Professional Boundaries by Jennifer Peel Page A

something to say?” he asked arrogantly.
    I just shook my head no, but he knew me better. He knew I had something to say. He waited several seconds before he spoke again. It was like he was daring me to say it. I almost did, but it was like a battle of wills, and I planned on being the victor. When he realized I wouldn’t be rising to the sarcastic occasion, he invited himself all the way into my office and came around and stood behind me at my desk. I thought it was odd.
    He leaned down and looked over my shoulder and pointed to my screen. “Would you mind pulling up your schedule?”
    Oh, he smelled good. He was still wearing the same cologne he had so many years ago. It was a warm, spicy scent. It drove me crazy, and when I looked over to him, our faces were too close for comfort. I immediately turned and complied with his request and tried to ignore my rapid heartbeat. This was ridiculous.
    My schedule immediately popped up, and he reached over and began touching the screen asking about each appointment and asking if it could be rescheduled. Each time I replied in the negative. He was becoming increasingly frustrated with me. Good , I thought.
    “How about a working lunch?” he suggested.
    “Hmm … I had wanted to run some errands.”
    “Kel— I mean, Ms. Bryant.”
    I loved how he couldn’t even stick with his own dumb rules.
    “It’s important that we meet. I would be happy to have Ms. King (aka Delfia), order something in for us. Or if you would like, we can go out somewhere together.”
    I pinched the bridge of my nose. He was giving me a headache. I really didn’t want to meet with him, but I knew I couldn’t keep avoiding it; the more I put it off, the worse it would be.
    “I brought my lunch. I’ll meet you in the conference room at noon,” I replied in resignation.
    He stood up straight. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it, Ms. Bryant?”
    I turned my chair and narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that all, Mr. Greyson? As you can see, I’m busy.”
    “I look forward to meeting with you,” he said while walking out. 
    Yeah, well that makes one of us, buddy! I crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at the door.
    I peeked out my office door to see Delfia trying to hold back her laughter. I just shook my head, threw my earbuds in, and went to work. I had emails and proposals that needed my attention.
    The only interruption I welcomed was Boss coming in to wish me a good morning. “You look good in this office kiddo,” he said. I wanted to say I would look even better in the adjoining office, but I just left it alone. What’s done is done.
    The morning unfortunately flew by between catching up on email, sending out two proposals, and having a conference call with a demo. As noon approached, I headed to my private bathroom and touched up my make-up. I knew it could have seemed like I wanted to impress my new boss, but I would have done it for anyone, and mostly for myself. I pulled up the roadmap for the product on my laptop before I undocked it and grabbed my lunch. Then I made my way over to the conference room. Delfia smiled devilishly at me as I walked by. I shook my head at her and smiled back.
     “By the way, you look sizzling today,” she whispered.
    I laughed and kept on walking. I loved her. I walked in to find Ian, I mean, well you know who, set up with two laptops running, surrounded by a myriad of files. It also looked like he had ordered in sushi. Yuck! When he noticed me, he stood up and pulled out the chair next to him. Ugh, I was planning on sitting across from him. Once again, he thwarted my plans.
    I begrudgingly took the seat next to him. “Thank you,” I said somewhat politely. I almost added in that it was probably crossing a professional boundary for him to pull out my chair, but I decided to keep that to myself and get this meeting over with.
    “Would you like some sushi?” he asked as soon as I was situated.
    “Uh, no thanks. We like our fish fried here in the