Over the Hedge Read online

  Over the

  Hedge

  Lucky in L❁ve Series

  Book One

  by MINERVA VESTA

  © 2018 Minerva Vesta

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Any unauthorized reprint or use of the material is prohibited. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  For permission requests, contact the Minerva Vesta, at www.minervavesta.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Editing services provided by Pure Harmony Literary Services , Phoenix Pen & Troix Jackson

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language, and sexual situations. It is intended for adult readers.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to my mommy.

  You provided me with my first dose of the written word that allowed me to start reading at the age of two.

  It is because of you, why I have this passion for writing.

  Love ya V

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  COMING SOON

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  LET’S CONNECT!

  CHAPTER 1

  LASHAWNDA

  Dang it! I'm late again.

  I raced through the empty lobby toward the closing elevator doors. The tote bag, laptop case, purse, lunch sack, and satchel of file folders I was carrying made my already gawky run even more oafish. One of these days I would purchase a rolling case to make things easier on myself. I let out a sigh of relief as I made it in time to catch the elevator door. The elevators in this building were infamous for taking a year and a day to arrive.

  A man stood in the corner with his back to me, his head tilted over a stack of papers. He didn’t even acknowledge my presence as I stepped inside. He was tall, well-built, and smelled like good times and heartbreak. I could only imagine he possessed a face to match if he were to turn around. This was the kind of man that wouldn’t give me the time of day unless it had something to do with work, or with me setting him up with one of my friends. I shook my shoulders in annoyance at my negative train of thought.

  Positive affirmations, remember. I lightly scolded myself. You are worthy, you deserve happiness, you matter.

  “Good morning,” I offered in a pleasant voice.

  Nothing…not even a shift in his stance to acknowledge I’d just gone out of my way to speak to him. With a heavy sigh, I pressed the button for the second floor; mentally scrolling through the list of things I needed to get done before my meetings today.

  The elevator door slid open. I hoisted my collection of bags higher on my shoulder and proceeded to exit. On my way out, my tote bag slipped and smacked the side of the door frame with a loud bang. I didn’t bother to turn around—avoiding what had to be a harsh stare from the silent occupant. My time was precious, and I had none to spare, especially for a guy who didn’t have the decency to speak when spoken to.

  My stroll toward my desk was hurried. This was my third time late this week, and it was only Thursday. On Monday morning, Human Resources had a staff meeting detailing the company’s attendance policy; making sure to highlight the rules on tardiness. Due to an abnormally high number of people showing up to work late, they were instituting a zero-tolerance policy.

  Ironically, I was late that morning and missed the entire meeting. If not for an email forwarded to my department, I would be out of the loop on their crackdown.

  I’d been working at Hines and Grant Research Institute since I graduated from college. There weren’t many career choices that paid well with an undergraduate degree in psychology—I was extremely lucky. H&G competed with some of the world’s most renowned research facilities in biomedical engineering. We were relatively small, yet overall very influential in the work that we contributed to the field.

  I loved my job and looked forward to coming in every day. Plus, a lot of the people in the company were like family to me. We had a great working environment that thrived on the principles of respect and integrity. I was well loved around the office. At the risk of sounding conceited, I was that special person that made everything flow smoothly.

  People in and out of my department stopped by my desk, often just to chit-chat or ask for advice on their personal problems. I made certain to bring healthy homemade treats for those that were on a diet; especially around the holidays when the office was littered with all types of sweet treats.

  I also bought flowers for all the administrative assistants when their bosses forgot their birthdays. And yes, I was kind enough to even sign their bosses’ name on the card, giving them credit as being responsible for the gesture. My calendar, where I kept a record of all the staff birthdays, came in handy last year. Carol, an accountant and one of the original H&G staff members, had her sixtieth birthday while I was out on vacation.

  When the alert pinged on my phone, I immediately contacted her boss to see if he had anything planned. Not surprising, he wasn’t even aware she was having a milestone birthday, much less it being her birthday at all. With a few phone calls, I was able to order a huge lunch spread and a personalized cake and have everything delivered to the office.

  Carol was so thrilled by the surprise it brought her to tears. I knew this was extra special for her. During a few of our conversations, she let it slip she didn’t have any close friends or family because she devoted her younger years to developing her career. Needless to say, her boss was very thankful I was able to put something together for her.

  It was situations like that why I’d racked up more favors at H&G than I knew what to do with; there was always someone in my pocket that owed me one. I was exceptional at reading people and used that skill to my advantage.

  Truthfully, I needed every single one of those favors.

  My tenure at H&G was as thrilling as it was nerve-wracking. From the day I was hired as an administrative assistant, to one of the leading head and neck cancer researchers in the southeast, I knew there would never be a dull day at work.

