Jenna Dean Lance slumped farther down into her desk chair, pulling the empty manilla folder up to cover her face better. She wasn't hiding, per say, but she did want to avoid the glaze of her best friend and office mate, Kimberley Stane as she breezed in twenty minutes late with a fresh iced coffee in hand.
They shared the back wall of their office suite, being the only two bookkeepers/accountants/"document babysitters", as Kimber likes to call them, so there was honestly no way to avoid her friend.
She still tried, though.
She heard Kim call out a cheerful hello to their boss as she settled into the desk facing Jenna, passing off her tardiness as traffic problems.
Jenna waited a full two minutes as the silence fell around their office before daring to peak around her pathetic shield.
"Frick!" she cried out, jumping back against her seat.
Kimberley had silently made her way over and was leaned over her desk, less than three inches from where Jenna's own face had been.
"Such language," Kim purred, smirking as she stood tall and stared down at her. "Hope you refrained from that kind of talk on your date last night."
"Do we really have to go over it? I so do not want to relive that horrible experience. Even for you," Jenna sighed, knowing there was nothing left but to resign herself to the re-telling.
Maybe Kimber would realize that her best friend needed some space and would back off. Maybe she would show kindness in her time of need.
"Yes. So spill." Kim declared, moving to settle into the lonely chair to the side of Jenna's desk.
Or maybe not.
Five minutes into the telling, Jenna was ready to shove Kim down a flight of stairs as she laughed loudly and long enough to draw stares from the other occupants in the office.
"Why do all your dates end in broken plates and ripped clothing?" Kim gasped out between roaring laughter.
"Ok, not all of them-" Jenna started, only to be cut off by Kim once more.
"The last three." More laughter, which was now joined by their fellow officemates who weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were listening in.
"It's not my fault!"
"It never is, darling," Kim cut in.
"It's not!" Jenna continued, raising her voice to be heard over the rooms merriment at her expense. "That waiter came out of nowhere. All I did was reach for him as he fell!"
Kim was breathless, holding a hand to her chest as she raised her eyebrows. "And you just had to grab his pants and rip them off him?"
Jenna prayed for the ground to shallow her. Just let the end-times come now, she thought, bending forward and smacking her forehead onto the desk top.
"You bump into one man and grab his belt to keep him from falling and suddenly you're banned from Kelso's Pizza Parlor," she muttered, head still flat to the desk.
Kimber patted her head, laughter still flowing from her. "Honey, it was a date with a man I bid on for you at a singles auction. I doubt you'll ever see or hear from him again."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Jenna muttered, pushing up from the desk.
"Hey," Kimber said, letting the laughter fade as she comforted her friend. "At least the money I paid at that god-awful auction went to a good cause, right? Those shelter dogs will be getting new beds from your misfortune."
Later, after everyone had had their laugh and moved on about their day, Jenna smiled as Kimber sailed across the office, having completed her accounts for the day. Wondering privately just how she always managed to get her work done but never looked busy, Jenna was focusing back on the spreadsheets before her, double checking the spending of their marketing department against the receipts they had actually turned into her, when Lonnie, the receptionist, called out to her.
"JD," she said, waving the gentlemen her way. "You have a guest."
Turning with a smile on her face, she felt it freeze in place as she saw who the visitor was.
Well Christ on a Cracker, she thought darkly, wishing the ground really would open and take her then and there.
Craig Hillman was an imposing man, standing six-foot-two to her own five-foot-nothing. He was darkly tanned, lightly muscled, and with long thick hair he kept neatly contained at the nape of his neck in a very fashionable man-bun. And everything that a single female would find attractive in the opposite sex while swimming through the dating pool.
Throwing a quick look toward Kimber's empty desk and praying her friend would stay away from her humiliation, Jenna tried to get her smile to unfreeze and stood to greet him.
"Craig, what are you- Did you need- Hello," she stumbled, wanting to smack herself in the head again.
Maybe too many face-palms is the problem, a small voice chirped in her brain.
Shut. Up. She raged at her inner voice.
"JD?" he asked, quirking a bow and managing to pull off a perfect flirty head tilt.
"I go by that, here, at work," she rambled, fingers playing with stray pens and straightening loose piles of papers around. "It makes it easier in emails, when people assume that they're speaking to a man. I just never correct them."
"Clever," he muttered, leaning a hip against her desk. It accented the tight pull of his jeans and the way his button up hugged his trim waist and broad shoulders.
Jenna felt her checks warm, silently cursing her fair skin. Stupid white people genes. "Yes, well," she faded out, unsure what she could follow that up with.
Craig flashed that beautiful smile again, sending butterflies a flight within her. He crossed his arms across his chest, the shelves rolled up to his forearms just like the heroes in trashy romance novels were. Jenna could admit that it was damn sexy, even as her blush deepened and she jerks her eyes away.
Unfortunately, Jenna had apparently forgot to move just her eyes and instead jerked her whole body, sending pens and papers flying as she stood there like a dummy.
"I don't-" she started, not even sure where she was going with her thought. Dropping down, she started gathering her fallen items in a rush, crumpling accounting spread sheets and ripping some in half in her haste.
Craig came around the desk to join her, kneeling down on one knee to help her gather her work stuff.
