I was so frustrated from the argument that I broke a heel going to work when a skateboarder cut in front of me, and I had to walk barefoot from the parking garage.
I didn’t bother texting Lana about it yet. I wasn’t ready to see the poignant look on her face when I told her what he’d said, and she said ‘I told you so.’
“Where are your shoes?” Jasmine said when she caught up with me.
“It’s a long story,” I muttered. “Do I have anything today?”
“Nothing on the books. Sarah said she had a new design for you to look at for Arrow,” Jasmine answered.
“Amazing. Tell her to send it over to me?”
I rushed into my office, late from taking extra time in the shower as I’d put the water as hot as I could stand it in an attempt to drown out the noise in my head. It was almost 10 o’clock already. I was so behind already.
But I stopped at the window, my heart stumbling at seeing who stood outside. Gavin looked so contemplative there, like he was debating whether to come inside. A sharp breath entered my lungs as I thought of the last time we’d seen each other. His leaving me at the elevator, not daring to come anywhere near the apartment after what had happened between us.
I watched him with a soft smile on my face for a long while, all thought of the issues that had plagued me that morning pressing to the very back of my mind into a little locked corner that I had no intention of visiting while I was at work.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - GAVIN
I STOOD OUTSIDE Chloe’s office building an hour after leaving my brunch with mother, and I stared at Chloe’s floor, trying to figure out what I would say to her.
Ran away…
Something didn’t feel right about what my mother claimed. Psyche running away wouldn’t put her in this century with a new life and identity. That would take memory work, kidnapping, putting her under for years… Someone would have had to dedicate centuries of life to this one cause.
Fucking Styx. I needed my memory back.
I pushed that bit to the back of my mind and focused on the problem at hand. I wondered how Chloe would act toward me after the way we’d left things; if it would be awkward between us or if she would act as though nothing had happened.
I’d never been nervous before. It was new, and I hated that feeling of doubt.
My phone buzzed as I took my last sip of coffee. I looked at the lit screen, and my stomach dropped at the name that came up—Chloe.
Are you coming in or do you plan on staring up at our windows like you’re waiting on Rapunzel to let her hair down?
A smile quirked on my lips, and I texted her back.The good knight usually waits for the damsel to be in distress before rescuing her, doesn’t he?
He does. Except you’re not the good knight. You’re the evil king. Here to steal the princess away and make her see that villains do it better.
Maybe I’m the dragon the knight has to defeat.
***That poor knight. ***
I laughed softly, and three dots appeared at the bottom of the screen again.
***Come upstairs, dragon. I have some things to show you. ***
My anxiety turned into a full knot around my heart, but I entered the building a little more at ease than I had been minutes before.
Chloe’s office had glass walls; the one facing the rest of the room had frosted stripes every two feet. I could see that she was pouring over two prints on blackboards by the exterior wall made entirely of windows when I made it to her floor. I spoke to a few of the people I’d met on my last few visits as I walked across the room to her.
Her eyes lit up when I knocked twice and stepped inside the threshold.
“About time,” she said, that beautiful smile on her lips.
It happened then, that feeling of warmth and joy and familiarity. It knotted itself in the pit of my stomach, fluttering my heart and sending my senses into overdrive as it spread out to my extremities. Seeing her smile at me… a smile I hadn’t been sure I’d see again after our restrained tumble in the storage locker.
“Come tell me which of these you like better,” she said. She held up the two prints, and I swallowed as I joined her in looking at them.
