Chapter Two
Arriving back at her apartment, Haley busied herself with unpacking her bag before getting changed into a pair of comfy black sweatpants and a baby blue tank top. Saturdays for her were often taken up with cleaning and doing laundry so that her Sundays were free do whatever she wanted and she saw no reason why this weekend should be any different. She couldn’t afford to let herself think about certain things and just needed to keep busy and so she decided to make a start on her laundry. She was halfway to the bathroom to collect the hamper when the intercom in her hallway buzzed letting her know she had a visitor.
Padding across the carpet, she picked up the handset for the intercom. “Hello?”
“Haley, it's me... Nathan.”
The familiar voice on the other end of the line had her frozen to the spot and she couldn’t help the words that left her mouth or the harsh tone she used. “What are you doing here?”
“I think we need to talk,” Nathan told her simply.
“There’s nothing to talk about. What happened was a mistake…a drunken mistake. Now if you don’t mind I’ve got things to be getting on with. I’ll see you on Monday.” Disconnecting the call, she placed the handset back in its cradle on the wall and she hadn’t taken more than two steps before the buzzer sounded again. Ignoring it, she went into the bathroom as she had originally intended and picked up her clothes hamper, carrying it into the small utility area adjacent to her kitchen where the washer and dryer were situated.
Downstairs, Nathan continued to press the button for her apartment. He didn’t care how long he had to stay out there, he wasn’t going anywhere without talking to her about what had happened at the hotel. If things were this awkward between them now, he could only imagine how bad they would be on Monday morning when they faced each other at work. Knowing it would more than likely drive her insane, he kept his finger on the button so that the noise on her end was continuous.
Haley cursed under her breath at the shrill noise that was disturbing her previously peaceful apartment. She debated turning her stereo on and blaring some music to try and cover it but she knew all she’d probably get out of that would be complaints from her neighbors. Storming over to the intercom again, she picked it up and shouted, “Stop it! Let go of that damn button, Nathan.”
He stopped just long enough to tell her, “I’ll only stop if you let me come up and talk to you.” As soon as he’d finished talking, his finger once again pressed down on the button.
She swore loudly as the noise resumed. There was no way she could put up with this for much longer and she knew that if she didn’t let him in, the stubborn asshat would stay out there all day and annoy the crap out of her.
“Fine! You win, okay. You can come up for five minutes, say what you’ve got to say and then leave. Agreed?” She knew without needing to see his face that he was probably smirking the way he always did when he got his own way.
“Agreed.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when the noise suddenly stopped and counting to three, she pressed the button which released the latch on the main front door and waited for him to come up. Her palms felt sweaty and she quickly wiped them on her pants. Without realizing it, she had started to pace by the door and then as if a light-bulb had gone off inside her head, she practically ran to her bedroom and checked her appearance in her mirror. Reaching up, she released her hair from the messy ponytail she had pulled it into earlier and ran a brush through it. Picking up her favorite peach lip gloss, she applied some onto her lips, rubbing them together to distribute the color just as the knock on her door sounded.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, she frowned at her reflection when she realized what she had just done but she justified it as just wanting to make herself look presentable and unaffected by his sudden appearance.
Slowly walking towards her front door, she took another long, deep breath before finally opening it and coming face to face with Nathan. A small part of her debated keeping him in the hallway rather than letting him in but she didn’t want nosy old Mrs Hedges who lived opposite her listening to their conversation.
“Hey,” Nathan said as he waited for her to let him inside. For a moment he didn’t think she was going to let him enter but then she took a step back and opened the door wider.
“Hey, come in.”
“Thanks. So, do my five minutes start right now?” he teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“Don’t start with me because I’m not in the mood. Just say what you’ve got to say and then leave. I’ve got things to be getting on with.”
Nathan swallowed. It didn't look like she was going to be going easy on him. “Okay. Is it alright if I sit down?”