  Dr. Nathan Barnes was world-renowned for his work at H&G. He'd been honored by more organizations than I could remember just in my time working with him. His work was deemed innovative and groundbreaking. The man was a total god in the arena of biomedical research. For that reason alone, he got away with almost anything—including his habit of going through assistants like underwear.

  Before me, the longest anyone stayed with him was six months—the record shortest was two hours. The minute I was hired I realized I wasn’t dealing with an average m
an. So, instead of expecting him to conform to society’s norms, I adapted my thought processes to match his. Dr. Barnes may be an exceptional scientist, but it came at a price. His lack of finesse in social settings often put me in sticky situations, and I spent a great portion of my workday smoothing things over with people in the building, colleagues at other institutions, or just about anyone breathing in or near his vicinity.

  I was a pro at my job and the perfect assistant to Dr. Barnes. The man was unorganized, amnesic, and downright air-headed at times, but I kept things running as best as I could and didn’t mind the extra work I had to put in to prevent the office from going into chaos. On more than one occasion he told me he would trade in his wife and at least two of his kids to have me with him every waking minute. As flattering as that was, the thought was enough to make me shudder. I loved and admired the man, but I couldn’t imagine dealing with him for more than ten hours a day. More than once, I had to threaten him with removing the thing between his legs when he pushed my buttons too far.

  I upheld the patience of a Tibetan monk for the man and his antics, but I had limits just like everyone else. Luckily for the health of our working relationship, those tragic moments hadn’t happened since the start of my career.

  As I rounded the corner toward my desk, I silently cursed the building’s architects for their lack of consideration for having the office building separate from the parking garage. This meant only a few staff members could park on-site. Most of those were the doctors or higher-ups who could afford the ridiculous cost of the parking permits. Everyone else was forced to park in the garage and make the block and a half trek to the main building.

  It was the start of spring, and some would consider the weather amazing. That's if you lived in a remote part of the North, hadn't seen sunlight in months, and suddenly decided to vacation in Florida for a change of scenery. But for non-tourists, this was an everyday heat. The sun took up residence and has a yearly pass to visit all the major theme parks, always lingering, always oppressive. It was hot and muggy. Even the bravest souls avoided going outside, unless it was necessary.

  So, by the time I sat my mountain of bags on my desk, the dress shirt I wore was sticking to my ample breasts in the most unattractive manner. My thighs felt like I had lathered them with shea butter and the small of my back ached like I just deadlifted a sumo wrestler.

  God, I would stand topless in Dr. Barnes’s office right about now if he wasn't in there. I was so hot and the large air conditioning vents in there would do me good right about now.

  I unpacked my tote and placed my lunch in the mini-fridge underneath my desk. There were times I had to skip a meal due to Dr. Barnes's schedule, but like most people in America, I was on this whole “new year new me” kick right after the holidays. I had even met with a dietitian at one of H&G’s off-site clinics, expecting her to tell me to cut down or avoid at-work snacking. I was beyond shocked when she informed me I wasn’t eating enough to lose weight. Turns out when you don’t consume enough calories the devil spawn known as fat cells just store everything you do eat, thinking you’re in starvation mode.

  So, as a rule, I kept some snacks at my disposal for those days I wouldn't be able to escape the clutches of my crazy boss, hoping they’d keep my calorie count in the right range.

  When I checked the clock, it was almost 9:30. The sound of Dr. Barnes madly clicking away at his keyboard echoing through his office door put an amused smile on my face. While the computer was invented during Dr. Barnes's time in graduate school, he initially never made an effort to take a typing course. A man of his caliber always had a secretary to type up his memos. However, when his last assistant quit in the middle of the day, he had no choice but to finally join the rest of society in the age of technology. This meant many of his problems were centered around his failure to understand his computer.

  “God damn this shit to hell!” Dr. Barnes’ loud booming voice made a slight chuckle cross my lips. “Stop sending me these ridiculous messages, I don’t care about health insurance! I’m old, and I’ll be dead soon!” His voice snapped with impatience.

  Today’s going to be interesting.

  I slid from behind my desk, deciding it was probably best to check on the mad scientist.

  “Dang it!”

  I lunged forward to snap up my water bottle before it fell, blowing out a sigh of relief it was still capped. Between Dr. Barnes’s assault on a few keyboards and my inability to go a week without spilling something on mine, we kept a few extras in the supply room. With each new keyboard that broke, Dr. Barnes threatened to invent one himself that was indestructible.

