The road to love (editing!!)

Chapter 18 - Mishaps

The next day I found an alternative route to work, though it took me a longer way round, causing me to be a bit late to the office again. Work went on as usual and I tried to drown myself in it. Before I knew it, two days had passed and I was working through lunch on day three when I heard a knock on my office door.

"Enter," I mumbled without looking up from the mock-up of a brochure I was working on.

"OK, so I'm tired of your excuses," I heard his voice from the door as he walked in with a long stemmed red rose in his hands, making my heart melt at his gesture. "You're working through lunch, you can't do dinner and I don't see you in traffic anymore, which was the highlight of my day, by the way," he says as he sits on the edge of my desk. I can't help but notice his strong thigh up close and I have to fight to keep my hands busy and not run one up the side of said part of his anatomy.

He could be your brother, Jes! Snap out of it! I chastise myself, before taking a deep breath and smiling up into his beautiful eyes. "I told you, I have a deadline. I really need to get this stuff done by next week. Mark is breathing down my neck."

My phone suddenly rings on my desk. "Excuse me for a sec," I say before picking up the receiver. "Jessica Jones, good day."

"Jes, we have a problem," I hear Sharon's voice on the line.

"What?"

"You know that sample I was supposed to get from Joe somehow? The one we need to have tested?"

"Uh-huh, go on"

"Well, it kinda got tossed in the trash by maintenance."

I felt my insides flip. Sharon had taken Joe out for coffee yesterday, telling him she wants all the juicy bits on Dean as it was her job as my best friend to protect me. How she got him to say yes, I still don't know. She was just so happy when she came back after lunch with an empty styrofoam coffee cup in one hand and a piece of gum in the other. "What?", she'd said at my questioning look. "I wanted to be double sure I got it, ok?"

I didn't ask and she didn't tell. And now the samples were gone.

"How did that happen?"

I heard her sigh over the line. "I left it on my desk to go to the loo and when I came back, they'd emptied out my garbage and took the stuff on my desk too! I've been contemplating jumping in the dumpsters in the back to look for it the whole morning!" Sharon sounded close to tears.

"It's ok, Shar, relax. I'll make a plan. I'll talk to you later."

"I'm really sorry Jessie."

"I know honey, but at least you tried!" I put down the receiver, wondering how I was going to get the DNA, when I looked up at the reason for this whole exercise and found him patiently waiting for my attention again.

I quickly grabbed my handbag and stood up. "You know Dean, you're right. Lunch is on me," I say, while pushing him out the door. Since we couldn't get it from the substitute, I guess the real thing will have to do. Now, coffee cup or gum?

An hour later I was back from lunch with Dean, feeling sad and elated at the same time. It had been hell being so close to him, feeling him brush up against me while he smiled at me so intimately, me laughing at his teasing jokes... I hated not being able to confide my fears in him.

I took my chance when he went to the gents to scour his jacket, looking for a stray hair with the follicle still intact, but had to give up in a huff after my search provided me with nothing. Damn, I forgot he had one of those fluff brushes in his office. He must have used it on the jacket.

Finding myself rather desperate, I crossed the fingers of my left hand while making a move for a hair on Dean's head with my right.

"Ouch, flip," Dean exclaimed once I had successfully plucked two hairs at once and held it in my hand, quickly closing it to keep it from blowing away. Rubbing his sore head, Dean frowned at me: "You know, a picture lasts longer and doesn't hurt as much!"

I smiled my best smile at him while hiding my hand in my jacket pocket. "What, I saw a grey hair! Surely it would be bad for your image if I just left it there?" I took my take-away coffee and got up for us to leave, smiling my most convincing innocent smile at him. "I was doing you a favour, Mr player!" I walked towards the cashier to pay for lunch, seeing Dean follow me with a smirk on his face, also carrying his coffee and I decided to get a back up.

The task of convincing him to let me throw his cup away as "I was going to throw mine away in the lobby's dustbin anyway", was easier than I thought. I was rather proud of myself, though it had been really difficult not to kiss Dean when we were sitting so close during lunch. I had told him I was still getting over my 'cold' and didn't want him to get sick as well.

Sharon would be delivering my and Dean's samples for comparison, clearly marked and bagged separately, to Candice that evening, so she would take it to her work the next day. And so the wait for the results begin...

This truly was excruciating. When I was with him, I just could not believe that we could possibly be related. I had such strong feelings for this man. Every time he looked at me with his beautiful eyes, I could feel my temperature rise a few degrees and had to remind myself to be calm and slow things down.

Dean was puzzled by how distant I was, I could see it on his face. He even asked me in a text if he did anything wrong, which nearly made me cry again. So I sent him a message to say that it was purely the pressure at work and that we could still chat via texts... which we did until late.

As we chatted, I wished with all my heart that I could tell him what was going on, but Sharon advised against it. She believed that it could do more damage for him to know and I hoped to heaven that he wouldn't ever have to know. I had made up my mind that I was going to get those results, prove the truth... and then follow the other bit of advice Sharon gave me down to the letter!

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dedicated to @kellyem for being such a great voter!! hugs, babe....

Comments are welcome!