“Sure,” she replied as she walked over to her favorite armchair and took a seat in it. Her fingers nervously played with the hem of her top as she waited for him to take a seat on the couch.
Nathan couldn’t remember ever feeling this nervous around a woman before and despite his attraction to Haley, he’d always felt in control with her. Now, though, that was shot to hell. His mouth was dry and his palms felt clammy.
They both sat there in silence as they waited for the other to speak, all the time their eyes looking at anything but each other.
“You’ve got a really nice place here,” he finally said and he inwardly cursed himself for sounding so lame.
“Thanks, but I don’t think you came here to talk about my apartment.”
“No, I didn’t. I came to find out why you just left like that this morning. I woke up alone and then when I knocked on your door I got no answer. It was only when I went to check myself out of my room that I was told you’d already checked out and the receptionist handed me your note.”
“What did you think was going to happen, huh? What happened last night was a mistake, it shouldn’t have happened and it wouldn’t have if we hadn’t drunk so much.”
“I just... I didn’t think you were going to run out on me like that and…”
“Oh, I forgot, that’s usually your trick, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked pointedly, his eyes narrowing.
“I’ve heard the rumors, Nathan.”
“What rumors?”
Haley sighed. She could feel the headache she had been fighting pushing its way back to the front of her head. “The rumors about how you’re the king of one night stands. How you always… leave before the woman wakes up so as to avoid any kind of awkwardness or confrontation.”
“Is that so? Well, you obviously know a lot more about it than I do.” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Of all the things he had expected her to come out with, that hadn't been one of them. Getting up from the couch, he started to walk towards the door before turning to face her. “I guess my five minutes are up. See you on Monday.”
Looking up at him, she saw a mixture of sadness and anger on his face and, not for the first time, she wondered if maybe the things she'd heard about him weren’t true. “What? Where are you going?”
Nathan shook his head as he watched her get up from her seat and walk over to him. “You seem to have made your mind up about me so I’m just going to go. I guess you were right, what happened between us was a mistake and it's probably best that we forget about it.”
As she looked at him, her eyes met his and she found herself drowning in his gaze. She felt her cheeks heating up as flashes of last night ran through her mind and coughing to clear her suddenly dry throat, she said, “Look, don’t.... don't go. I’ll make us some coffee and we can talk.”
He was just about to tell her not to bother and that they should just leave things as they were but he couldn’t seem to say the words. If he left now, he knew things would just become more awkward between them and he didn’t want that. He would rather continue having a friendly working relationship with her than nothing at all.
“Okay,” he told her giving her a crooked smile before walking over and taking a seat on the couch again. From his position, he had a good view of her in the kitchen as she made the coffee and the smile on his face seemed to grow. “Do you need any help?” he called out a moment later.
“No, I’m fine thanks.”
“I’ll say,” he muttered under his breath.
“Sorry?”
“Uh, nothing. So, uh, what was the emergency you had to rush back home for?”
Haley had returned to what she was doing and so her back was facing him which at that moment she was more than happy about. Why the hell had she put that in her note to him? “Uh... it’s kind of personal,” she replied in the end.
“Right,” he returned disbelievingly. He was even more certain now that there hadn’t been any emergency causing her to rush home.
A few minutes later, Haley carried a tray over and placed it onto the coffee table. “Help yourself,” she told him. “I brought out some cookies too seeing as I haven’t had any breakfast. I’m guessing you haven’t eaten either.”
“No, I haven’t.” Reaching over, he picked up one of the cups of coffee and added some sugar and milk to it before picking up a chocolate chip cookie and sitting back comfortably. “Mm, these are really good,” he told her after polishing it off.
“Thanks. It’s an old family recipe.”
“You made them?”
“Uh huh. I know it probably sounds kind of lame but baking is one of my hobbies.”
“It's not lame at all,” he told her. “If your cookies taste this good, I’d love to try the other stuff you make.”
