The Singles by Emily Snow Read Free Book Online

have reached is not accepting private calls. If you want your call to go through, please hang up—”
    An angry noise leapt from the back of my throat, and I mashed the end call button. Hopping off the stool, I refolded Oliver’s infuriating note and stuffed it back into the envelope along with the gift card. Since he’d been sneaky enough to send a message written on his company’s letterhead postmarked from Emerson & Taylor, I knew he was banking on me calling him out on it, and I had every intention of doing that.
    It would just be on my terms.
    I shoved my feet into the red, open-toed pumps waiting by the door. Before I left the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Skimming my fingers through my loose curls, I thinned my red lips at the sight of my flushed skin. I touched my cheek and shivered. Something told me that Oliver, with his cocky grin and laughing eyes, would be pleased that his compensation had ignited so much fury within me.
    That fact was all the more reason to give it back to him along with a piece of my mind.
    Toting my phone and the envelope, I left the bathroom, my steps shallow thanks to the black seamed pencil dress I wore. I’d considered changing clothes because of that, but with my sudden desire to get ahold of Oliver without giving up my number, arriving at work a few minutes earlier seemed so much more essential. I grabbed my purse and keys from their spot on the foyer table and checked my reflection one last time, fixing a mascara smudge at the inside corner of one brown eye.
    When I heard Pen walking out the kitchen, I quickly turned my body away from her so she wouldn’t see my face. “See you this afternoon,” I said, failing miserably at keeping the frustration from my voice.
    “Wait!” She rushed over to me and I winced when I felt her hand in the back of my hair. Holding up a bright pink roller, she started, “You left a curler in your— Whoa , you’re red as the devil right now.” She stepped back and cocked her head to one side. “Please don’t tell me it was something bad.”
    “It was Oliver,” I breathed. When she blinked, I gripped the handle of my purse a little tighter and shook my head. “No time to explain right now. Trust me, I’ll tell you everything when I get in tonight. Be good today.”
    “Don’t worry, I planned on putting viruses on every computer in the building.” When I shot her a dark look over my shoulder, she lifted her gaze toward the ceiling and blew a strand of hair that had fallen free of her ponytail from her face. “Jesus, between you and Linc...ugh! Have a wonderful day, and don’t you get into any trouble, Lizzie .”
    *
    B y the time I reached Emerson & Taylor forty minutes later and left my Mini Cooper in a prime parking spot, I had a little less than half hour to spare before Margaret was scheduled to arrive. Plenty of time to put her D-bag son in his place , I thought as I made my way to the lobby as fast as my constricting dress would allow.
    “So excited you’re running to work,” Carl pondered aloud when I reached the security desk. There wasn’t a line in front of me today, and he was already drinking his coffee from a stainless steel travel mug. “You’re early.”
    “It’s my first day, so I thought I’d start off on the right foot.”
    Leaning his balding head close to mine, Carl dropped his voice to a whisper and said, “Mrs. Emerson’s never here on time, so you’re safe, sweetheart.”
    Although I’d always hated being called sweetheart—maybe because it usually came from the lips of men who saw me as nothing but a pretty face and a potential piece of ass—I could tell he was being genuine. I offered him a poised smile that belied how irritated I was at Oliver uncovering my home address.
    “Thanks for the heads up.” I took my employee badge from his outstretched hand and started around the corner. “Have a good day.”
    “You too, Ms. Connelly.”
    I’d been to the seventh floor