“Lexi, wait.”
“Leigh, I just need to get out of here. Let me leave with a little dignity, please? I made a mess of everything.”
“That was Mr. Drake on the phone. He told me to stop you.” Her apologetic smile made Lexi’s blood run cold. “He wants to see you in his office.”
Her plan for a quick escape clearly thwarted, Lexi took a deep, cleansing breath, gathered the remnants of her dignity and started the long walk
back to her desk. On the way, she assured herself everything would be all right; the worst he could do was yell for a while, and then it would be over, no big whoop. She already knew she was fired, so if he got out of line, she wouldn’t have to hold her tongue and could tell him what a horse’s ass he was. She was unsure if she would ever have the nerve to do that, but telling herself these little lies gave her more confidence. She approached Vincent’s office just in time to hear Sean spit out a few closing words.
“Try not to be a total ass,” Sean snarled before looking up and meeting Lexi’s gaze.
“Alexandra, in my office.” Vincent leaned against the edge of her desk as she walked past, his eyebrows pulled tightly together.
“Fine.” She stepped into the disheveled room and gently rolled the large leather chair back to its place behind the massive desk; then she righted the toppled armchairs at the foot of the desk and sat down, fidgeting with the strap of her purse the entire time she waited.
Vincent strode through the door, shutting it tightly behind him. He stopped short when he saw his chair back behind the desk. He quickly recovered, unbuttoned his suit jacket, and sat down, straightening the small, pink message squares he had thrown down onto his desk in his haste earlier.
Lexi watched him meticulously stack the pieces of paper into a pile, each corner perfectly lined up until the last square was placed on top. He slid the neat little pile toward his computer monitor, and then folded his hands on the desk. Only then did he look up at Lexi, his darkened eyes not nearly as harsh as they had been a few moments earlier, but still nowhere near pleased.
“Alexandra—”
Lexi cringed at his sharp tone as he said her name. Certain he was about to launch into a lengthy verbal reprimand, she was suddenly overcome with a horrible case of diarrhea of the mouth and began rambling.
“Vincent, it’s fine. I quit. I left my laptop and BlackBerry on the desk, and you can search my purse for stolen office supplies if you want, but I don’t know what else there is left to say. I made a mistake and am very sorry. I spent the last few days digging through every slip of paper on that desk
trying to figure out where the files you wanted were, but your system made absolutely no sense, so I … I just … organized it. It wasn’t until Sean, I—i mean Mr. Adler, told me how particular you were about your things that I realized what I had done and that I had overstepped my bounds. i apologize.”
Vincent sat silently behind his desk, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he seemed to be making up his mind about what to do. The silence in the room became deafening while Lexi waited for the yelling and screaming to begin. Instead, she was shocked when Vincent slumped back into his chair and sighed.
“First of all, Alexandra, I don’t accept your resignation right now.” He bent over and yanked open one of the file drawers at the bottom of his desk, and then glanced back at her. “Second, you aren’t going anywhere until you explain this meaningless filing system to me so I can get some work
done.” Vincent’s eyes softened ever so slightly as he leaned forward in his chair. “And third, I’m still waiting for that cup of coffee.”
Lexi stood up from her chair and remained frozen in place for a minute, debating what the hell she should do next. Part of her wanted to bring him that coffee and then dump it square into his lap for the way he had treated her the last few days and for his tantrum a short while ago. But as she stared into his eyes, she felt herself getting lost in them. He was peeking up at her. The scowl had been replaced by a much softer expression as he waited for her to make up her mind.
As she tried to decipher the look on his face, it finally dawned on her—this was her chance. For some reason he was giving her an opportunity to redeem herself, to prove her worth and show him exactly why he should keep her at Hunter. Lexi mulled it over in her head, and her stubborn streak
set in, causing her to dig in her heels and fight for what she wanted. And for now, she wanted this job, with him. God help her. Before she could stop herself, the words fell out of her mouth.
“Black, right?”
Vincent slowly nodded his head.
Lexi stumbled out of Vincent’s office, still in a daze. What just happened? Vincent was obviously still upset about what she’d done, but for some reason he was giving her another chance, and from what Leigh and Sean had hinted at all week, that never happened. Lexi picked up a coffee mug off the shelf in her office and tried to figure out the reason for Vincent’s uncommon charity towards her.
Could he have suddenly remembered her and that was the reason for this last minute reprieve? The fact that he continued to refer to her as Ms.
White or Alexandra, however, told her he still had no clue who she was. The only other thing that made sense was that she owed Sean big time.
Whatever he’d said to Vincent had made him back off and treat her like human being rather than a malfunctioning robot.
Lexi brought the steaming cup of coffee to the door of the office and gently knocked, figuring it was better to be overly formal at this point rather than assume she could just walk back in there.
“Yeah.” Vincent responded. He had stripped out of his suit jacket and loosened his tie. Distracted, he stared at the files in his drawers, deep in thought.
Lexi carefully placed the mug on his desk and waited for Vincent to say something. She watched him stubbornly stare at those files for a good five minutes before he sat back and shook his head in frustration.
“What the hell do the dots mean?” He spat out the question like it was the most awful thing that had ever crossed his lips.
“It’s a color-coding system. I thought it would make it easier to distinguish different kinds of files.”
“I get that it’s a system; I’m not a complete moron. What I am asking is—what do the colors represent?”
Lexi stood up, her legs shaky from her nerves as she slowly approached him and knelt beside the opened drawer. She could smell the rich spice of his cologne when he bent over her shoulder to watch intently as she began her explanation. He was so close that she could actually feel the heat coming off his body. Her heart raced, and she desperately tried to keep her voice even as she spoke.