Haley’s cheeks flushed at the compliment but she found herself smiling. “Thanks.” They sat in silence for a few moments as they sipped their coffees and Nathan ate another cookie. Finally, she plucked up the courage to start the conversation she knew they needed to have.
“Why did you kiss me last night? Was it just the alcohol that made you do it?” Her eyes were fixed on the coffee cup in her hands as she waited for him to answer her.
Nathan’s eyes flickered over to where she was sitting and seeing that she wasn’t looking at him, he let his gaze wander up and down her body. He was used to only seeing her in her office clothes which, while flattering to her curvy figure, didn’t let him really see her. Now, seeing her sitting opposite him in just a tank top with her lightly tanned skin on display and a simple pair of sweats was sending the blood rushing to a certain part of his anatomy. She was so breathtakingly gorgeous.
“N-Nathan?” Having received no response, Haley had looked up and caught him watching her and not for the first time that day, she blushed yet again.
“Sorry. I kissed you because I’ve wanted to do it since the moment I met you. There, I've said it. And no, it wasn’t the alcohol that made me do it. If anything, it just gave me the courage to do it and an excuse to hide behind if you slapped me or pushed me away,” he confessed.
“Oh!” Her voice came out as a squeak as her mind rapidly took in what she had just heard.
“And just to clear up those so-called rumors; I don’t pick up women, sleep with them and then sneak out once they’re asleep. I’m not going to tell you I’ve never had a one night stand because a) it wouldn't be true and b) I don’t think you’d believe me anyway. Those happened when I was on the basketball team in high school and before I knew any better. I’m guessing the rumors you’ve heard have been thanks to Brooke. Am I right?”
Haley nodded. “Um… yeah. We were talking about you one day and she mentioned that you'd had a pretty bad reputation throughout high school and then college for doing that.”
“I’ll admit my reputation in high school wasn’t the best but by the time I hit my second year of college, I’d cleaned up my act. Since then I haven’t had any one night stands.”
“Until last night, right?”
“No,” he whispered. “I don't know about you but I don't consider what happened between us a one night stand.” Placing his coffee cup back onto the tray, he pushed himself off the couch and walked over to where she was sitting and he crouched down in front of her. “Last night meant something to me and waking up alone this morning... well, it made me realize how those girls must have felt when I did it to them. I felt sick when I found out you’d already checked out of the hotel and I knew I needed to come and see you and tell you how I feel about you.”
“Nathan, I—t”
“Let me finish. Please?” He waited for her to agree which she did a moment later with a small nod of her head. “I am so attracted to you, Haley, and at times it’s made working with you complete hell. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve wanted to tell you how I felt... how the only thing on my mind during the nights we'd be working late was kissing you.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” she asked as she looked down into his face. Over the time she had worked for him, she had managed to detect when he wasn’t being totally truthful with her and right now wasn’t one of those occasions.
“Because… I didn’t know if you felt the same,” he admitted. “In the office you’re always so professional and there just never seemed to be a good time to bring it up. There have been times when I’ve asked you to work late and it hasn’t been necessary; they were just excuses so I could spend some more time with you.”
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
He quietly sighed to himself. “You don’t have to say anything, Haley. I just needed you to know that last night…well, it meant something to me.” The last two words he muttered under his breath but she caught them.
Taking a deep breath, she said, “It meant something to me, too.”
His eyes which had lowered flew back to her face and he regarded her seriously. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me,” she said giving him a soft smile. “I said last night meant something to me, too. Why do you think I ran away this morning?”
“I don’t know. I figured you regretted it and—”
“No,” she interrupted. “I could never regret it. I think I was just feeling... overwhelmed. I guess it’s my turn to be honest and tell you that I’m attracted to you as well. That and... uh, that I wasn't as drunk as I might have appeared.”
Nathan couldn’t help the smile that had crept onto his lips at hearing her words. “How do you mean?”
“I’m not that much of a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I guess you can thank Brooke for that,” she teased, referring to their mutual friend.
