Rising from the Ashes Read Online Free PDF

across my face at his humor. “Sounds like a plan.”
    “Ring, ring,” Ben said into the phone.
    I cleared my throat and put on my best professional persona. “Hello?”
    “Hi, I’m calling for Savannah Morgan, please.”
    I let out a small laugh. “You’ve reached Savannah. May I ask who’s calling?”
    “Well, good morning, Ms. Morgan. This is Benjamin Bennett. How are you this lovely early morning?”
    A full-belly laugh escaped me when he stressed the word early . “I’m good, Ben. How are you?”
    There was a long, awkward pause before he spoke again. “I’m well. Thank you for asking. I’d be better, however, if you’d allow me to take you out tonight. That is, if you don’t have any plans already, of course.”
    My stomach dropped. “Like on a date?” I stupidly asked.
    He let out nervous chuckle at my question. “Well, that would be ideal.”
    Shit!
    I had no clue how to respond to that. Granted, Ben was a very attractive man, what with the piercing blue eyes and perfectly styled and cut light brown hair. Any woman would be more than willing to date him. I just didn’t feel right about agreeing to a date with him. He was a really nice guy, but I had a rule against dating coworkers. Those types of relationships never ended well.
    “I don’t really know if that’s a good idea, Ben,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure about dating him, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings either. “You’re a really nice guy. I just don’t think it would be smart for us to date.”
    He was silent for several seconds before he said, “Is it because of that guy last night? Jeremy?”
    “No, not at all.” Maybe just a little.
    “Oh…all right. I completely understand. I’ll admit that I read a little too much into your invitation last night. I’m sorry for that, and I’m really sorry I disturbed your sleep.”
    He sounded so dejected that I couldn’t help but feel horrible. If I were being honest with myself, he hadn’t completely misread the situation. I was attracted to him. I just wasn’t sure about the whole work aspect of things.
    “No, Ben, you didn’t read too far. I am attracted to you—”
    “Oh, thank God!” He blew out a relieved breath. “I thought I was completely off the mark, and that could have been humiliating.”
    I had put a stop to the direction the conversation had taken before he got the wrong impression. “ But… ” I dragged it out, so he knew he needed to listen to what I had to say next. “I made this rule that I would never date coworkers. That’s just a recipe for disaster. I mean, have you ever heard of that working out for anyone?”
    “Well…”
    He remained silent for a long time. I could only assume he was trying to come up with an example to show it could work out.
    He finally let out a sigh and relented. “No. You’re right. I can’t think of an example where dating a coworker worked out well.”
    I had to laugh at his disappointment. “If it’s any consolation, I’d totally go on a date with you if you didn’t work at P&C.”
    He joined me in laughing. “If I didn’t have rent and bills to pay, that might be incentive enough for me to quit.”
    “Damn economy.”
    “My thoughts exactly.”
    “Look…” I started, hoping to soften my earlier rejection. “I know that it’s totally cliché to say this, but I mean it when I say that I want us to be friends. I had a lot of fun with you last night, and I know my friends liked you. I think you’d really fit in with all of us—that is, if you’re even interested since I shot you down and all,” I ended with a smile.
    “Well, since you put it that way…who could possibly turn down that offer?” he said with a chuckle.
    “You know what I mean. Besides, you’ve already been invited to the guys’ show on Saturday. They’d be really disappointed if you missed it.”
    He finally relented and admitted that he’d had fun the night before, and he agreed to go watch the guys’ band play on