In the Eye of the Storm (6 page)

Right on cue as the timer went off, Stephen walked in to the kitchen and stopped dead in his tracks.  “What in the world have you done?”  There were platters of food of every kind all around him yet there was no trace of it having been prepared.  There were nachos, cheese and crackers, fruit and vegetable platters; there were potato skins piled high with cheese and bacon and sour cream to top it with.  Stepping closer he noticed mini hot dogs wrapped in pastry and a tiny bowl of popcorn.  He looked at her quizzically.

“You can’t watch a movie in a theater without popcorn.” She shrugged.

“I’m sorry, but is the neighborhood joining us?” he teased.

Holly looked around her and suddenly felt very self conscious.  “I guess I did get carried away…”

“Ya think?”  When she made to apologize, he stopped her and went about finding trays to carry their bounty on. 

“Should I grab drinks?” she asked.

“I’ve got a fully stocked refrigerator downstairs and a bar.  I think we’re good, now come on before all of this gets cold.”  They made their way down the stairs and in to the theater.  “What shall we watch?”
       “I don’t know…what have you got?”

Stephen flipped a switch and one wall lit up to reveal his movie collection.  Holly stood wide-eyed.  “Geez…how am I supposed to decide on this?  What is there?  A thousand movies here?”

“Twenty-five hundred, to be exact.”  Holly looked at him with disbelief. 

“I think I’m going to need my glasses because reading all of these tiny DVD boxes is most certainly going to strain my eyes.”

Chuckling, he came to stand beside her and took her by the hand and led her to the back of the room where there was some sort of flat computer screen.  Steven touched the screen and suddenly it came to life.  “You can scan better this way; it’s a listing of all of the movies.  Just click on the genre you want and it will prompt you from there.”

She looked at him as if he had grown a second head.  “For real?”  He nodded.  “Before I start, are all of these movies like,
guy
movies or am I going to find some comedies and chick flicks in here, too?”

“I have covered all bases.  There are at least a hundred different chick flicks to choose from and being that you are my guest, it’s your choice.”

“Wow, a man who stocks chick flicks.  This place must be a real babe magnet.”

“Well, being that you are the first and only ‘babe’ to see it, you’ll have to let me know.”

“Seriously?”  Again, he nodded.  “How can that be?  Don’t you date?”

“Of course I date; I just don’t bring them home.”  Man, did
that
sound shallow.  “Come on; pick a movie while I get everything else set up.  You want a beer?  Soda? Milk shake?”

The last option piqued her interest but considering how much food she had prepared, she settled on a Coke.  She muttered a thanks as she continued to scan the movies.  After much deliberation she found a favorite,
“Speed,”
with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.  Stephen nodded his approval when she told him.  “I figured you as a
“Pride and Prejudice”
kind of gal.”

“Only when I’m alone,” she quipped.  “Besides, I’d hate for you to fall asleep from boredom and let all this food go to waste.”

They laughed; they ate, and shared a running commentary throughout the movie.  Stephen was discovering that his assistant was quite intriguing.  She was passionate in her conversation and he couldn’t remember ever having such a pointless conversation and enjoying it quite so much.

Holly, on the other hand, wasn’t quite so focused on Stephen; she was too busy enjoying the luxury that surrounded here.  Snuggling deeper in to the buttery softness of the recliner, she was sure than she had never been in a more comfortable chair and found herself thoroughly content.  Between them, they did manage to go through quite a bit of the food and her stomach protested that fact by the end of the movie. 

“It’s a rare combination of love story and action adventure,” she said as the credits rolled.  “I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”  She looked around and the thought of moving and cleaning up the mess was not appealing at all.  Beside her, Stephen’s expression told her the same thing.

“How about a double-feature?”

With a sigh of relief and giving in to the urge to recline, Holly looked over at him and smiled.  “It’s like you read my mind.  This one’s your choice.”  Within minutes they were watching the intro to Jackie Chan’s “
Shanghai Noon.
”  With mindless abandon, Holly reached for several squares of cheese and crackers as Stephen took the mini hot dogs and potato skins and warmed them in the microwave he kept behind the bar.

