Her eyes scanned the crowd.
I called her out on it. “Don’t you dare look for a student. I’m a man, you’re a woman, and it’s perfectly fine for me to kiss your cheek in public, Richards. Now eat and tell me about the weekend.”
“I have to grade the final paper for my class. Summer session is shorter. We only meet for six weeks, and I’ve only been there for three of them so far. Some of them started the assignment before I came…overachievers and all that. So, yep, grading.”
“Good, I have a new site to design. You’ll never guess my new client.”
“Who?” I wiped a small drop of dressing from the corner of her mouth, loving the needy expression running through her eyes as I licked it off my own thumb.
“Juicey’s.”
“No! How did that come about?”
“I was looking on Craigslist, and they had a posting for a marketing intern and a web-design person. I think they’re trying to change their image.”
“They should start with their name.”
“You think? I was thinking I’d give a whole new meaning to the word juice.”
“You do that,” she said, stuffing a forkful of lettuce in her mouth and chewing.
“I’m working a new basic logo for them and getting a new site up and running, and hopefully they’ll have an intern by then who can manage it. I also need to work on a revamp for a place back home. They opened a pie shop, so they need to add some pages.”
Done with my sandwich, I pushed my tray to the side and grabbed a few fries.
They were pretty damn good.
“Good, right?” Her free hand skimmed my thigh under the table.
“Oh, that’s good all right.” I raised an eyebrow and leaned in, kissing her cheek.
“I meant the fries.” She squeezed my leg.
“I was just thinking that you taste better than fries. But these…” I wiggled a fry in the air. “I may have to make this one of my regular stops.”
“Oh, right, with abs like yours…”
“I didn’t know you liked them so much.” I leaned back in, keeping my voice low, my flirting for Claire’s ears only.
“Not much. I’m just saying, with all your running.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Let’s go back to the weekend.”
“Since you have work to do, and so do I, we could head over to the coffee place, work, flirt, work.”
“Is that how this works? You flirt and disrupt me while I try to work? With all your getting close and leaning in?”
“You can flirt back with me a little bit too, if you want.”
She set her fork down and moved her bowl out of the way. “I’ll take that into consideration, Fordham.” With a quick peck to my cheek, she said, “Sadly, I have to go. Department meeting about fall semester. It’ll be here before we know it. Ten thousand new freshmen looking to find themselves.”
My thigh was immediately cold without her hand.
“Let’s have a drink later, with Smitty by our feet.”
“Okay,” she said and made her way out of the booth. “See you later.”
She didn’t sway her ass or cock her hip to the side when she walked out. Yet she attracted several head turns. She was one of those natural beauties—who didn’t know it, of course.
