Exasperated, Mark said, “She’s been married before, Seth. It’s not like she’s never been around a man.”
“Doesn’t sound like your usual kind of woman,” Ash added.
“Listen, there’s nothing going on,” Mark snapped, tired of defending himself. For God’s sake, did his friends think that he was Jack the Ripper or something? Every one of the men surrounding him worked hard and played harder. A common interest had made them friends. He wasn’t sure where all of the judgment was coming from, but he was tired of it. He stalked away but had only gone a few steps when Jacob tossed an arm over his shoulders.
“PMS today or something? Sorry about tossing you under the bus. I didn’t think it was a secret or anything.”
“It’s not,” Mark replied, still annoyed. “As I’ve said, she’s just a friend.”
“All right, brother, whatever you say. But if you end up marrying her, I’m going to lose money.” At his questioning look, Jack added, “All of the women in the office are betting that you’ve met ‘the one.’ We may have placed a few friendly wagers. So whatever you do—keep it casual.”
Elbowing his friend in the side, he shook his head. “You’ve got problems. And don’t bother losing any sleep over your money—we both know I’ll never settle down.”
Seth and Ash joined them, and they worked out steadily for an hour before hitting the showers. After his recent round of teasing from the guys about his Twitter activity, he shouldn’t be dying to see if Crystal had replied yet. He knew that if she had, he wouldn’t be able to resist continuing the verbal foreplay, no matter how much his friends were enjoying his social media embarrassment.
• • •
Her palms were sweaty and her heart was racing—again. Enclosed in the restroom at Danvers with her cell phone, Crystal stared at Mark’s latest tweet. She’d overslept that morning and had no time to look before rushing to work. She normally didn’t check her social media while at work, but she felt like it was acceptable since she was taking a restroom break.
Once again, she was looking through Mae West quotes on Google and trying to find a reply for Mark. She was on the verge of giving up and doing it later when she spotted the perfect one. Giving a fist pump to the empty room, she quickly composed a new tweet. “I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.” Mae West. #Angel.
Someone was frantically trying the door handle, so she washed her hands and hoped that she’d transferred the quote correctly. There was no time to check now. The person waiting was a blur of action as she hurried into the room behind her and slammed the door. Geez. It made her want to knock on the door and remind them that there were in fact several more restrooms on this floor. When she returned to her office, she had an e-mail from Ella, inviting her to lunch at noon.
Crystal spent the next few hours handling tasks for Lydia before collecting her purse for lunch with her sister. She’d invited Mia along as well. Gwen was having an ultrasound today and wouldn’t be in until later. They were all excited to hear if she and Dominic would be having a girl or boy. The couple had pondered letting it be a surprise, but in the end, they were just too excited to find out.
When she reached the lobby, not only were Ella and Mia waiting, but also Suzy, Claire, Beth, Emma, and Ava were gathered there. Suzy’s husband, Gray, was a vice-president at Danvers along with his brother, Nick. To make matters more interesting, Suzy’s sister, Beth, was married to Nick. Emma Davis was engaged to Brant Stone, who also worked for Danvers along with his sister, Ava Powers. Ava was married to Mac, who ran a security company based out of the Danvers building. To add even more confusion to the mix, Gwen had dated Mac briefly before falling in love with Mac’s business partner, Dominic Brady. Crystal could barely keep up with all of it in her head. When the women had lunch together, Crystal found herself overwhelmed at times by the details of who was with whom. If love was in the air at Danvers International, then Crystal had to wonder why it seemed to be overlooking her when so many others had found “the one” at the office.
Since there were so many of them, they decided to walk to the sandwich shop next door instead of splitting up into different cars to drive. Crystal walked beside her sister, getting an update on her niece, Sofia, on the way.
When they were finally settled into a large table, Crystal had Ella on one side and Mia on the other. It seemed as if every time they had a group lunch, she ended up directly across from Suzy—which made her more than a little nervous. The woman was gorgeous and sophisticated, but that wasn’t the unsettling part. She was also a bit of a loose cannon. Mia had a similar personality, but Crystal had been around her friend enough to be comfortable discussing most anything. She didn’t know Suzy as well and was usually caught off guard by some of her questions or comments.
Ella had obviously invited everyone to her barbecue on Saturday, and they were discussing the details. Crystal almost swallowed her tongue when her traitor of a sister blurted out, “And we need to make sure that Mark attends. I’ve had Declan invite him, but, Emma, if you could have Brant follow up that would be great.”
Licking her lips, Suzy asked, “So, beyond the obvious reasons, why do we want him to attend so badly?”
Crystal kicked Ella under the table—which was a huge mistake. Instead of shutting up, Ella just started sputtering as if she’d lost her mind. She might as well be holding up a guilty sign. “I—er—um . . . trying to be nice?”