Swing Both Ways

Chapter 2

Though Jenny had known Eric for more than six months now, she could still remember exactly what he said to her the first time they met. It had been on her first day of work, shortly before noon, after she’d finally finished all her new hire paperwork and was straightening up the front desk in the lobby that was to be her future work station. The HR woman, Delia, had left her to her own devices, and for the first time all morning, Jenny felt she had a chance to sit down and take a deep breath, take it all in. The new hire handbook sat on one edge of her desk, intimidating. Beside it, equally as scary, was the twelve-line phone she was expected to learn how to handle. Beside that, her computer monitor stared at her, the Windows logo bouncing merrily across the screen, waiting for her to get to work.

She heard footsteps approaching behind her desk and turned, half-expecting Delia with one more thing she needed to know. All morning long, it’d been, “Oh, I forgot to mention…”

But no, this time it was a handsome man Jenny’s own age, maybe a few years older. Careless hair, olive skin, a sexy smile that broadened when he caught Jenny’s eye. Coming up to lean against the side of her desk, he drawled, “Steve said the new office manager was cute, but he says that about all the ladies, so I had to come see you for myself.”

Her face flushed. “I’m Jenny.”

“Eric.” He held out his hand and Jenny took it, surprised he wanted to shake hers. But instead he flipped it over and kissed the back of her hand, as if they were a couple meeting a century earlier. She could feel his grin against her skin. “And I’m betting Steve put the moves on you, am I right?”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” Jenny hedged.

Eric covered her hand with both of his and gave her a smarmy look she’d last seen on the overweight guy with the comb-over from the graphics department who had introduced himself as Steve “For a Good Time Call” Johnson. “Jenny, is it?” Eric asked, his voice patronizing and a touch condescending. It was obvious he’d worked with Steve long enough to have the other man’s obnoxiousness down pat. “Well, little lady, what say you and me head out around noon to grab a bite to eat? I know a nice quiet place downtown where we can get to know each other without being bothered…if you know what I mean.”

The bawdy wink he gave her was over the top. Jenny started giggling, and had to cover her mouth with her free hand to keep from losing it completely. “God! You’re dead on,” she said, breathless with laughter. “I take it you’ve seen his act before.”

“Every woman who walks through that door,” Eric said. “Client, coworker, maid, he doesn’t care. That man is trying his hardest to get laid before he turns into the forty-year-old virgin.”

Jenny’s giggles threatened to overwhelm her. She was well aware of her hand still tight within Eric’s; her flesh was warmed in his, tingling against him, and she didn’t know whether to pull back or close her fingers around his. If he was trying to hit on her, too, he was doing a hell of a better job than Steve had, that was for sure.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Jenny said, catching her breath. “Wasn’t the actor in that movie also named Steve something?”

Eric’s smile widened. “I can tell we’re going to hit it off just fine, you and me. If you didn’t accept his lunch date, how about coming out with me instead?”

Then it hit her. Nothing she could put her finger on, nothing he said exactly, or even the way he said it, but something made her think, He’s gay. Just like that, out of nowhere, clear as day. She knew.

Damn it.

Giving his hand a slight squeeze, she matched his smile. “Lunch sounds great.”