Reticent | Herophine Fic

Could You Call This A Date?

HERO

Workdays are blurring into one another. It's like a seamless thread of days being sewn into one big one, focusing on Lost & Bound. Not that that's a bad thing, by any means. I'm loving the work here, it's exactly what I've wanted to be doing in my career since I got into contracting. You could say the certain agreement I have with the blonde, Australian digital submissions executive also adds to how much I'm enjoying my time at Lost & Bound. If you ask me, I'm helping my career and myself...

Every day so far, I've been working on the showcase project, having lunch, primarily with Jo or one of my team and going home. Again to think of or talk to Jo. We've texted mainly with the few calls dotted here and there over the last few weeks. It's like we've got ourselves into a routine of us somehow. And so far it's worked. No eyebrows have been raised at work and no one has questioned anything. As far as everyone knows, Jo and I are just colleagues. Friends. What they don't know certainly won't hurt them. That's for me and Jo to know.

Even when I don't speak to Jo, she's always in my thoughts and mind. I don't know why or how, she just is. What we're doing feels like much more than friends with benefits. I thought we wouldn't get close or cuddle and do the couple stuff we're seemingly doing. My feelings for her are definitely there. I like spending time with her and happily go out of my way to do so. Seeing her smile makes me happy, hearing her laugh causes me to laugh and the steady current of electricity that courses between us every time we touch hasn't gone away. I've read about it in countless books and every time it's mentioned the characters fall for one another. I know that's what's happening to me, without a shadow of a doubt. But I have no idea whether it's happening to Jo. She's an open book but so hard to read.

Thankfully I've recently heard from Legal and Finance so the first lot of contracts or rather, the first drafts of the contracts are ready to be sent to five authors. Jo was ecstatic when I told her this because it's well ahead of schedule. We only had these penned in for the end of June and it's only May. It's crazy to think I've been at Lost & Bound over a month now. Time really is flying by. But that's no surprise, I'm having fun. In more ways than one.

This afternoon, Rach and I are spending some time together so she can show me the contacts checklist Lost & Bound have in place. Everywhere I've worked there's been a checklist in place that we use to proof the contracts before sending them on to the recipient. In this case, the authors. Rach developed this herself a while back and it's been used ever since and it's what I'll be using going forward on any contracts that I work on. She sent me the list earlier this morning and while I've had a brief scan over it, I've waited for our meeting to go through it in depth.

"Are you ready, Hero? I've booked out the Creative Space for us," I nod, closing the lid of my laptop as Rach does before opening the door. She ducks under my arm and leads me to the space with the couches and tables. Rach makes a beeline for the couch and lifts her legs straight out in front of her onto the coffee table. I take the chair opposite her and smile as she gets comfy.

"Okay, so do you want to open the document and we'll go through it line by line and one of the contracts too? We can do one together so you get a feel for it and then you can carry on with the rest of them," I nod, clicking around until I find the email she sent earlier so I can open the document. Off we go.

Rach has gone through line by line with me on her checklist of what needs to be cross-referenced before the contract is sent. I chose one of the easier, less pedantic authors that hasn't pushed back on anything and just seems excited to be having their words published digitally for people to purchase and read. She's helped me proof the author's name, the contract copy, the address, - both ours and the author's - the name of the book, monetary value and the platforms of publication. Both me and Rach agree that this one is good to go and just as I'm attaching the contract to my already drafted email, footsteps capture our attention along with a specific greeting.