“I know there’s not really a love story here, but it’s still a great movie,” Stephen said conversationally while he waited for the ding of the microwave.

“That’s fine.  I really enjoy a good comedy, too.  But I have to tell you, if I don’t stop eating, the only thing I’m going to do after this movie is walk across the hall to your mini YMCA and walk on the treadmill until Monday.”

Well, at least she wasn’t trying to leave anymore, Stephen thought to himself.  He removed the food from the microwave and placed the plates between them again, refreshed both of their drinks and sat back down as Jackie Chan watched the Princess escape in the night.  For a minute, he glanced at Holly and watched her nibbling on a cracker, so relaxed, so at ease.  She truly looked different from the woman he worked with everyday.  Was he really that bad to work with that having a day off actually changed her appearance? 

Focusing on the movie again he couldn’t seem to break that train of thought.  He looked at Holly again.  Yes, she looked absolutely transformed.  It was more than the hair or the glasses, her whole face was relaxed.  Her posture was relaxed.  During the week, she held herself as stiff and as upright as a ruler.  Sitting here now, curled up with her feet tucked under her, watching a movie, she looked too young to be anyone’s personal assistant.  Hell, she looked like she should be hanging out at a sorority house, not her boss’s house.  Her
older
boss’s house.

Damn, he never really thought himself as old until that moment and thirty-two really wasn’t that old, but looking at Holly suddenly made him feel that way.  Old.  And creepy for continually staring at her.  Shaking his head, he put all of his effort in to watching the movie.

“Do I have something on my face?”  That got his attention and as much as he wanted to
not
look at Holly again, he could not ignore her question.

“Excuse me?” He coughed.

“I said, is there something on my face?  You were just staring at me.”

“Oh, that, well, it just struck me how truly different you look today. “

She huffed with annoyance.  “I thought we covered this last night.  Yes, my hair is down, yes I’m in sweats, I don’t have my make up with me…Geez, Stephen, I’m self conscious enough about it; thanks for bringing it up.”  She was mortified.  She rested her face in her hand to cover the side of her face that was facing Stephen and went back to watching the movie, hoping that he didn’t want to keep talking. 

Ninety minutes later, she had to move, she just
had
to.  The credits were rolling as Holly stood and stretched.  Stephen followed suit and now it was her turn to stare.  Earlier, she had been so preoccupied with prepping the food and coming down to watch the movie that she hadn’t taken the time to notice that he had showered, shaved and changed and was dressed casually.  Twice in one day of seeing Stephen dressed like a normal person was devastating to her senses.

As he stretched, his plain black t-shirt rose up about the waist band of well-worn, snug jeans.  The word ‘yummy’ came to mind and she decided the only thing she could do was start collecting dishes so that she stopped staring before she started to drool.  How un-cool would
that
be?  Stephen joined in and between the two of them, the theater was back to normal in less than ten minutes. 

Holly followed Stephen up the stairs and in to the kitchen where they continued to work together in silence as they scraped and rinsed dishes before loading them in the dishwasher.   When the task was done, they stood awkwardly facing one another, each unsure of what they were supposed to do next.

“So, um…I don’t think either of us is going to want to eat any time soon, right?” he said for lack of anything else to say.

“Definitely not.”  A glance at the clock and saw that it was only six o’clock.  What were they supposed to do for the rest of the night?  She walked over to the kitchen window and saw that it was almost dark and the rain was still coming down.  The theater was soundproof with no windows so for all she knew, the rain could have stopped but no such luck.  “I cannot believe that this storm has not passed yet!”

“Maybe we should turn on the news and see what they have to say.  Come on, I’ll turn on the TV in the den.”  Holly followed and for the next thirty minutes they sat on the sofa – at opposite ends – and watched the local news.  Then, still unsure of what to do, Stephen turned on the Weather Channel ‘just to verify’ what the local news had said.  By seven o’clock Holly had had enough of staring at a TV screen and had to get up and move around.

