Sick Like Me (Sick Like #1)

Chapter 3

THREE

FEbrUARY 2024

Stefan Moore was the bane of my daily work existence. He lived to squabble with me, and, for some odd reason, he often air boxed right into my face. Or he would pretend to be squaring up, even raising his fist and moving his head in a motion to show he was ready to swing. I either did the same action back, or I just laughed and turned away from him.

While I would be lying if I said he wasn’t funny, he was also irritating to say the least. Which only felt all the more elevated when I was in a bad mood.

However, he was like that younger sibling who lived to piss you off, yet regardless, you would still give your soul for them.

“How was the date, butty?” Stefan asked as he slipped into his chair beside mine.

A throb formed behind my eyebrows at the reminder of yesterday, but I pushed the feeling aside as I sighed softly. My hangover was not going to affect my work for the day, I silently promised myself when I woke up to red stained lips and tear stained cheeks.

“Butt, it sucked,” I stated as I paused my typing for a second to reply, then I read over what I had written in response to the customer. After glossing over my words, my stream of thought returned and so I continued typing the ending to my email.

I picked up my water bottle to the left of me, bringing the straw to my lips. I sipped the liquid in hopes of it providing relief that never came.

“Really? Did you at least snog him? I saw the way he leant against his car outside while waiting for you. I could feel his aura from in here, and it gave me shivers.”

I laughed as I pressed the send button next to my email, then I pasted the email onto the customer’s file. “What aura?”

“Butt, everyone saw him. He looked like a man with business—business that involved snogging you like your life depended on it,” He replied, and wiggled his eyebrows for added effect.

“We did not snog. We didn’t even brush hands. He didn’t even try to flirt with me,” I turned in my chair, pulling my face into one that revealed I wasn’t very impressed by his actions, or lack thereof. “And he didn’t even pay for the food in the end, I did.”

Stefan gasped, shaking his head with loud dramatic tuts falling past his lips. “Disgusting behaviour, you should send him a payment request.”

“I never want to see him again, I’m done with men,” I faux promised, slamming my water bottle back on the desk harsher than I intended to. At least it got the point across that I was serious. Well, serious for that time being. I would be obsessed with another man in a few days time.

“Okay then, les-be-honest,” He began, but when I narrowed my eyes to reveal I was in no mood for his games, he stopped his words immediately. “That bad, huh, butty?” He asked.

When I didn’t bother to confirm nor deny, Stefan pulled a classic ‘him’ move and let out a loud dramatic gasp before slamming his hand on the desk beside his mug of freshly made tea, causing some dribbles to splash down the sides and land on the table in a small puddle. “I have gossip for you. ”

“Go on,” I replied dryly as I turned back in my chair to face my computer, my hand clicking and dragging my mouse to move the answered customer’s email out of my main inbox, leaving it a blank space for the day’s incomings.

I liked to kid myself that if my emails were clutter free, it would help ease the chaos that was my mind. But it did not, despite my not-so-hard effort.

“So you know big boss man James talked about expending the business up North in his last company meeting, right?” Stefan asked the question but gave me no time to reply as he continued on with his stream of words. “Well, he’s supposedly hired some external finance company to help other companies manage their finances. Me and Pheb reckon he hired them to help him make plans to open a new branch since it’s been ten years since the last time he opened a new one—and we all know how bad that turned out for a few years.”

I nodded lazily, not caring to respond.

And Stefan hated it.

He moved closer to my desk and tapped his hand obnoxiously close to mine, his fingertips grazing my skin only just. It tickled, but I managed to keep a straight face as I slowly moved my hand away from his.

“Butt, do you not seem to realise what this means for you?” He asked, to which I turned my head to look at him. I shook my head slightly, then turned back to my computer screen.

“It means, stupid, that we have a new pool of men for you to sample. You can get your nose out of that stupid fucking dating app and try to see if you can flirt with these men face to face.”

