Opposites Attract Read online

  She knew she’d looked like shit on Monday and on Tuesday too, but it seemed the Geek had been too busy to notice until now. How nice for her.

  “Don’t you have something you should be working on?” She raised a brow.

  “Actually I do.” Brad spun his chair back toward his desk so that only the frizzy back of his blond head and his oversized un-tucked shirt faced her.

  ~

  Brad scowled down at the sticky laptop and stewed over his conversation with Alyssa, formerly known as Alyssa with the Sexy Voice. He would be renaming her Alyssa the Bitch for all future reference.

  Maybe he was just being oversensitive. In spite of his resolve to sleep late and the fact that he climbed into bed around 3:30 a.m., he still woke up at the same time he usually did for work. He tried to go back to sleep but it was no use. He finally just got up and dressed for work.

  As usual, he arrived earlier than more than half of the company’s employees, but this morning on the way to his desk, he made a detour to his boss’s office to tell him about completing the project. His boss was thrilled he was done with it and told him to take the day off with pay as a bonus. But Brad decided to just stay at work since he was there already anyway. Besides, he wanted to get right to the laptop he’d picked up the night before. He promised he would get that email off ASAP. But after that, maybe he would kick off early. It would be a nice change to actually leave the office in daylight.

  In just a few minutes the back was off the laptop and Brad watched as the computer oozed coffee all over his desk. He should have remembered to bring paper towels from the kitchenette. He hoisted his tired body out of his chair. He didn’t know how surgeons functioned on no sleep. He was having enough trouble with this little assignment.

  Brad and his now sticky fingers made their way across the office to the kitchen. Kathy, the woman who worked in the cube behind Alyssa, was already inside pouring a cup of coffee. He decided he could use a little caffeine himself. Or maybe a lot, intravenously. It was going to take a few days for him to catch up on the sleep he’d lost.

  “Hey, Brad. Good to see you up and about. I actually thought about poking you before I left last night. You know, to make sure you hadn’t died in your cube and we just didn’t notice,” Kathy joked.

  Brad liked her. She always had a friendly smile for everyone, unlike Alyssa this morning. “Hey, Kath. Yeah, I had a tough one, but it’s done. My next assignment is a piece of cake. Woman spilled coffee in her laptop.” He unrolled and tore off a good number of paper towels to take back to his desk.

  Kathy grimaced. “Ugh. I’ve done that myself. It sucks, but that seems awfully rinky-dink for a man of your legendary and vast talents. You should pass something easy like that over to someone else, like Alyssa. She could handle that while you’re off saving the day somewhere else.”

  Brad laughed and rolled his eyes. “Thanks, but I took the call last night. I promised the client I’d handle it. Besides, I wouldn’t ask Alyssa for anything today.”

  “Yeah, I heard her bite your head off before. Don’t take it to heart. She’s had a tough time lately.”

  “Really? I didn’t know.” Probably because he’d literally plugged his ears for the last two days. He’d actually gone to the corner drugstore and bought earplugs so he could concentrate without Alyssa with the Sexy Voice distracting him. It figures that after listening to all those conversations about that stupid bag, he missed it when something important actually happened.

  “Yeah, she caught her boyfriend of two years in bed with a stripper. She had to call in a locksmith on Sunday to change the locks. I haven’t seen her eat anything in two days and it looks like she hasn’t slept in just as long.”

  Interesting. The mighty Jake had actually fallen off his white horse, or motorcycle, or whatever. “I definitely won’t take it personally then. Thanks for telling me. I better get back to that laptop.” Brad held up his wad of paper towels and grabbed his coffee mug.

  It took Brad most of the morning to dry up the mess and get the hard drive up and running. By then it was noon, so he decided to run out and get something to eat before he began checking the recovered file. He’d just shut the laptop when he realized the usual chatty Alyssa hadn’t been on the phone all day, not since that one call that morning. She must really be upset.