“Okay, I have not sat around so much in my entire life.  I can’t do it anymore!”  Her tone was light but Stephen knew that she was serious.  “I just don’t know what to do with myself.  I’m out of sorts and I can’t help but think about all of the things that I am supposed to be doing at home!”  Holly was pacing but more out of the need to not be still and not out of anger as was the case earlier in the day.

“I know what you mean.  I’ve got to be honest with you Holly, I promised myself that I would not bring up work or the Gideon project and as pleasant as this whole afternoon has been, deep down I am going crazy with the need to go and work on it!”  He could have kicked himself.  Sure, being honest was all part and parcel of being in the friend role but in that moment Stephen was sure that he had just blown everything; all of the headway he’d made in the friendship category was gone.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I wouldn’t mind having something productive to do.  As long as we set a time limit, I’ll help you.  I am not going to stay up all night working, though.  Is that okay?”

He could have kissed her right then and there but Stephen was sure that if he did, the topic of work and friendship would certainly be the furthest thing from his mind.  Watching Holly all day, laughing with her, had been mildly arousing.  He wasn’t used to being attracted to a woman under these circumstances and he certainly shouldn’t be feeling it towards his assistant.  He had to get things back on track fast!

This whole afternoon had been for her and yet she was still willing to help him out.  It took every ounce of willpower to not ask her if this meant that she’d changed her mind about quitting.  He wanted an answer, dammit!  But a good business man knew when to push and when to bide his time.  Right now he had no choice but to bide his time.  She was graciously helping him and that would be enough for him.

Chapter Four

Three hours later, Holly politely called an end to their work session.  She had been expecting Stephen to put up a fight but he simply nodded, closed the folder he was using and shut down the computer.  If only he was this agreeable during the week!  She didn’t realize she had spoken that out loud until Stephen said, “You never say when you want the day to end so I keep going.”

Unfortunately, he had a point.  Proper manners that were instilled in her from an early age had taught her to respect her employers and that meant working when they needed you to work and not complaining about it. 

“I really wish you would’ve told me how you felt about working late so much, you know.  I’m not such an ogre, am I, that you couldn’t come to me and just ask?”  He looked so vulnerable when she looked at him.  He had run his hands through his hair about a hundred times during the last three hours and for some inexplicable reason, her hands itched to do the same.

Distance.  She needed to put distance between them.  It was ten o’clock.  She could easily go to bed at this hour and not feel like she was running away.  Unfortunately, she knew that Stephen was going to want an answer first before he just let her walk away.  “No, you’re not an ogre.  It’s like I told you in the car earlier, last night just brought everything to the surface.  I didn’t realize how much it was bothering me until then.  Does that seem weird?”

“I’m not sure that weird is the right word, but I guess sometimes we have no control over where our breaking point is on certain things.” With his hands in his pockets, Stephen stared at the floor before looking at Holly and saying solemnly, “I really am sorry; about working you so hard, keeping you from having a social life, calling you at two a.m….everything.”

“How could you know that it was bothering me if I never said anything?  I’m as much to blame in this as you are.  Sort of,” she looked at him through veiled lashes and grinned.  “You are definitely to blame for the two a.m. thing, though.”

“Agreed.”  Seemingly satisfied at the exchange of words, Holly went about straightening the office up before telling Stephen that she was tired and was going to go to bed. 

“I’m going to go and grab my gym bag so that I have a change of clothes for the morning but if you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow another t-shirt to sleep in.”  He agreed and they left the office; Holly went down the hall and grabbed her bag while Stephen went upstairs to get a shirt for her.  They met at the top of the stairs.

“Here you go.  Is there anything else that you need?”

“There was the chocolate rumor…”  When he turned to go down the stairs, Holly reached out and stopped him.

“Stephen!” She laughed.  “I was just kidding!  I’m still full from all of our movie food.  Really.  The last thing I need right now is chocolate!”  Her laughter was infectious and Stephen found himself laughing yet again.  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bed.  I’ll see you in the morning – but not too early, okay?”