ELIAS

I clench my jaw, staring hard at the paper in front of me.

Elaine had given me the report to check over, but I couldn't seem to concentrate. My thoughts are scattered, and I haven't been able to turn the front page and keep reading.

The glass doors open, and I look up.

Lu walks in.

She has my coffee mug in hand, a small smile on her face. I unclench my jaw, trying to flash a smile as she sets the mug down near my paper.

"Thank you," I mutter a response and she nods.

But just before she goes, she stops.

"Sir, are you alright?" she asks, and my eyes snap to hers. Was I that easy to read? "It's only that you're still reading the same page that you were reading when you asked me to get your coffee, and that was ten minutes ago."

I let out a breath. "Maybe it shouldn't have taken you that long to get my coffee," I respond, my eyes sliding up to meet hers.

Her face becomes ashen, and I immediately regret my words.

An apology stumbles out of her mouth and she turns to leave when I stop her.

"Wait." I stand. "You don't have to apologize. I shouldn't have said that." I take a sip of the coffee and it burns my tongue, but I took a big gulp. "Good coffee takes time."

I know it doesn't soften the blow I just made, but she smiles. Thank goodness for that.

You can do better, Jude.

"You burned your tongue, didn't you?" she asks, although she knows it's true.

I nod, smacking my lips. "Which just shows how good it is. I just scorched all my tastebuds, so even if it wasn't, you're in luck."

She lets out a laugh.

I feel a moment of relief, and as I look at her face, I know I am in the clear. I smile at her, still feeling like a jerk for what I said.

But Rich... I couldn't stop thinking about him, in jail, even though it happened over a week ago. I couldn't concentrate on anything else. I've been in a funk.

I need to get out of it.

Lu is leaving, and I realize I know how.

"Lu," I say, and she stops, and I think I almost see her tense, but I ignore it. "I'm going to take my lunch break right now." it's only eleven, but I need this. "And you are coming with me."

Her face is a mask of confusion, "With you?"

I smile, walking over her way with my jacket in hand. I open the door for her and she steps out. I walk over to Elaine's desk, knocking on it. She looks up.

"Sir?"

"I'm going for lunch today. And I'm taking Lu. We'll be gone for about an hour. You got phones."

She immediately looks past me, no doubt to Lu, but I ignore that. "Yes sir."

I smile, patting her desk twice before turning to Lu. "Ready?"

She has her purse in hand, as well as a jacket around her shoulders that wasn't there before. I assumed she got them while I was busy talking to Elaine. Smart girl.

I don't wait for her answer, just walk toward the elevator. She walks behind me, then stands next to me as we go down.

It's a quiet time down the elevator, but I don't care. Usually, I would say something, but I can tell she isn't comfortable. I don't want to make her even more so. Besides, who knows what she thinks of me.

Although I stopped caring what people thought of me a long time ago.

"I'll drive," I say, walking past her. I open the front door to the building for her, and she walks straight for my car. I guess this was how she felt last time when I knew exactly what car was hers.

I smile. It feels weird, her knowing.

But right.

Which is funny, because every relationship I was ever in, I never knew the other person. Sure, I got to know her a little on the dates we went out on, but never personally. It was always fluff.

I look at Lu as she gets in the passenger. She doesn't seem the type of person to spout fluff.

I hope she's a nice change.

We reached my favorite restaurant, and Lu hasn't said anything the entire time. I can tell she processed things a lot.

Her hands are clenched at her sides as we walk inside. I smile as the hostess walks over to us.

"Mr. Castle, nice to see you again. Same table?"

I nod. "Thanks, Britt," I say and wave her off. I lead Lu to the table in the farthest corner of the room, away from everyone else.

We sit.

Lu sighs, looks around, then looks to me. I gaze into her brown eyes.

Gosh, she is pretty.

"How many times have you been here?" She asks, her eyes full of curiosity.

I grin. "I come here every week, every Friday. I usually eat here with a bunch of executives from the office, to discuss, but every once in a while I eat alone."

She nods. "Why here?"

I glance at all the people surrounding us. "I'm not a huge fan of people all around me. Bit claustrophobic. It's a real thing, it turns out."

Her smile seems forced.

I clear my throat. "What?" I ask. "Go ahead, I'll bite? You want to ask a question."

She sighs, dipping her head for a second before meeting my eyes, "Why am I here? Why did you insist on me coming?"

I look at her face. She doesn't seem uncomfortable with this anymore, but she is still on edge. Why?

"I own the company. And you're new. Consider this a way for a boss to get to know his employee." I smirk, winking at her.

She stiffs a smile, clearing her throat.

Man, she really isn't the friendly type.