Stefan was dying to take me on a night out to hook me up with random men. He claimed that was a better way to meet the’ future love of my life’, much better than using dating apps and getting matches which led to nothing.

“First of all,” Vivien spoke up from opposite Stefan. “Who said they would be sending multiple people?” She waved her pen over the top of her computer screen as if she was chastising Stefan. “And even if they do, who’s to say they’re not sending all women?”

Stefan dropped his smile, a deadpan look on his face as he stared at Viv for a few seconds. Then he rolled his eyes. But soon enough his bright and happy demeanour returned. “We can only hope for the best.”

“I started talking to someone else on that dating app now anyway, so I already have a new man that I’m semi interested in at the moment,” I replied lazily, waving my hand dismissively at my coworkers as they gossiped about my love life.

“Please for the love of God do not say he’s another tax man or that he’s unemployed,” Pheobe spoke up loud enough for the rest of our small office to hear, everyone’s ears all now trained in on our conversation about my dating.

“He actually works for this company, the one we work for,” I replied, then instantly shut the conversation down as regret filled me. I should not have said that to them, I knew they would try to hunt the man down to find out every little detail about him—to see if he was ‘good enough’ for me.

I loved my coworkers, my work family. But sometimes they could be a lot of hard work. And when it came to my personal life, sometimes they liked to overdo it. I just hoped if they ever did find out his name, they would at least leave him alone in peace and not pester him with social media friend invites or anything else that could embarrass me.

Stefan begged for the whole first hour and a half of work for me to tell him who my new ‘romantic interest’ was, but I refused to answer every time by changing the subject. Eventually he asked just for his first name, which I was half tempted to supply him with but Stefan was such a good investigator he was sure to find out my new mystery man in minutes, if not seconds.

“Okay, then his initial at least. His first name initial alone will do me just fine,” He tried to extract, to which I went blank each and every time he begged.

The sun shone down brightly as I tilted my head back with my eyes closed, basking in the feeling of the warmth on my skin.

My peace was short lived when the annoying voice of Stefan once again chirped up, breaking the silence I was trying to find solace in. “Come on butty, you tell me all about your boyfriends so why won’t you tell me about this one?”

“Because he works for us and I know you’ll end up stalking his social media accounts if I tell you his name,” I replied. And a part of me feared someone would dare to email him or try to hunt him down at any work events just to tease me or try to bring me to hang out with him.

I had talked to him for the course of one night, it was nothing to marvel about. He seemed decent enough, but I doubted he would offer me a date. He seemed too busy to even message me throughout the day to spend any time thinking about seeing me after work.

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, and felt the urge to reply. I pulled it out, then stared at the screen, the white flame emoji taunting me. “Oi, oi. Who’s Owen G?” Stefan asked as he stared at my screen from beside me.

I sighed as I turned off my screen and placed my phone back in my pocket. “None of your damn fucking business is who he is,” I replied, but the smile on my lips revealed I was joking and that he shouldn’t take everything I say seriously. Not that he ever did anyway, Stefan lived to joke around. He claimed the carefree life was the best one to live.

“Is he your new boo?” He asked again, and I knew unless I told him something , he was going to pester me for the rest of the day, if not the week should nothing else distract his attention .

“Yes, he is the new person I’m talking to,” I replied after several long seconds of silence.

I heard Stefan type away on his phone, so I closed my eyes and leant my head back. Sure enough in record time, Stefan found out his full name from just knowing his first name, and the fact that he worked for the company.

“Owen Greenwich. Sounds fancy, like a posh bitch. Oh, here it says he’s 27, older than you. That’s a change, since usually you go for men the same age as you or younger.” It was as if he was giving me a running commentary as his finger slid down his screen to reveal more to him about the man I had shared a handful of messages with.

“Oh, holy fucking shit. I think you hit the jackpot this time. You need to get this man to take you on an all expenses paid date,” Stefan sounded more excited by the idea of the man than I did.

“What, why do you say that?” I asked, lifting my head and opening my eyes. A phone screen was thrust in front of my eyes before I could even register his words.

