Please (Please #1) Read Online Free Page A

left leg pushed upward. My body swung toward the right.
    I grunted, scrabbling my fingers across his desk, trying to find purchase and stop the slide. My elbow smashed into his phone, knocking it to the floor. Pens became airborne, launching across the desk. I grabbed the edge of his desk pad, dragging it with me as I tipped over the side. Gravity pulled at me greedily. My face rushed toward the ground.
    Before I hit, strong hands grabbed me around the middle and hoisted me up. The desk pad crashed down. My résumé fluttered after it.
    I knew a moment of confusion before I was righted, my body pulled into a chest so hard it could’ve been stone, flexed from picking me up in a dead weight. I clutched his shoulders, feeling the bulge of muscle through his suit jacket.
    A sigh escaped my mouth. My lady parts tightened and then swelled, aching with the proximity of a man this divine. I melted against his body.
    “Are you okay?” That deep bass tickled me in exquisite ways.
    “Sorry.” The word floated on another sigh before reality smashed into my consciousness.
    I was draping myself on the CEO of a huge, worldwide company. In an interview!
    “Oh my God,” I said, panicking again. “I am so sorry!”
    I struggled out of his grasp. Pins and needles accosted my leg. Each movement vibrated up my bones painfully, but I ignored it. I reached down for my handbag. My leg wobbled, making me stagger into the chair. Righting myself, I brushed the hair from my face before avoiding his outstretched hands, like a star quarterback with the ball. I hobbled out into the open space, humiliation at my loss of control spurring me on. “I’m so sorry about that! Really!”
    I said the last over my shoulder as I limped out of the door and shut it behind me. In a daze of mortification, I used the empty desk as support to get over to the older assistant. She’d been looking at me already, so I just threw it out there: “I’m supposed to check in with you?”
    Her eyebrows pinched together as humor danced in her eyes. She glanced down at my hands gripping the desk. “Are you okay?”
    “Oh. Yeah. My leg fell asleep. I kind of stumbled out of there.” A grin tickled her lips, so I finished up with, “It was embarrassing.”
    The grin widened into a smile. “At least you’ll be hard to forget.” She held up a piece of paper. I limped over, trying to shake my leg out as I reached her desk. “Please make sure I have the correct contact info.” She tapped the paper after she laid it near my hands at the edge of her desk.
    As I studied the page, she continued, “Haven’t interviewed in a while, I take it?”
    “Oh.” I wiped my forehead of moisture as I straightened up. “I have, actually. A lot. But not for a CEO. Or, you know, someone that…intense.”
    “Ah.” The woman continued to survey me. I had a feeling there was a joke hovering in the air, and the fact that I wasn’t in on it meant I was probably the punch line.
    Time to go.
    I pointed at my number on the piece of paper. “That’s correct, but, unfortunately, it isn’t turned on at the moment. Email would be the best way to reach me. Or Skype. I have Wi-Fi in the apartment.”
    “Yes, of course.” She turned to her monitor. Her fingers flew over her keyboard, making a note. “We’ll let you know within three business days.”
    “Oh, great. Thanks,” I mumbled. I gave her a departing smile and walked from the area, my limp now decidedly less noticeable. It wasn’t until I was walking through the building’s lobby that I realized I hadn’t even offered to help clean up Mr. Carlisle’s desk. I’d spilled half the contents to the ground, and then run from the room.
    I closed my eyes and moaned at my stupidity. It was, quite possibly, the worst interview I’d ever had. I’d gone on a tirade about my situation and my constant rejections from other employers, something a person should never do with a prospective boss, and then told him about the stupid details