Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t look up. “Yes?”
He shifted his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets. He hadn’t felt this nervous since the time his old master sergeant caught him and a bunch of his fellow Marines at a strip club near Pendleton.
“I…umm…I’m sorry to disturb you, but can we talk?”
She finally lifted her gaze to his. Her face remained a mask of indifference. “What do you need?”
He closed the door behind him before moving toward her desk. Once there, he found himself at a loss for words. Should he just admit he’d fucked up, fall to his knees, and beg for forgiveness?
“I wanted to apologize,” he said. He waited for her to speak. She didn’t. The atmosphere in the office grew a thousand times more uncomfortable.
Daniel swallowed and tried again. “I’m trying to come up with the right words here, but I’m worse at this than I thought.”
Samiah brought her elbows up on the desk, clasped her fingers, and rested her chin on them.
“Let me give it a try,” she said. “Now, the last thing I want to do is speak for you, however, ifIwas the one apologizing, it would go something like this. ‘Dear Samiah, I amsosorry for acting like a jerk after spending the last three weeks openly flirting with you.’”
He started to speak, but she held up a hand and continued. “‘And, yes, I know thatI’mthe one who went in for that kiss, but things got a little too real, so I pulled away like a coward. It must suck to have someone treat you that way, and I feel like a complete dick.’ How was that? Does that apology work for you?”
Daniel shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and swallowed hard. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
The last two minutes would have been easier to endure if her declamation had held even a hint of humor. It hadn’t. She was pissed.
This was hard. And awkward. And exactly what he deserved.
“Did that apology work foryou?” he asked, turning the question back on her.
She dropped her hands and pushed away from her desk. “You don’t owe me any apologies, Daniel.”
“Yes, I do.” He walked up to her desk. “And you’re right, I do feel like a dick.”
“So what happened?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Why did you all of a sudden decide I wasn’t good enough to have lunch with?”
Shit.He shut his eyes and pitched his head back.
“That’s not what I think, Samiah.” He hated that he had to continue this lie, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t tell her about the reprimand he would face if his real boss discovered what he was doing.
He settled for a partial truth.
“Look, I know this is no excuse, but I’m still a bit gun-shy after everything that happened with my ex.” He held his hands out in a plea. “Yours is the only real friendship I’ve made since moving to Austin and it would kill me if I’ve ruined it.” Regret lodged in his throat, but he swallowed past it, desperate to make this right. “Is there any way possible that we can still be friends after this?”
She continued to stare at him with that blank, impassive air about her. After several excruciatingly painful moments passed, she leaned back in her chair, folded her hands over her stomach, and said, “You have all the nerve in the world, do you know that?” She huffed out a breath and shook her head, but then shocked the hell out of him when she said, “I guess we can try.”
Daniel was afraid to trust what he thought he’d just heard.
“Is that everything?” she asked.
“Umm…yeah.” He nodded, the tension in his body slowly ebbing as the strain in the room began to recede. “Thank you.”
Her smile was pleasant enough, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She shut down her desktop and retrieved her purse from the bottom desk drawer.
“Are you calling it a night?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.” She stood, pulling the purse strap over her shoulder. “I have a standing date on Friday evenings.”
The lump of unpleasantness that lodged in his throat nearly cut off his air supply, but he swallowed it down like nasty medicine. If there was one thing he didn’t have the right to feel, it was jealousy.
“Have a good time,” Daniel said. At least he didn’t choke on the words.