I read the words on the page carefully, my eyes widening as I read a life update on his profile.

GOT PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMPANY FINANCES AT KING FAMILY FURNITURE .

My mouth parted in surprise as I turned my head to face Stefan. Sure enough, he held an obnoxious grin which revealed he was about to pimp me out to the man on his screen given the right timing and circumstances. Anything to get me out of the single life, and maybe get him some free meals on the side should my new ‘boyfriend’ be feeling nice enough to treat me and my friends.

“You said you like men in finance, right?” Stefan asked as he pulled his phone back and scrolled through the man’s photos, revealing all kinds of things about him.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “No, social media is obsessed with men in finance recently for some reason. I like men who make me laugh.”

“Tomayto tohmato,” Stefan replied with a single dismissive wave, not taking his time to register my words or my very basic demand for a man who wanted a chance to score a date with me.

The photos on Owen Greenwich’s profile ranged from mirror selfies of him in what seemed to be his bathroom either wearing a suit or a t-shirt of some kind which exposed a tattoo on his bicep and revealed that he was quite muscular despite the fact he had a youthful face.

Then the photos revealed a handful of photos of cats and dogs which we assumed were his own. They transitioned to family photos with him holding children—which Stefan did some stalking and found them to be his niece and nephew— and finally, he shared photos of the places he traveled to. Monuments and scenery galore.

“Oh, wow,” Were the only words I could manage.

“This man is rich, he has a great job, he owns his own house and rents another house out, and he has at least two cars. What more do you want in a man?” Stefan asked.

I rolled my eyes. “A man who is either obsessed with me, or a man who will make me laugh. The latter being the most preferable trait.”

“So you’re telling me if this handsome man asked you on a date, you would say no?”

“I never once said that,” I defended myself. “I just want to get to know who he is first. I don’t need to know about his finances from the offset. You’re such a stalker.”

Stefan raised an eyebrow as he nudged my arm with his elbow. “So you’re telling me you also didn’t spend all night hunting down his profile to find out every little detail about him?”

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously not since I didn’t even know he was an assistant director. ”

I would never tell Stefan, but the reason I didn’t suss him out wasn’t due to me wanting to keep his privacy intact, but it was because I was so drunk from my wine drinking session I was about to pass out at any given time and I knew my luck would likely entail me dropping my phone and accidentally sending him a friend request.

“Can we stop talking about him?” I asked, irritated by him being the only topic anyone wanted to talk about.

“Only if you reply to his message right now. I want to see what his texting style is like.”

“Fine,” I grumbled as I pulled my phone from my pocket and unlocked it without a second thought. I opened my notification to his message.

OWEN G: I passed by your office earlier and I think I saw you. Might I say, you looked mighty fine.

My lips parted in surprise and I looked around the large car park that separated the building where my office was located from the main showroom. I saw no one wandering around and let out a sigh of relief, then I looked back down at my phone.

“Sounds kind of stalkerish of him,” Stefan spoke up, but then he let out a happy sigh. “But we can ignore the red flags for now. He’s good looking, rich, and has a little bit of a flirting game going on with you.”

My thumbs ghosted over the letters of my keyboard, but my brain found no reasonable response to his message so I locked the screen and placed my phone back in my pocket. “I’ll reply to him later.”

“You best do, or I may just hack your account and set you up on a date with him,” Stefan joked, but a part of me didn’t doubt he would actually do that.

“Fuck you for trying to marry me off to the first bidder. I’m a human with feelings, you know. What if I went on a date with him and I really hated him?”

“I told you to give him a chance, not get fucking kidnapped by him. Jesus woman,” Stefan laughed, leaning back against the back of the bench. “Just give him a chance, you never know what might happen. Just like your dad says, if it doesn’t work out then?—”

“On to the next,” I cut him off, rolling my eyes at the reminder of my father’s little mantra—one I had grown to fucking hate with a passion.