“What part of no do you not understand?” I ask roughly.
He stands and smiles. “Okay, I’ll stop pestering you.” He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a card. He places his hands on his chest then feels around his pants pockets. I roll my eyes.
He points to the pen on my desk. “May I?”
I push it toward him and take a loud, deep breath. He chuckles lightly as he scribbles away on the paper. “In case you change your mind, here’s my cell. I haven’t gotten my new business cards yet, so here’s one of my old ones. Call me anytime.”
He holds it out to me. I take it and immediately toss it into my trash can without making eye contact.
“Just so you know, I like you and your attitude, Beth Foley.”
I turn to face him. “My name is Liz.”
“That’s short for Elizabeth, right?” he asks.
“Yeah, so?”
“Like I said, I like you, Beth.”
Before I can spout something off about how I don’t appreciate his renaming me, he turns and struts away. He has some kind of nerve. What an asshole. I shake him off and try to remember what I was doing before his interruption. I glance down at his number in the trash can, but quickly turn my eyes away, pushing him and his lingering energy out of my head.
