More of You

Chapter 7

They arrived at the meeting late, and everyone turned to stare at them as they took the last two remaining seats available in the back. Harper was worried that she still smelled, but Manny, who was on her other side, didn't give her a funny look or move away. She glanced over at Luke who was leaning back in his chair with his usual relaxed attitude.

"Thank you for taking the time to join us," Harper's father drawled as he looked them over.

"You're welcome, we almost didn't make it, Harper got sprayed by skunk, and I had to take her home and hose her down," Luke supplied with a grin.

"Shut-up!" Harper hissed while Manny leaned over and sniffed. Harper leaned away from him and into Luke's side.

"Smell's pretty good, uh?" Luke asked Manny, who nodded and sat back looking from one to the other with a questioning look.

"I don't smell any skunk," he looked suspiciously at them. "What happened to all of Harper's clothes, why is she wearing yours?"

"She got sprayed by a skunk you moron," Stephanie said from across the room.

"I had to throw them out Manny, they were nasty," Luke leaned over Harper to say it sotto-voice, as if he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Even her shoes?" Manny looked at her bare feet with her shiny pink toenails.

"Yep, she stunk the entire house up."

"If you two don't mind, can we get ack to business?" Troy asked from the front of the room.

Luke nodded and Manny backed off, allowing Harper to settle back into her seat and stop using Luke as a back brace.

The next hour was spent going over past jobs, current jobs, and upcoming jobs. Luke filled them in of his and Harper's job swap, making it sound like she was doing him the favor, and she couldn't help but wonder what he was up to.

When the meeting was over Harper breathed a sigh of relief and stood, waiting to get past Luke, but he was in no hurry to stand and was blocking her way. All she wanted to do go home take another shower with her chosen brand of soap and shampoo then get into her own clothes.

"Hey Luke, you wanna get together tomorrow night with the rest of us?" Stephanie asked over the commotion of everyone leaving. "Most of us are going to meet up at Bravo's for drinks and maybe catch a movie after."

"I'll take a rain check Stephanie; Harper and I have a date."

The entire room froze and everyone turned to stare at Luke. Harper was doing her best not be insulted that Stephanie hadn't also invited her while trying not smack Luke upside the head for his poor choice of words. It was officially the worst day ever, and she wanted to retreat to her own little apartment and stay hidden until she had her date the following night. She was even now, debating how to get out of that.

"Not – with – each – other!" Harper ground out through clenched teeth. The room was perfectly still so there was no need to yell the words, they were heard just fine.

"No, that would be against the no fraternization rule, but we should really talk to Troy about how he feels about us dating our suppliers. That might not go over so well either," Luke said with mock thoughtfulness.

Everyone looked really confused as Luke stood up with a grin and walked out of the conference room. Harper closed her eyes, counted to ten, then took off after him, grabbing his arm and pulling him into her office and slamming the door behind her.

She was so angry she missed the herd of her fellow co-workers moving as one and packing themselves into Troy's office, with Troy leading the way.

"What the hell was that Luke!" she said as she leaned against the door.