  Brad hesitated a moment, then thought what the hell. He leaned on the wall of her cube. “I’m running out for a sandwich. Do you want me to bring you back something?”

  She looked up, frowning. “What?”

  He noticed her eyes were green. A deep, rich emerald with flecks of gold. Hmm. He’d never noticed that before.

  Why was he over at her cube again? Oh yeah, now he remembered. “I thought you might be hungry.”

  Alyssa swallowed as if the thought of food made her ill. “No, actually I’m not. Thanks though.”

  Civility. That was good. “It’s a beautiful day. Why don’t you come outside and walk with me to the deli? It’s good to get away from your desk once in a while,” Brad prompted.

  “You should talk. Did you even go home Monday night?”

  “Well no, but I got a few hours sleep on the sofa in the lounge.” He blushed.

  She actually laughed at that. But then to his surprise, she logged off her computer, grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair and reached under her desk for her purse. Glancing at it, he wondered if the big red leather thing was the infamous Birken bag. It seemed awfully large. What in the world could she have in there?

  “Come on, let’s go.” She glanced at him over her shoulder and began walking toward the door. He guessed she was coming after all. He recovered quickly from the mental whiplash her sudden change of heart had caused and scrambled to grab his own jacket. He ran to catch up with her at the elevator.

  After a silent ride downstairs, he opened the front door for her. The cold hit him smack in the face. Sunny or not, February was cold, but the brisk air felt good after a morning spent in the canned recycled air inside the office. Next to him, Alyssa with the Sexy Voice put on her designer sunglasses and raised her face up to the sun. He wondered what those cost her as he pulled out the sunglasses he’d picked up at a flea market for five bucks two years ago. For the first time, he noticed the scratches on them.

  She caught him looking at her. “What?”

  Great, now he was in trouble. “Nothing. I was just thinking how I like your sunglasses. I’m going to have to remember to ask for a new pair of sunglasses for my birthday this year. My mom and sister are always bugging me about what I want. I never know what to tell them. Thanks for the idea.” Jeez, why did he have to babble like an idiot around pretty girls?

  “When’s your birthday?”

  What was this? Alyssa with the Sexy Voice was showing a personal interest in him of all people.

  “It’s actually kind of funny. I’m a leap year baby. You know, born on February twenty-ninth. So really I can only celebrate my birthday on the actual day once every four years. And this year, you probably know, is a leap year.” When he finally finished the lengthy explanation, he felt like kicking himself. She was just making casual conversation and here he went and launched into this whole discourse about leap year.

  “Are you serious?” She stopped walking and stared at him.

  “Yeah, why?” He stopped walking too and got bumped into by the guy behind him.

  “Me too.”

  “You too, what?”

  “I’m a leap year baby too.” For the first time all day, Alyssa seemed actually excited.

  He was getting pummeled because they’d stopped walking in the middle of a busy sidewalk during lunch hour, although no one seemed to be whacking into Alyssa, only him. He took her elbow and guided her over to the entrance of the deli.

  “Wow, what a coincidence. I’ve never met anyone else with my birthday. I’m surprised we didn’t realize this before.” Well, not really considering they’d never actually talked before.

  “Yeah, it is strange.�
� She glanced up at the sandwich board. “You know now that I’m here, I think I am a bit hungry. Would you split something with me?”

  Actually, he was starving and could probably put away two sandwiches of his own. But hell, if she wanted to share a sandwich, he was going to do it. “Sure. You pick. I’ll eat anything.”

  “Turkey club?” she asked.

  “Great. Soda?”

  “Sure. Diet.”

  “Okay.” Look at this. They were speaking like they’d been friends forever. Brad rolled his eyes at himself as he reached into the glass fridge and grabbed her a diet cola and himself an iced tea. Sure and they’d be dating by the end of the week. He glanced back at Miss Birken Bag herself and shook his head. Like that would ever really happen.

  The cashier rang up the total and they both struggled to put the money out first.

  “I got it.” Brad thrust a twenty at the cashier.

