Everything Karl had just told him continued to weigh on his mind for the rest of the afternoon, especially the realization that his attraction to Lauren apparently hadn’t gone unnoticed. At least, he consoled himself, Karl still didn’t seem to know about his past relationship with Lauren. It appeared that he and Lauren were still the only ones who were aware of their history with each other.
He wound up spending far too much time mulling over all the things Karl had just discussed – how Ben should consider taking his job; how Elle’s jealousy of Lauren was as apparent as Ben’s attraction to her; that Lauren evidently didn’t date much at all and hadn’t for some time. He was distracted during the three different meetings he had scheduled that afternoon, pushed papers around on his desk, and got very little actual work done. By the time four o’clock rolled around, he realized he had at least two or three hours worth of work to get through before he could even think of leaving for the day. He heaved a sigh and thought that taking over Karl’s job was definitely the best idea he’d had in a long time. But since the possibility of that happening was still a few months away, Ben began to plough through the never ending pile of papers on his desk.
It was only a knock on his office door an hour later that caused him to finally lift his head, and he frowned in mild irritation as Lauren poked her head inside. It had been quite some time since she’d sought him out for any reason, and he could only guess at what might have pissed her off enough to finally approach him.
“Hey, you got a few minutes?” she asked, her voice sounding a bit too forced, and he could swear she actually looked nervous.
Ben glanced at all the work he still had to get done before he could get a start on his weekend, feeling the beginnings of a headache forming at his temples. “Not really,” he muttered. “Can it wait until Monday?”
“I won’t be here on Monday,” she reminded him. “We’re flying out early tomorrow morning, remember? On the first of four flights, I might add. Jesus, Nadine really outdid herself this time, didn’t she? And I know for a fact that we could have made it there with only three flights, looked them all up myself.”
Ben scrubbed a hand over his face, gazing at Lauren impatiently. “Is that what you wanted to talk about – Nadine’s latest round of travel arrangements? Because I have real work to do, Lauren. I don’t have the time right now to deal with one of your tantrums.”
She glared at him but surprisingly just shook her head rather than fire back with a scathing retort. “No, that’s not what I came in here for. It’s – something else. And it’s important, Ben.”
He suddenly thought of what Karl had hinted at earlier – that Lauren, too, might be thinking of leaving the magazine. And he knew he was really not in the mood to deal with that kind of drama right now.
“I’m sorry,” he told her curtly. “But I really can’t spare the time right now. Maybe you should make an appointment with Kym when you get back from the trip. Or send me an email about it.”
“An email.” She looked at him strangely before shaking her head. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Sorry for taking you away from your important work.”
Lauren dashed off even as he thought of calling her back. There had been something in her voice, in the way she had looked at him, that made him think what she had to say wasn’t related to the job in any way.
Ben slammed a fist on his desk, pissed off at himself for having acted like such an ass, and regretting how impatient he’d just been with her. He half-rose from his chair, intending to go after her, until he decided instead to take Nathan Atwood up on his earlier invitation.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lauren belted down the last tequila shot, closed her eyes for a moment or two, and then immediately raised her arm as she tried to signal their waiter. Ben thought that the poor young man was probably hiding in the kitchen, cowering in fear from the crazy woman at his table.
She’d been in a lousy mood even before he had tentatively approached their table, and hadn’t bothered to hide her surprise and irritation to learn that Nathan had invited Ben to join them. From that point on her mood had only worsened as the evening went on, arguing with her sister about what dishes to order, hassling the waiter when something wasn’t prepared to her liking, and drinking – a lot. Ben realized that this was the first time he’d actually seen Lauren drunk, and he hoped like hell that he hadn’t been the cause after dismissing her so coolly from his office earlier today.
Now she was standing, looking around impatiently for their waiter. “Where the hell is that idiot anyway? If he thinks for a minute he’s getting more than a five dollar tip, he’s out of his mind. Nathan, don’t you dare leave him more than that, do you hear me?”
Nathan looked as though he would love nothing better than to strangle his very difficult sister-in-law at this moment. “For all the shit you’ve given that kid tonight, I ought to leave him a five hundred dollar tip,” he groused.
Lauren glared at him. “Well, there really is a sucker born every minute, isn’t there? Jules, do you see the guy anywhere? I need refills here. Pronto.”
As she raised her arm again to flag down a waiter – any waiter – Ben took hold of her wrist and lowered her arm.
“You don’t need any more booze tonight,” he told her in a quiet but firm voice. “I think we can all agree that you’ve had way too much already. Stop embarrassing your sister and Nathan and behave yourself.”
Ben wasn’t sure who was more shocked at what he’d just said – any of the three other people at the table or himself. But even as he spied the furious expression on Lauren’s face, he refused to back down and kept her wrist pinned to the table.
He’d never seen her this angry before, her green eyes glittering fiercely, and he was more than a little afraid that she was either going to spit at him or bend over and bite his hand. Instead, she employed a different dirty tactic and kicked him – hard – in the shin with the pointy toe of her ankle boot.
“Ow. Dammit,” he cursed, releasing her hand to rub his abused shin.
Lauren wasted no time in springing to her feet, grabbing her clutch bag as she did. “Screw you, Ben Rafferty,” she hissed. “You might be my boss at work but outside of the office I’m the only one who gets to boss me around. And screw that incompetent waiter, too. I’ll get my own drink. Better yet, I’ll get someone to buy me one.”
She flounced off angrily, not such a easy feat considering how much she’d had to drink. If he hadn’t been so pissed off at her right now, Ben might have actually laughed at the way she swayed a bit unsteadily in those sexy black lace ankle boots with their towering heel.
Julia sighed. “I’d better go after her. When she’s in a mood like this, there’s no telling what kind of trouble she can get into. I’m sorry, Ben. She’s never this out of control. I have no idea what’s bugging her tonight.”
“I think I do,” he told Julia. “I upset her earlier in the day, and coming here tonight was probably not the best move under the circumstances. I thought – well, that I would try to apologize, but I can see she’s clearly not in the mood to be reasonable.”
“I’m glad you came,” Julia told him earnestly. “Nathan and I have both enjoyed getting to know you a little. As for Lauren – well, she’s been off her game for months now, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. Oh, God! I’d better go rescue that guy she’s hitting on over at the bar. Excuse me.”
He watched with concern as Julia hurried over to the bar, where Lauren was rather drunkenly starting to drape herself around a good looking guy who seemed far too interested in her for Ben’s liking. He took a sip of the red wine Nathan had ordered with dinner, his grip on the fragile glass stem nearly hard enough to snap it in two.