Love Me Tomorrow (11 page)

It was horrible and Levi was aware that he was spiraling.

He knew that attempting to concentrate on the interviews was a complete waste of time so he just sat there, feeling wretched with a fake-ass smile plastered onto his face. The one good thing that had happened today was finding a temporary nurse to look after Ruby until something more permanent could be worked out.

As it turned out, spending the weekend with his mommy had made for a nice distraction. Ruby had been able to sense something was off with him, but she never pressured him for details. She was good like that. Instead, she kept him distracted by sitting with him on the sofa, binge-watching old movie musicals for a day and a half.

Smiling at the young woman who got up from the conference table, Levi stood, seeing Valerie do the same out of the corner of his eye. He reached out, shaking her hand. “Very nice meeting you.”

“We’ll be in touch,” Valerie added, giving him an odd sideways look.

“Awesome, thank you,” she said, breathily, “really great meeting you both. I’ve heard great things about your great company.”

She sort of curtsied, before seeming to realize what she was doing and then turned and ran out of the room.

“That was…”

“Fucking weird,” Valerie clarified.

“She did just curtsy, right? I didn’t imagine that?”

“No, you didn’t.” Valerie sniffed, taking her application and turning it over onto the ‘No’ pile. “That bitch be crazy.”

“Was she having an asthma attack?” Levi asked, sitting back down, trying not to think about Jake and failing miserably. He hated this feeling, like he was losing out on something, and as a result, the rest of his life was going to totally suck.

“I don’t know what her problem was, but I would murder her if I had to listen to that weird breathy voice talking at me all day long.”

“Word.” Levi nodded while blankly staring out at the line of people they still had to interview. He wanted to go upstairs, put his PJ’s back on and crawl into bed

“Like stab her in the fucking face, you know?” Valerie asked.

“Mmm hmm,” Levi said with a sigh.

“Like this.” She began air-stabbing at his face, making that Alfred Hitchcock screechy Psycho movie sound effect.

Levi jerked back, staring at her like she’d lost her freakin’ mind. “What the hell are you doing?”

Pushing her chair back, Valerie walked around the side of the table “Just as I thought, you’re not even listening to me anymore.”

“I…am.” Levi decided it safest to sit back down and not make any sudden movements.

“No, if you’d been listening you would have understood my face stabbing gesture.”

“Oh, I understood it.”

She made this really loud, very annoying game show buzzer sound before pointing at him. “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”

“You do know they can all see us, right?” Levi asked, waving out at the dozen or more people sitting in the lobby area of the office in order to illustrate this fact for her.

A few of the people sitting in the lobby area waved back at him, looking confused as they glanced back and forth at one another trying to figure out who Levi was attempting to communicate with.

He was seriously rethinking the whole glass-pane-walled-in conference room, which had seemed like a good choice at the time, allowing all the natural light from the storefront windows to filter to the back of the space.

“What’s your point?” Valerie asked, apparently unable to make the connection on her own.

“That making crazy, stabby motions at one another might not send the right message about what it’s like to work here to all of the no doubt now completely freaked out interviewees?”

She stood there mulling that over for a few moments. “Fair enough.”

Levi propped his elbows up onto the table and planted his face into the palms of his hands.

“I’ll go get the next one,” she said greedily, as if nothing in the world was more exciting to her.

He groaned into his hands, hearing the door swish open and closed, thankful for whatever precious few moments of peace and quiet he was going to get. His head was beginning to throb, which seemed about par for the course. Looking out over the back part of the office space, he noticed all the decorations he’d purchased for the cancer benefit stacked up against the far wall, including the seventy-seven eight foot Victorian-themed canvas carnival backdrops which had been laid out flat and stacked on top of one another.

Why Valerie hadn’t had the men he’d hired to move the stuff, unload it into the back storage area, where it belonged he had yet to ask—assuming instead she’d been too distracted ogling the sweaty, muscled mover beefcake to think clearly.

Then there was the mountainous pile of phone messages from potential clients he and Val still hadn’t completely sorted through. He glanced down at the three piles of applications Val had laying on the table, praying that the thicker stack was the ‘no’ pile and not the ‘still waiting to be interviewed’ pile. They had so much work to do and they desperately needed to hire some help if they were going to make a go of it. That knowledge didn’t prevent him from sneering at the piles, struggling to think back over the faces that had sat across the table from them throughout the morning for even one that stood out.

All he could see was Jake’s face.
Stupid, cheater-butt, face
.

He shook his head, wishing he’d never met the fucking asshole.

His business was finally taking off like a rocket. This was what he had wanted—what he had worked so hard for over the past year. He could not allow this Jake disappointment to ruin the rest of his life.

So I’ll end up an old maid, or whatever the gay dude equivalent of that happened to be.

Always the bridesmaid and never the bridegroom.

The Susan Lucci of love.

He recalled Valerie’s kitty comment from the night of the benefit and sneered. “The cats are a fucking no go, though. Gotta draw the line somewhere.”

By the time Valerie came back into the room, Levi looked up, seeing that the lobby was practically empty as the last few people were walking out the door. He immediately began to fear the worst.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything bad. I did however send everyone home—well, all except one—he’s a total hottie! Even though it’s very apparent you are in no mood for interviewing new employees today, I have no intention of allowing you and your issues to get in the way of me ogling some sexy beefcake for however long I can stretch out this one final interview.”

He smiled, sitting back in his chair and remembering why he put up with all her other shenanigans. When push came to shove she always had his back… well, sorta.