  “I can’t let you do that. I’m paying half.” Alyssa handed him a wad of small bills.

  “Really, I got it.” He pushed the money back at her.

  “No.” She thrust it back at him with an angry looking frown.

  “All right. Thanks.” He took the cash and shoved it into his pants pocket. What was that all about? This girl’s mood could swing either way at a moment’s notice. It must have really kept Jake the Cheating Bastard on his toes just trying to keep up with her.

  Brad grabbed the bag off the counter and followed her out the door.

  “I’m sorry I’m so cranky. I’m just really tired and in a crappy mood.” She glanced at him as they walked.

  “It’s okay. I’m a little tired myself. I didn’t get home until three last night.” He shrugged.

  She shook her head. “You work too hard.”

  “What makes you think I was working? Maybe I was out at a wild party with my friends.” He tried not to be offended that she would just assume he had no life outside of work, true as it may be.

  “Were you?” Her eyebrows rose.

  “All right, I was working, but it was an emergency.” He gave in.

  “Yeah, a computer emergency.” She laughed.

  Brad couldn’t tell her about the big project he’d been working on, which had constituted a real emergency, so he skirted that issue and instead told her about the phone call he’d taken. Actually the tale of the laptop, the cat and the coffee—not to mention the part about the erotic romance novel—made quite an entertaining story.

  “Wow, you are a saint. I wouldn’t have even answered the damn phone at that hour.” She shook her head when he’d finished the tale. “Hey, you know it is kind of nice out. Do you want to eat this outside in the courtyard? There’s a bench free.”

  More than one bench was free, being midwinter, but he didn’t point that out to her. He just nodded and sat, setting the bag between them for her to distribute the sodas, napkins and sandwich halves.

  “First of all, I’m no saint.” Brad wanted that point made very clear, especially now that he had forgiven her for her crappy mood. He’d moved on to imagining how she looked in lingerie and without it. “But the client was really desperate and her apartment was on my way home. Believe me, it’s very nice to have an easy assignment to work on for a change.”

  She shrugged. “I still wouldn’t have done it. So, did you read any of it?”

  “The novel? No, not yet. I decided to get lunch first.”

  “You’ll have to tell me if it’s any good. I enjoy a good romance novel once in a while,” she admitted. She’d only eaten about half of her half of the sandwich when she put it back in the wrapper and into the brown paper bag. He tried not to drool at the thought of the food about to be thrown away that could be happily occupying his belly.

  “All done?”

  “Yeah. I guess we should get back.” She gathered up her purse and the paper bag.

  His half of the sandwich was long gone so he stood up, the wadded wax paper wrapper in one hand. “Nice purse, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” She treated him to an actual genuine-looking smile then turned and walked toward the building.

  He smiled too. Score!

  Chapter 3

  Alyssa stopped by the ladies’ room on the way back to her desk. She studied her pitiful reflection in the mirror as she washed her hands and sighed. She looked like crap. “Damn.”

  A stall door opened and Kathy emerged. “That bad, huh?”

  Alyssa snorted. “Yeah.”

  “Did you get lunch?” Kathy asked.

  “Yeah. Brad the Geek and I shared a sandwich.” Oops. Alyssa hadn’t meant to let her personal pet name for him slip out. She was pretty sure that he and Kathy were friends, or as friendly as anyone could be with a guy whose nose was always pressed against a computer monitor.

  To her relief, Kathy laughed. “That’s really a great nick name for him. He is The Geek among us geeks. I mean the guy is an absolute computer genius. He should be designing software alongside Bill Gates and making a fortune instead of working here.”

  Really? Brad the Geek was a genius? Alyssa thought about that all the way back to her desk, where she got another glimpse of him.

  Actually, that would explain a lot. Geniuses were often strange and almost always dressed badly. Not that she knew many geniuses, but look at those pictures of Einstein. Talk about having a bad hair day.

