“Oh, yeah, I’m not too worried about that.There’s some savings, and if I need to, I’ll get a side gig.No matter what that dickhead Steve thinks, there are bars here that would kill to have me.Even Sam said—” and I stop, remembering how firm he’d been last night about my worth.
My worth.
I hadn’t heard anyone talk about me in those terms since I was five years old.
“Oh?What did Sam say?”Audrey asked, eyes sparkling and an undisguised emphasis on Sam’s name in that tone that reminded me of high school all over again.
“That they would be lucky to have me.”
She hummed, smile wide.“Maybe they aren’t the only ones thinking they’d be lucky tohaveyou?”
And yes, that thought had occurred to me, too.
“You used to be so innocent.”
“What do you expect?After years of listening to your exploits,” she said before taking a bite, humming around the taste.“You really like him.”It was a statement.
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to work with him like this.It’s distracting.”Which was a massive understatement at best.He had this way of inflecting his tone in ways that buried the words themselves under my skin until my thoughts became a running commentary ofSamSamSam.
“I bet,” she chuckled.“I thought you hated him.”
“Fuck, it would be so much easier if I did.”
This was all Sam’s fault.
Samand his irritating kindness the night he found me drinking by myself at the bar.
Sam and his defense of me last night at the dinner and to King Asshole himself, Stephen Pierce, no less.
Sam and his unfairly lovely eyes and kissable mouth that fought with me and said nice things and teased smiles and … Goddammit.I felt my body responding to the thought of those lips.Of shutting him up with my own.
“So, what changed?”Audrey asked.
Where did I start?We still fought, but somewhere along the line, it had become charged with something electric.Something physical.
And maybe it had always been there, simmering beneath all my frustration, or maybe it was a recent thing, but did it really matter?I knew what I wanted now, and I was going to have a tough time either way.
“I’ve seen a different side of him recently.He’s not as terrible as I first thought.”
Indecision had never been my thing.Ever.Mama had always said I talked quick and acted quicker.I’d rather deal with the consequences of a bad decision than wallow in the misery of not choosing.
“Do you think he’s interested?”Audrey asked.
“Who knows.He’s coiled tighter than a spring.I just wanna …”
“What?”she asked, curious.
“Make him fall apart.Give in to him.I can’t decide.”
“You’ve given this some thought then.”
“I have.It’s ridiculous.I know it is.And if it were anyone else, I would just tell myself to deal with it and move the hell on.But he’s …” I waved my hands in the air, coming up short.“I don’t even know what he is, but it’s intense and distracting.And sometimes I get the feeling that he wants it, too?I couldn’t sleep last night because all I kept thinking about was the way he looked at me at dinner and how he said I was worth more than everyone else put together.”
“He said that?”There’s awe in her voice.
“Exactly!What kind of an asshole says something like that after weeks of constantly disagreeing with me and telling me how wrong I am about the bar?This,” I point to nothing in particular, “is why us working together is a terrible idea.”
“One nice comment can’t erase that.No matter how nice his ass is.”She said.