“Well, if she’s going around spreading rumors about me, I’m not sure thanking her is what I should be doing.” His legs were starting to cramp as he continued to crouch and so he stood back up and went back to his seat on the couch.
“I’m sorry about that, Nathan. I shouldn’t have just taken her word for it but she’s my friend and I know she’s known you a long time.”
He nodded. “Yeah, she has. We’ve known each other since elementary school and our families were friends.”
“Did the two of you ever date?” She’d asked Brooke the same question a while back but she was curious to see what his answer would be.
“God, no! I think we’d have ended up killing each other long ago if we’d ever dated,” he said laughing. “I’m curious though, how did the two of you meet and become friends?”
“Oh, uh, I was working late one night not long after I’d started at the company and I was temping for Lucas. Brooke came up to the office to meet him for their date and after he'd introduced us and she discovered I'd only just moved into the area, she made it her mission to give me a tour of the town and it just went from there, I guess.”
“I’ll bet the tour lasted all of five minutes,” he teased.
“You would think so but she took me more on a tour of all of her favorite stores so it lasted pretty much all day.”
“Ah, I should have guessed,” he said, chuckling.
They fell into a semi-comfortable silence but this time they didn’t look away from each other. Haley felt her body heat up when she noticed his eyes lower to focus on her lips and she unconsciously licked them. “So, uh, what happens now?” she found herself asking.
“What do you want to happen?” he countered.
“I asked first.”
“Okay,” he said, smiling at her. “I want to get to know you better, Haley. I want to see where this thing between us leads. How about you?” The fingers on one hand nervously tapped away on his knee as he waited for her reply.
Smiling back at him, she was just about to agree with what he had said when she remembered something and started to shake her head. “I can’t… we can’t.”
The smile slowly faded from his face. “Why not?”
“Because we work together, Nathan.”
“And? I think we’re mature enough to be able to keep our private lives out of the office.”
“I know that and I agree but what about Dan?”
He gave her a confused look. “Dan Roe, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“What about him?”
Standing up from her seat, she paced in front of him and a second later he stood up and took her hands in his, effectively stilling her movements. “What’s our boss got to do with this?”
“I’m talking about the rule he implemented about colleagues not dating each other.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that. After what happened when Elaine and Josh split up, he made it clear that he didn’t want something like that happening again and so brought that rule into immediate effect.”
Nathan remembered it well. Even though the couple in question had worked in different departments, when they split up it had been very messy and had spilled over involving various people within the company taking sides, etc. At the time, he hadn’t blamed Dan for coming up with the rule preventing colleagues from getting involved with each other in future. Now, though, was a completely different story.
“Haley, I…”
“No, Nathan, we can’t. He’s not going to make an exception for us and—”
Her words were cut off by his lips crushing against hers. Like last night, he thought that as soon as his lips touched hers that she would push him away but she didn’t. Instead, her arms came up to twine around his neck and her fingers played with the short hairs at the nape. The moment she parted her lips he slipped his tongue inside her warm mouth and he explored it thoroughly.
The feel of his fingers slipping just under the hem of her top and drawing lazy circles on her bare skin was sending shivers up and down her spine. Reluctantly, she broke the kiss to breathe in some air and slowly opening her eyes, they were met by his clear blue ones looking back at her.
“This is wrong.”
“No, it’s not. This feels so right and I know you feel the same despite what you’re saying. If you'd thought it felt wrong you would have pushed me away as soon as I kissed you but you didn’t.” Closing the gap between them, he kissed her again but this time pulled back before it had a chance to get too out of control. “I want you so much, Haley. I always have.”
“I-I want you, too but… what about work?”
“Let’s worry about that later. Besides…” Nathan paused, letting his fingers slowly move higher up her back and, once more, he felt her shiver against him.
“Besides what?” she queried.
“Besides, rules are meant to be broken,” he told her, a smirk etched across his face as he fell backwards onto the couch, pulling Haley down on top of him.