  Knocking on his office door, I peeked in and saw my assumptions were correct. He was furiously pounding his two pointer fingers on the keys. Every few seconds he would let out a curse and mumble about flawed designs and cheap material.

  Dr. Barnes was at war with technology, and he was not winning.

  “Good morning, Dr. B,” I greeted.

  “Yes, yes, come in, Price,” he replied sounding as though I'd just interrupted a groundbreaking thought. Like I was a nuisance he couldn’t wait to get rid of. In the time I’d worked with the man, I could only recall a handful of times he’d called me by my first name.

  "I see you're still replying to the messages I forwarded to you on Monday." I observed wittily with an arched brow. There were only seven emails, since I’d handled most of them myself. He really needed to do better with answering his emails considering it was Thursday and he’s had three days to answer seven messages.

  "Yes, I am." He stopped pecking at the keys and looked over at my amused expression. “Well don't be so damn smug about it, Price. You know good and well these idiots don't need my opinion about which cooling system to purchase or how long biospecimens should be stored. That's what I hired a lab manager for. I tell you, if I didn't care about my work, I would say to hell with all of these imbeciles." His voice trailed off, but I could still hear his words clearly. “I’ll find myself a bunker somewhere to live. Maybe take the wife. Won’t take the kids, because they tend to get needy. This whole generation is full of idiots.”

  "And, what about me Dr. Barnes? Is that how you think of me?" I tried to look hurt by his comments, letting out a dramatic sob and pressing a hand flat on my chest.

  "Well, no. You're alright, Price." He stood up and motioned for me to take his seat. I held back my laughter when he gave me a hesitant pat on the head. Human interaction was not one of Dr. Barnes's strong points. Many people often wondered how he had remained married for over forty years.

  "Now, don't ever repeat this, but I think I might need a little help with this blasted computer thing again. I’m starting to think this thing is out to get me,” he grumbled.

  "Not a problem—it’ll be our little secret." I pulled up his inbox and began typing quickly. "Let's go through these emails first, and then I'll organize your calendar for the next week. I also came across a webinar I'd like you to attend. It's about some new data collection methods. I know how much you're tired of traveling, so this won't even require you to leave the comfort of your chair."

  "Hmm... that all sounds German to me." His bushy gray eyebrows knitted in confusion.

  This is going to be a long, long morning.

  By the time I made it out of Dr. Barnes's office, it was after one o'clock, and I was behind on all the things I had planned to accomplish today. Since I had only eaten a banana on the way to work, I was starting to feel lightheaded and decided to have lunch before settling in to get some things done. Eating at my desk was my first option, but after spending so much time locked away with Dr. Barnes, I needed to be around some normal functioning human beings.

  “Dang it,” I groaned in agony.

  I rubbed my knee after bumping into the file cabinet. It was the third time today, and I was already bruised in that same spot from run-ins earlier in the week. Making a mental note to send a message to the facilities department to have them move it to the other side of
my workspace; I grabbed my lunch box and headed out to find civilization.

  The lounge was a bit crowded when I walked in, and a line had already started forming in front of the microwave.

  Good thing I didn’t bring anything that needs reheating.

  I greeted a few people with a wave as they passed by. I spotted someone I could chat with after a quick survey of the room, and I began to make my way over. As I navigated through the lounge, I knocked into several people, bumping the backs of their heads with my lunch sack.

  “I’m so sorry.” I cringed at the sharp look I got from one of the guys that worked in the wet lab. I hugged the bag to my chest and walked away as carefully as possible.

  "Hey, girl." Jenny Reed gave me a big grin as I slid into the empty chair across from her.

  Jenny had been working at H&G for about six months before I started. In fact, she was one of the human resources recruiters that interviewed me over the phone. This fact was something she continued to bring up too many times to count. Some days I just wanted to yell, “Yeah, we get it, you interviewed me, but you weren’t the reason I was hired!’

  She was cool, though. It took a minute for me to warm up to her personality. But after figuring out how to handle her relentless chatter and nosy disposition, I found I liked having someone like Jenny as a friend at work. She had the inside scoop on just about all the office gossip.

  When Dr. Schell got caught in the conference room making out with his assistant after hours, Jenny was the first one to fill me in on all the juicy details. What was surprising was Jenny was on vacation the week of the incident. Or the time when one of the execs got into a domestic violence issue with his wife at the office. Jenny dished out all the gory details bright and early the next morning.

  "Hey, you." I settled in and pulled out my grilled chicken and baby spinach salad. Ever since this whole eating healthy journey began, I realized I was not a fan of lettuce. As a suggestion—from Dr. Barnes, of all people—I tried spinach for my salad base and was instantly hooked. "Aren't you glad the week is almost over?" I asked her.