"Hey, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he started, stacking the papers around them in a neat pile and pulling the strays from her limp hands. "I just wanted to apologize for last night."
"The hell you have to apologize for?" Jenna spoke too loudly, taking the stack before her and standing too fast.
Craig followed her up, dropping the pens he'd gathered on the desk top. "I just thought it was awkward for you, going on a date with a man you didn't know that your friend picked up at a singles auction."
"Dude," she started, "I yanked the waiters pants off and sent a molten-lava-hot pizza flying at your head when we fell. All that before we had even ordered."
"True," he answered, leaning against her desk once more. "However, believe it or not, that's not the worst thing that has ever come out of being the "prize" at one of these auctions."
Jenna blinked, realizing that he was probably right. "But it's got to rank up there, right?" she asked, unwilling to believe it wasn't as bad in his memory as it was in hers.
That smile came again, bright as a new day. "I once had to fake stomach issues to get a little-old-lady who was probably pushing 70 to stop pawing me like the last cinnamon roll at an all-you-can eat buffet."
Jenna laughed, while internally shuttering at the mental image.
"How many of these auctions have you done?" she asked, secretly praying he wasn't some weirdo that got off on being paraded before a crowd of drunken women who were bidding on him.
"Just four," he answered, seeming to read the uneasy thoughts in her head. "My brother runs the shelter that hosts the event; I've been in one every year since he started, four years ago."
"Well, that's just sweet-" Jenna began, only to be cut off as Kimber reappeared at her own desk.
"Please tell me this isn't the man who's pants you ripped off?" she asked, eyes roving over Craig in interest.
"Ok, I didn't rip anyone's pants off," Jenna started, only to be cut of by the man himself.
"Pretty sure you did. But no, I'm the man she yeeted a hot pizza at on her way down," he said, stepping forward to shake Kimber's hand. "Craig Hillman, once-a-year auction date and full time vet tech."
"Ok, I didn't do that either," Jenna cried, looking from one to the other.
Kimber was grinning ear-to-ear, like a cat with cream. Craig was smirking too, seeming to enjoy Jenna's embarrassment.
"You know that's not even her first time, yanking a bit of clothing from someone while on a date?" Kimber told Craig, shaking his hand and delighting in the red flush that rose on her friend's cheeks. "Kimberly Stane, best friend and provider of winning bid."
"Really?" Craig asked, turning to face Jenna once more and placing his hands on his hips.
"Do you really have to tell everything you know?" Jenna asked, sitting back down in her chair and preparing to ignore the two of them.
"Yes, honey, I do." Kimber responded, settling back into her own chair. "That's why we're the best of friends; I keep you grounded and you keep me happy."
Jenna rolled her eyes, face still hot as Craig took the chair beside her desk.
"Just ignore her, she's happily married and thinks everyone else should be paired off like Noah's ark," Jenna whispered to Craig, cutting her eyes sharply to her supposed best friend.
"Oh, one of those people," Craig said conspiratorially, leaning in to her. "My sister's the same, thinks everyone should be as happy as her in marriage."
"I mean," Jenna started, feeling nervous as he remained leaned in, "I'm not completely apposed to marriage, just haven't been able to find someone else that's not apposed. Not that I've been on that many dates. But not that I'm lonely sitting at home either. I mean, I could marry you. Not you, but like a person. Like a person that I've dated. Not that I wouldn't marry you. But I just met you."
Jenna wondered if you could die of blushing too much. Her brain just had to keep her mouth running, spilling more and more information that no one needed to know. Something was definitely wrong with her brain-to-mouth filter, and she just prayed that one day it was correct it's self.
Craig laughed, drawing looks from around the office as his deep voice rumbled through the space. "How about we put a pin in future marry thoughts and book a second-first-date?"
The words that came out next, Jenna was going to completely blame on shock.
"But, I don't want to go to another auction and bid on you."
What. The. Hell. Her inner voice screamed, throwing her hands up in frustration.
"Wow, that hurt," Craig confessed, raising a hand to his chest as if to clutch a blow.
"I mean, I would totally bid on you," Jenna replied, feeling that damned heat encase her skin once more. "I would definitely bid on you!"
The last part was said just a little too loudly, drawing laughs from Kimber and others closest to them.
Craig shook his head, leaning back in his chair. "Nope, too late. The truth is out, I'm not worthy of your time. Guess I'll go back to the old ladies club and hope someone can take me in."
Jenna smiled, catching on to his joking as his brown eyes twinkled at her. "Ok, I deserve that. But you don't have to take me on another date just cause I flubbed last night."
"No, I don't have to," Craig admitted, pushing himself to standing and leaning down over her desk. "But if de-pantsing a stranger and yeeting pizza is the first date, I cannot wait to see the follow up act."
He winked, straightening to his full height and walking away, after dropping a card on her desk.
"Call me for our next adventure, JD." he called over his shoulder, nodding to Lonnie on his way out the door.
"Well damn," Kimber said, watching his leave. "Looks like you found someone thats ok with your brand of chaos."
Jenna smiled softly, picking up the card and running her fingers lightly over the number printed on it.
Maybe, she thought. Who knew humor and chaos was the way to a second date?
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