "Maybe next time if you spent less time partying and hanging out with guys and more time prepping for work, you wouldn't be so late and your projects wouldn't be so hectic," he said, shooting me a glare and stalked off.

I was shocked. I'm used to Luke's switch-ups, but never had he said anything this hurtful. It literally came out of nowhere. He looked mad at me for reasons I couldn't phantom.

That was totally uncalled for.

"Woah, that was harsh. Did you do something to him?" Addy asked.

"No, I didn't. You saw he was in a good mood until like seconds ago. I told you the man was bipolar. I wasn't even partying though...well maybe a little. But random men? What the hell." I replied to her question still baffled.

"Yea, that was weird. How did he even know you were out last night?" she followed with another question.

"I don't know, but rumors travel a lot in this office, so I'm not all too surprised he knows," I stated, rolling my eyes.

"And after all this, you still have a massive crush on him," Addy remarked, earning a smack on her arm from me.

"Ouch," she hissed. "I was only telling the truth."

"You don't think I'm trying to stop crushing on him? I've been trying, it just isn't working"

Addy just laughed and went off toward the coffee machine.

I sighed and looked at Luke in his office.

From the moment I walked through that office for my interview to this very day, I've had this crazy attraction to him.

I don't know how to explain it, but it's like this crazy pull of energy between us, and no matter how much I want to hate him, I just can't.

The funny thing is, I think Luke feels what I feel. I mean, I always catch the man staring at me unblinkingly from far away. He'd always hang out around me and act a little shy when we spoke. There were even times when he'd invite me out to watch a movie or to a restaurant to eat.