  She watched as he leaned over the formerly broken laptop, absorbed in what he was reading. All because in the middle of the night he’d promised some woman he would. He certainly was nice. Why couldn’t she fall for a nice guy for a change? What she wouldn’t give to fall in love with a Brad instead of a Jake.

  ~

  After lunch with Alyssa it was hard to get his mind on work, but Brad managed to force his attention back to the laptop. He opened the My Documents folder and located the romance novel file easily enough, right there where the client said it would be.

  Brad gave his glasses a quick cleaning, leaned forward and began skimming over the novel to determine if it was intact. Blah, blah, blah. Heroine living on the moors in Scotland. Evil men kill her family. She has to save the family land. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But hold on.

  Shit. Just as the virgin heroine is about to sell her body to the local rich guy to save the family farm. Just as he has her in his bed and is about to take her lush breast in his eager mouth…gibberish. Three whole pages of words interspaced with senseless symbols.

  He scrolled until the gibberish ended and actual text began again. He read, eagerly wondering exactly how much was missing and what he was going to do about it.

  The two lovers were already done having sex and the heroine was washing her virgin blood from her formerly white linen shift. Double shit.

  Brad whizzed through the entire file, not reading, just checking for gibberish until he finally reached the end. Thank God it was just that one section. He took a deep breath and reluctantly composed an email to the client about the problem, asking her to contact him ASAP, but who knew when or if she would be able to access her email. Brad hit send, puffed out a breath and leaned back in his chair.

  “What’s up?” Alyssa’s voice cut into his thoughts.

  He looked up startled. “Part of the file is corrupted. It’s gone and I can’t get it back. I don’t know what to do.”

  “How much of it? How many pages?” she asked.

  “Three.”

  “So, just ignore it. Believe me, three pages in a romance novel can easily be deleted and no one would know.”

  “Oh, they’ll know.” He laughed and motioned her over. “Read.”

  “Okay, but I want to skim it from the beginning so I know what’s happening.” She looked excited.

  He laughed. “You really are hooked on this stuff. Go ahead.”

  Brad went to the kitchen to get himself another cup of coffee and give her both his chair and time to read. When he got back, he perched on his desk as she sat still reading. She leaned back in the chair when she’d finally finished.


  “Yeah, the editor will definitely notice that whole scene missing.” She leaned forward again and began scrolling ahead, reading every few pages until she found what she was looking for. “Do you know what I’m thinking?”

  “Do tell.” He would take any advice he could get at this point.

  “I think anybody can write this stuff. At least a few pages of it.”

  “What? Are you crazy? First of all, I can’t write this stuff. Second, that would be too presumptuous. I just can’t write it and pretend it’s hers.”

  “But look. There is enough in the corrupted scene for us to piece it together and fill in the missing words. And look, here is the next sex scene. We can use that as a guide. All you have to do is read this one and kind of copy it. Use some of the same words she uses. Here’s a good one, ‘his throbbing phallus’. Yeah, nothing like a good throbbing phallus to turn the reader on.”

  Brad nearly choked.

  “Yeah, okay. Thanks for the advice. I think I’ll wait for her.” He physically picked Alyssa up by the shoulders and bodily thrust her out of his cube.

  “Hey,” she cried in protest. “I’m just trying to help.”

  Just then the phone on his desk rang. He grabbed it. “Bradley Morgan.”

  “Brad. It’s Maria White…with the laptop? I’m on the ship in Miami but we haven’t left port yet. Did you recover the file?”

  “Yeah, Maria. Thank God you called. I got the file but there are three pages that are really messed up. More than half of the words are missing. I can’t get them back. But the rest is okay. Should I send it to the editor anyway?”

  “Oh no. Tell me it’s not the first sex scene. That’s what I was working on when I spilled the coffee.”

  “Yeah, I’m afraid it is. What do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know what to do. I’m not a writer. I’m an accountant. This is my first book. I don’t even have a signed contract yet. I guess… ask… rewrite the scene… could you please send it my editor…” The call started to cut out and fade.

  “Maria? Wait, I can’t hear you. What do you want me to do?”