I Want You Close, I Want You Closer

Chapter Eight

"It's brilliantly written! You did such a great job!"

You smile to yourself, fiddling with a box of earrings. "Thank you, Angela. I'm glad it's well received."

"No thank you for agreeing to write this! And for being so patient with Shawn! He called me you know, to talk about how the interview went."

You raise a brow, taking a pair of teardrop earrings and placing them in the display case. "Oh? I wasn't aware."

Angela giggles. "It seems he's pretty fond of you, you know. I think you ought to pursue that."

You fake gasp. "Angela!"

She cackles. "Just a suggestion! Anyway, I'll let you get back to the boutique. Thank you again for the article! It'll be out in next month's issue."

"No problem, thank you for the opportunity!"

You say your goodbyes and hang up, sighing as you look at the box of earrings. You were trying to expand the boutique - getting designers to agree to sell their products for a lot cheaper than the stuff on Fifth Ave, and you personally didn't feel like sitting in another meeting, so you told Hailee you would be at the boutique for the morning taking care of the inventory in the back so she and Jourdan could go out and meet with other designers.

The boutique was closed, which left you to your own devices - playing music over the system as you took your time placing each unique earring in the display case until the box was empty. You were about to move on to the next box when there was a knock at the loading dock door, and you rolled your eyes.

"Hailee I keep telling you to remember your key-"

Your words are cut off when you see that familiar smile, brown eyes soft and curls tucked under a baseball cap turned backwards. He's wearing black sweats and a plain white tee, and there's a pizza box in his hands, along with a bag of drinks.

"Hi baby." He says with a grin.

A smile instantly spreads on your face. "Shawn, what are you doing here?"

"Wanted to bring you lunch." His smile is unwavering, soft when he looks at you and takes in you in your favorite pair of jeans and an old t-shirt from your time in undergrad. He steps closer, bending his head for a kiss that you immediately grant, fisting the fabric of his shirt and pulling him in.

He hums into the kiss and pulls back after a second, and you lead him into the shop and toward the front where there's an empty display table. He helps you grab plates and napkins from the little kitchenette in the break room, and you two sit on some of the rolling chairs from the back office to dig in to the pizza.

You look up at Shawn every now and again as you guys finish the whole box, and he smiles at you, but there's something wrong, the bags under his eyes, the way he's chewing slowly, how his eyelids droop a little - it tells you how exhausted he is, that something else is going on. You didn't spend the night together last night, so you know it's not because you both were too busy doing other things to get some sleep.

You put down your crust and wipe your face and hands clean with a napkin, fingers brushing his when you say "Shawn, honey, what's going on?"

He smiles weakly. "You see right through me, huh?" He puts his pizza down and takes a swig of his can of ginger ale. "It's nothing baby, don't worry. Just some stuff with the company."

"Stuff like what?"

"Some FBI agents came to the company this morning. They were looking for my dad."

Your heart drops. "The investigation."

You remember briefly talking about it with Shawn at that formal event a few months ago, the same one where Angela assigned you to one another, and also where you had that little rendezvous in the empty corner office.