Chapter Text
Waiting for the elevator doors to slide open on the top floor of Bexley & Gamin, Josh’s heart beats faster, like it always does when he’s about to see her. Stepping out, he can see through several layers of glass to Lucy at her desk, and beyond to the two darkened offices. It looks like Helene and Richard have already gone home for the day, just as he had hoped.
She’s deep in concentration as she types something at her usual warp speed, and he watches her from the doorway for a moment. Lips so red, eyes so blue, hair so dark. Lucy, so beautiful. It’s been a month, and he still can’t get over it.
Her fingers stop flying over the keyboard, and he takes the opportunity to make her aware of his presence.
“Hey, Shortcake,” he says, and she startles.
“Don’t call me that!” she squeals, but she lights up when she sees him. “I’m almost ready, just one second.”
She saves what she’s working on, locks her computer, and gathers her things into her bag as Josh watches. Her dress today is flame red, like her lipstick, fitted on the top and flaring from her waist, with a zipper up the back that Josh helped her with this morning. He takes her coat down from the hook and holds it up for her.
“It’s an endearment, I swear.”
“I should start calling you Beefcake.”
Josh recoils a bit. “That’s kind of objectifying. And corny.”
“It would serve you right, though.”
“I guess I’ll take what endearments I can get.” He’s serious, he really would. “You’re ready to go?”
“Yeah. You didn’t have to pick me up. It’s a bit out of the way, isn’t it?”
Josh has started working in the financial department at a competing publishing firm. It’s a good job, actually a considerable step up from his old one, but it did have one major drawback.
“I wanted to see you.”
She grins at his admission and slides her hand into his in front of the elevator. “I’m glad. I have good news.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, it’s not news yet.” She swings his hand a bit as they step into the elevator. “It’s not anything yet. Helene called me into her office to talk about ‘my future.’”
Josh raises his eyebrows. “Interesting. And what might your future hold?” He could think of a number of things he’d like to put on that list.
“I don’t really know, but she alluded to vague opportunities for advancement down the line. Some kind of new position she and Bexley are still figuring out, maybe next summer. I think she’s worried I’ll quit like you did.”
“She should be worried. You’re way overqualified for that job.”
“I guess so.”
“That’s great, Lucy. I’m glad she realizes it.”
She beams at him, her eyes bright and … happy. She looks happy, and it makes him feel happy. He’s still getting used to it. And he wants—
“Hey,” he says, an idea taking hold. His finger circles the emergency stop button and impulsively, he presses it. The elevator comes to a bumpy halt between floors.
Lucy looks at him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Something I have always wanted to do.” He sets his hands on her waist and hoists her up onto the railing.
“Josh! Oh my god. Is this allowed?”
“Allowed?” Josh chuckles. “No crying HR anymore, Lucinda. I don’t work here.”
“Yeah but—” He silences her the best way he knows how, and despite her protestations, she kisses him back immediately, clutching him close, her legs circling his waist. He drops one of his hands to grip her thigh where her dress is riding up, and presses into her, groaning. Not here, but as soon as he gets her home—
A crackling noise breaks into their increasingly steamy bubble, and an indistinct voice says, “Everything okay in there?”
Josh closes his eyes and takes a steadying breath, his forehead falling against Lucy’s as they stay locked in their illicit embrace. “Sorry, uh, bumped the button.”
“We’re good!” Lucy chirps, making Josh wince at how suspicious they sound.
The tinny voice makes a vaguely disapproving sound, and the elevator starts up, only to stop again a second and a half later. Josh lets Lucy slide down his body, giving her ass a quick squeeze, and then leans into her ear as the door slides open.
“This isn’t over yet.”
“I should hope not,” she retorts, with a saucy wink.
As he watches her smooth her disheveled clothing, wondering how he got to be so lucky, his pocket buzzes, and he pulls out his phone, annoyed at the intrusion. Reading the message from Patrick, Josh groans, in an entirely different sort of frustration from moments before.
“What is it?” Lucy presses him as they get into his car.
“Um.” Josh looks at her, frozen in his old insecurities.
Things are good. It’s early, but they’re happy, he thinks. She likes him, for some reason.
He doesn’t want to mess this up.
“Are you breaking up with me?” she blurts.
“What? No. Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know. You had a look. And I just worry.”
“You don’t need to worry, not about that.” Josh almost laughs at the absurdity, that she would be insecure about him. Jesus. He needs to just get over himself and tell her.
“Actually … I do have something to tell you.” He presses his fingertips against his eye sockets, then drums them against the steering wheel. “I’ve put it off longer than I should because it’s kind of embarrassing.”
He feels Lucy’s hand on his arm, her touch steady and soothing. “I would love to hear something embarrassing about you, Josh. It’s inhuman to be so perfect. Please tell me all your sordid little secrets.”
When he looks at her, her eyes are so filled with warmth and affection he immediately feels the dread in his gut subside. He’s hardwired for cynicism, but if he’s being honest … the worst-case scenario he can envision here, once he tells Lucy the full backstory of how he knows his brother’s fiance, isn’t that she might want to leave him, or even that she would necessarily think less of him. He’s pretty sure Lucy of all people is well-versed in his less attractive qualities by now, and strangely, he hasn’t put her off yet.
No, the worst-case scenario he can think of is that once Lucy knows about the engagement party Patrick has been hounding him about, she’ll want to go. She will insist on going.
And he really doesn’t want to go.
Even so, when he pictures going to Patrick and Mindy’s engagement party with Lucy, this sparkling, feisty ally, by his side, he thinks he could probably make it through. And that’s a lot.
“Okay, I will tell you. But first …” He reaches across the console and wraps his hand around the back of her head, through her wild curls, to pull her to him one more time—a gentle press of the lips that’s meant to communicate all the other big things he hasn’t said out loud yet.
As he settles into his seat and puts the key in the ignition finally, Lucy exclaims, “Oh! Josh, you’re a mess.”
“Yeah, I guess I am. It’s silly, I just feel—"
But before he can slide too far into his hang-ups, Lucy is reaching across the console. “You have my lipstick all over your face.”
“Oh.” That’s what she had meant. He holds still as she rubs her thumb across his upper lip, his eyes drawn to her own—the color of possibility, close enough to grasp.
“Much better," Lucy says. "Now I think you should take me home as quickly as possible so you can make good on all your promises.”
“All my promises?”
“I’m thinking, one article of clothing removed for each embarrassing confession.”
“I hardly think I have that many.”
“Dig deep, Josh. I’ll make it worth your while.”
He turns the key in the ignition. “You … always with the quid pro quo, huh?”
She flashes a smile so bright, it almost blinds him. “Always.”
Always. Josh doesn’t mind the sound of that. He doesn’t mind the sound of that at all.