A waitress comes up and gives us two glasses of water. I smile my thanks to her. I knew Britt would have set me up, which was perfect. She knew what I liked.

"You ever been on a lunch date?"

She frowns. "Of course."

I can hear the bite in her tone and raise my hands in surrender. "Just asking. Did you date around a lot? How old are you?"

"Why all the questions?"

I laugh, leaning forward, "Like I said, for a boss to get to know his employee."

She narrows her eyes, but nods.

"Jude Castle, is that you?" I hear a voice, and turn my head just in time to be slapped on the shoulder by a big beefy hand. I cringe as they dig into my shoulder.

"Deke! Good to see you too buddy," I say, grinning as I turn to see my friend.

He laughs. "What are you doing here on a Thursday?"

I smile. "Needed to get out of the office." I look to Lu, and he immediately notices.

"Ah, who is this?" he asks, holding out his hand to Lu. She takes it, gives it a nice shake, and pulls her hand away.

"Lucy Bleu. She's my new secretary."

Deke smiles at her, then turns to me. "Ah, the new secretary." he gives me a wink and elbows me in the side. "The other one does not work out? What was her name... Shelly? She was nice. You two were cute."

I bit down on my tongue before I said anything. I look at Lu and see her looking very pale. Her eyes look at me and I'm pretty sure she just killed me by shooting daggers at me.

"No, Deke, it's not like that," I say, downing a glass of water. I set the cup down. "Lu is just my employee. We're getting to know each other."

"Ah," Deke says. "Gotcha. Bet I'll see you two out here again in no time." He turns to Lu. "You'll like this one. He's a good guy."

Lu smiles. "Yes, he is a great boss." Her eyes cut to mine before she smiles at Deke.

She deflected that well. I almost wanted to clap.

There she is.

"I'll leave you two alone." Deke walks away after giving us both a smile and me a wink. Great. He isn't going to let that go anytime soon.

I look at Lu, and she takes a sip of her water. "He seems nice," she comments.

I laugh. "Yeah. Sometimes."

She chuckles, "What did he mean when he said what happened to the other one? The other secretary?"

I swallow, meeting her eye, "Yeah... I've uh, dated a lot of my secretaries. I haven't in the last two years. Deke still keeps it up and running though, convinced that's who I'll end up with."

Her face is back to her normal color, which is good. She looked as if she wanted to escape when Deke started talking about Shelly.

To be honest, so did I.

I hadn't even considered dating anyone after Rich went to jail. I was too much a mess to be in a relationship, and even though I enjoyed each one, they never worked out. My dad was always convinced I'd find the right one eventually, but somehow I don't think dating people in my office is the best option.

So I stopped. And there had been plenty of secretaries to go through my office during the past two years.

Why should Lu be any different?

"Did they end badly?" Lu asks.

I shrug. "Well, they usually ended in them quitting or being fired, but that was mostly because they just didn't want to come to work after I broke up with them."

She frowns. "You dumped all of them?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Hmmm."

I smile. "What?"

"Nothing. All the ladies just seem to love you don't they?" She asks, a tease in her voice. I am glad she is more comfortable.

"Well, you know. They just can't help it, I guess," I say, straightening my back and popping out my collar in jest. She just laughs.

"Wow," she says, and then goes back to being quiet.

Her laugh is cute. Everything about her is cute. I like her. She seems like an easy person to be around, and I am glad she works for me.

Not because I want to date her, but because I need to trust my secretary. And I can tell I can trust her.

Her smile kind of lits up the whole room, it seems.

Now all I have to do is make sure I don't get attached. Which doesn't seem hard, because she doesn't seem like the type to like me, so I think I'm safe.

"Thank you," she says after we ate our lunch.

I nod, opening the front door for her. It starts to rain again as I hide her under my jacket as we run to my car, "You're welcome!" I yell through the pouring rain.

She laughs as we get into the car.

I drive back to the office, and we walk in together, her still using my jacket to keep her dry. I am already soaking, so it doesn't even matter.

We get up to the top floor and walk in. Nobody looks our way as I help Lu get to her desk, handing her the purse, and her handing me my jacket. It is now soaking wet, but I couldn't care less.

Elaine helps me get dried off as Lu goes to the ladies room to get herself presentable, as she put it.

Well, I thought she looked fine, even though Elaine scowled at me when I said that aloud.

I used to get embarrassed by my words, but now I honestly could not have cared less.

It was bad sometimes.

I go back into my office after I'm a little less soaked, and get back to work. I feel as if I could actually concentrate this time.

I look to see Lu emerge from the ladies' room and smile.

She helped.

And I thank her.