“As grateful as I am for you doing that, I feel horrid, Val. Those people took time out of their day and spent money getting here.”

“End of the day, you’re not really here though, are you?” Val asked.

Levi shook his head.

“Then I did them a favor. Besides, I made appointments for the rest of them, sprinkled throughout the week, so they all have set times to come back, which means no sitting around for hours waiting for their turn.”

“Well, that is nice, I hate waiting.”

“I’m well aware, you little diva.”

He scowled at her, and then stuck out his tongue, which she seemed to appreciate, not surprisingly.

“Bring on the hottie so we can get this over with and get on with our day.”

“He’s in the restroom, so just settle down there.”

Levi scoffed. “He can’t urinate on his own time?”

“Listen here, boss man, this relationship of ours can only work if I remain the snarky, inappropriately selfish one, you dig?”

He laughed, finding that humorous instead of horrifying… which was a sure sign that the apocalypse was upon them.

They each plastered on smiles as Valerie’s hottie came out of the restroom, looking mildly embarrassed to see they were waiting on him. As he strode into the conference room, Levi had to admit the man was definitely easy on the eyes. Too young looking for Levi’s taste, but still studly all the same.

Valerie introduced him as Angelo Salazar. It seemed fitting that he had a name that was every bit as unique and easy to remember as the man himself was. Dark eyes, wavy ink-black, shiny hair and flawless, sun-kissed Mediterranean looking skin all combined to make Angelo one of the single prettiest men Levi had ever seen. He looked like he belonged on a runway in Milan—that perfect mix of delicate features and high cheekbones packaged in an otherwise mouth-watering, masculine frame.

Valerie was smiling like a newly crowned beauty queen when she came around the table and took her seat next to Levi. As she began the interview, discussing his previous work experience and whatnot, Levi found himself becoming sadder over the fact he couldn’t stop thinking about Jake.

“We do a lot of evening events, naturally,” Valerie said, “and oftentimes have to step outside of typical roles within the company—”

“Mmm,” Levi nodded, only half paying attention at this point, “very true.”

If a man that was as gorgeous as Angelo couldn’t manage to make Levi forget about every other man on the planet, including Jake-fucking-Freeman, there was a serious problem brewing. It was a frightening thought that now had Levi completely freaked.

“Occasionally, we also organize private events that require staff, bartenders and waiters to be shirtless. Would that be a problem for you?” Valerie asked.

Levi scowled, wondering what the hell she was talking about. He started to interject when an even more terrifying thought crept into his brain. What if there truly was only one other person out there for everyone? Obviously, not everyone waited for or found their perfect
one
, which would certainly explain the divorce rate in this country. But if there was a
one
for everyone and if his
one
were Jake, Levi was screwed, because Jake hadn’t waited for him like he had Jake!

What an asshole!

Levi looked over at Valerie, half expecting a high-five as she yelled, “Hell yeah… he’s a total asshole!”

Instead he found her looking up at a shirtless Angelo, who was smiling and laughing right along with her from across the table as he turned, providing a mouth-watering 360 degree view of his well-muscled physique.

“Oh my God!” Levi shot up from his seat, startling the two of them.

His arms began flailing as his foot caught on a chair leg, before getting tangled up with one another. Before he could say the words,
sexual harassment lawsuit
, he was falling backward, unable to grab a hold of the table, or the chair which was already lying on its side, or Valerie who actually recoiled from him instead of reaching out to try and prevent him from ending up on his ass.

Levi closed his eyes, expecting the pain to reverberate through his body the instant he hit the hardwoods. He grunted, rather indelicately, feeling a pair of sturdy arms around his back. Realizing he was no longer suffering the effects of gravity, he opened one eye to see Angelo staring down at him.

“I got ya,” Angelo said, slowing lifting him back up to his feet.

Levi was mortified, naturally, even more so after whispering, “Damn, you smell good.”

Angelo started laughing, finally letting go of Levi but refusing to vacate his air space. “Thank you for the lovely, albeit unusual compliment.”

Valerie looked pissed, staring at the floor like she was considering throwing herself across the room in hopes Angelo would rescue her as well.

Levi took several steps back, needing some distance from the Angelo-scent and sights before him. “My deepest apologies for my associate’s rude, objectifying behavior.”

“I don’t mind.” Angelo winked at Levi, a cocky smile sitting comfortably across his face. “Though I was a little insulted over the fact it took you so long to take notice of all this.”

Levi’s mouth fell open slightly, unsure how to respond to that.

“I work out… like a lot.”

Levi laughed, somehow catching on that he was both flirting with him and kidding around.

“Obviously you’re hired.”

“Yay!!” Valerie said, clapping. “Sexy minion.”

Angelo looked at her funny. “You’re a bit of an odd bird aren’t you?”

“Ignore her please… and you can put your shirt back on, please, sorry again that
anyone
asked you to undress.”

He smirked. “Too distracting for you to take now that you finally noticed, I get it.”

Levi shook his head, sneaking one last peek as Angelo slipped his shirt back on, tucking it back inside the waistband of his pants.

“As I was saying before…” Angelo frowned, visibly confused over the best way to reference Levi’s outburst, “…your episode?”

Levi nodded begrudgingly, deciding that was probably the kindest descriptor he was likely to get.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything over the past year and a half since relocating to Wilde City, so I’m totally open to whatever. It would be great to find one job instead of getting shuffled around the city doing temp work to make ends meet.”