Lady of the Night

Chapter 15

"The board room will be right here in this section." The man pointed at the middle and spread his arms out with a smile. "We are hoping since it's a central location it'll help the floor really flow together."

Nodding along as he continued talking Anne looked behind her to see Ruby picking up a drill. "Why do you have to touch everything?" Grabbing her arm and pulling her forward the brunette sighed and smiled at the man who made sure she was still listening.

"They just have power tools laying around how am I supposed to just pass up the opportunity to be a sexy construction worker?" Ruby whispered waving around the saw dust.

Stopping and looking at her with squinted eyes Anne sighed seeing her look back at her with her big blues, the yellow hard hat sitting crooked on her head made her seem even smaller than she was. "This is a serious meeting you can't be goofing off."

Holding her hands up to show her defeat she pushed her lips together to stay quite and latched her hands behind her back as the man laughed loudly.

"Of course I told them we wanted the good stuff so I had it sent back. The right frames should be in tomorrow." Pulling up his pants he looked around and pointed. Right here is the best part. We are on the top floor now so we wanted the best view imaginable."

"You and your team have done amazing Jed." Anne smiled and went over to the window. "I'm not speaking from just myself, our whole company is very proud of your work."  Looking out at the view she examined the undone work. "How much longer do you expect it to be?"

"Well my men are working doubles of lately so we are hoping to crunch the numbers down to only three more months."

"I am very impressed. We will have to go out for lunch soon so you can share in more detail the work that has been going on." Anne shook his hand and he smiled brightly. He wasn't the prettiest man. His teeth were crooked and yellow and and his gnarly beard was turning shades of grey but he was happy. And all the men that worked for him seemed the same. Looking behind her to talk to Ruby she furrowed her brows and peered around the floor concerned.

On the other side of the building where the wall hadn't even made it up yet there where a bunch of men that used to be working gathered around Ruby, showing her their tools and telling her their best jokes.

Rolling her eyes Anne turned her attention back to the man who was in the middle of some story about his ex wife. She tried to listen to him, she tried forgetting about the way the men flirted with the blonde, but she simply couldn't. "What's going on over there?"

Stopping he looked over at the halfway done job and smiled, not seeming to be bothered that he was interrupted. "There's going to be a huge window here but we haven't gotten the glass in it." He walked both of them closer and Anne watched Ruby who laughed.

"Don't get to close to the edge it can be sort of disorienting."

Nodding, Anne clenched her jaw. "Why aren't these men working?"

"Break time! I try to give them more times to rest when it's this hot outside."

The brunette stood straight with her arms grasping her clipboard. It was taking everything in her to not be rude, usually she wouldn't even stop herself.

"Oh my god I love this song." Ruby pushed past the guys and went to the paint splattered radio, it's antenna was almost taller than her as she bent down to work the half fuzzy sound.

Anne wasn't sure exactly what happened next, she had never seen anything like it before.

Grown men covered in dust and grim twisted their hips with the young clean blonde as they sang loudly to Elvis Presley. Blinking a few times the brunette shifted her weight in her heels and scratched her head awkwardly. The men sang loudly with the girl, even a few pretending to play guitar as they stood on the stacks of wood.

Jed danced beside her and laughed loudly, "I danced to this song at my wedding!"

"That's probably why she's divorcing you." Anne whispered.

He didn't hear her however. He went to his group of workers and they gathered around the blonde with huge smiles on their faces. Her arms in the sky as she enjoyed the way people joined in.

Finally meeting eyes with the girl Anne couldn't stop herself from smiling as Ruby winked and waved her finger over. A part of her felt jealous for not being the one beside her but she couldn't bring herself to go over to her.

Shaking her head and looking away Anne took a deep breathe in and held it, she didn't want a repeat of last time. She was tired of loosing control of her feelings, but she knew it was going to happen again.

She didn't want to get hurt again and she definitely didn't want to hurt her. Looking down at her watch she went to the radio and turned the music off completely. The men groaned a while but remembered she was in fact in charge so they spread back out and went to work. Leaving Ruby alone still dancing to nothing. "Jed can you be a dear and get me the floor plans?"

Tucking his shirt back in and straightening his hard hat he nodded, quickly jogging away to make sure she was happy.

"Why did you turn it off? He's the king of rock!" Ruby asked pouting and going over to the edge. There was a line of tape stopping anyone from going further but she still looked over. The ground was so far down that she held her stomach again and groaned.

Feeling something on her back her eyes widened and her heart stopped as her body went forward over the edge. Her arms flung wildly and her eyes shut tightly until she realized she wasn't moving anymore. Turning her head slightly she gulped seeing Anne standing behind her with a stern expression. Her hand holding onto the back of her pants tightly.

"It's a long fall isn't it?" She whispered.

Ruby nodded quickly.

"Is flirting with those guys worth it?"

"Worth what?" Ruby yelled still staring down. "How am I supposed to do what you want when you won't tell me?"

Pulling her back so her feet were flat on the ground she pushed her back so she hit a pillar. Anne didn't give her time to catch her breathe. She pushed her arm against her chest and stared at her scared eyes. "I'm telling you now." Anne growled.

Ruby smiled. Not in a condensing way but because she was slowly figuring the woman out. She threatened her in such dangerous ways because that's how she felt. Anne felt like she was falling off the top of the building and she didn't know how to break her landing.

"Why are you smiling?" Anne narrowed her eyes and pushed herself against her harder. "I'm being serious."

Ruby nodded, "Its not worth it. I'll stop." She raised her face up quickly and pecked the woman's nose with her lips.

Stepping back Anne let her mouth fall open but she was unable to say anything.

The young girl straightened her hard hat and cleared her throat as Jed walked over to them with the plans held in the air. His wheezing louder than the hammering going on around them. Ruby smiled at him and took the plans for the woman still frozen. "Great doing business with you." Ruby shook his hand and motioned for the older woman to follow. "C'mon Anne it'll be a long boat ride home. I might need two pickles this time."

Gulping She blinked a few times and wiped her nose as if she was wiping off the kiss and stomped behind the shorter girl who still talked to Jed.

*unedited.*