Taming Arrogance (MalexMale) 《COMPLETE》

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The walk to Blake's office seems to stretch on longer than usual. Kansas eyes me when I pass the register, her curious gaze probing me as I try to cover my trail. I hide behind aisle four and fiddle with a few items on the shelves.

A customer looking at bug spray notices me and smiles. He's an older gentleman, reminding me of the guy who asked me to carry lumber to his truck a while back. That was the day I met Blake, if I remember correctly.

How time flies.

I give the man a friendly nod and peek my head around the aisle to check on Kansas. She's scanning items through her register, completely absorbed with her new customer. Perfect. I take the opportunity and walk with purposeful strides to Blake's office.

His door is ajar, the small inch of space just waiting for me to enter. Yesterday if I was at his door I would have knocked. Now I just walk inside.

Blake glances up from his desk, his gaze unreadable. The warmth in his cheeks and the softness of his features have faded since being in the break room. Is he having second thoughts in a matter of minutes?

He waves me into his office. Without being asked, I close the door behind me. I try to tell myself I'm doing it to be a good employee and not because I hope something will happen between us.

But my dick knows better.

"You still want to go over that file?" I ask, waving the empty file folder in the air.

"Please, sit," Blake instructs.

I slide into the chair closest to his desk, resting the empty folder on the seat next to me. Blake swivels in his high-backed chair – back and forth, back and forth. There is a small squeak that comes from the movement, and I make a mental note to reach out to building services to fix it.

Blake lifts a stack of paper from his desk and looks them over, picking up conversation in a professional clip.

"As I was saying, we got the approval to build in Florida. The next step is to push out my design and have the construction crew begin immediately. Needless to say, I will be heading down to Miami again to make sure start-up runs smoothly."

My mouth flounders open and then smacks closed. Is he joking? My heart sinks when realization comes to surface. Blake doesn't want me anymore. If he did, my confession wouldn't be going ignored. He would have greeted me with welcome arms (and maybe pants down) to show me just how happy he was that I let go of my pride.

That's not what's happening at all, though. Not even close.

My hands ball into angry fists. I shouldn't have waited so fuckin' long to tell him how I feel.

"In my absence, I had planned on leaving the store in your capable hands. I knew you'd see to it that things would run as efficiently as possible," Blake continues.

I pick-up on his verb tense and lean back in my chair. He's talking in past tense. He had planned on allowing me to run the store. Which means he doesn't want me to anymore? He made a comment my hair had gotten longer when we were in the break room.

Does he think I look too sloppy to run his precious store?

"I would," I interject, my defenses gearing up to argue. "Run the store well, I mean. I know just as much about this place as you do."

Blake raises a brow and I push forward, not wanting to lose any ground with my stance.

"Plus, I know the town. The people like me here. Just because I don't have some fancy ass degree or a wardrobe that could sell for enough to feed a small country doesn't mean I'm any less capable than you."