I didn’t want to lose her warmth, I wanted keep her palm on my back. So I swallowed the water and hummed in delight. Then I took another bite, and the crunch of the toast was a fleeting relief against the relentless fire that made my eyes water and my stomach squirm. “No, babe—” I coughed. “It’s just right.”
I gave her a reassuring smile after I swallowed. She pulled her hand away from me, her eyes narrowing into slits. I wouldn’t make this gap between us bigger by refusing food she’d made for me. However, she was too focused on her computer to even acknowledge me.
With just a glance, I recognized the blue logo of the website she was on. “You’re looking for a job? What do you do?” I paused. “What do I do?”
Her shoulders stiffened and her spine straightened. I didn’t think bringing up our jobs would raise her hackle.
She moved her computer away from me, got up, and turned as she stepped away, jaw tensing. “Yes, I recently lost my job.” She returned with three different bottles of medication and a whole new level of defensiveness in her tone. “We’re both in marketing, you do graphics and design. I do more SEO and campaigns. I mean, I have done both, but I prefer words and numbers.”
“Infinity Weddings.”
Nina stopped halfway through lining up the bottles on the counter, her eyes flicking to me, still narrowed with suspicion.
“What about it?”
“It just came to me. Popped into my head. Do you know what it means?” I caught every twitch of her expression.
“I do,” she said, biting the inside of her cheek. “They’re one of your recent clients. They’re a big one. You led a very successful visual rebrand. Your team essentially won them over after a big oversight in m—another department.”
“It sounds like we worked on it together.” I laughed.
“We did.” The words dropped between us, sudden and loaded, shock piercing through me.
She looked past me, chin angled down. My stomach twisted in knots, my body privy to something my mind couldn’t catch up to. If we were a team…
“Why are you looking for a job if we got the client?”
She laughed ruefully. “Because word on the street’s I’m the person that fucked up half the presentation.”
She meant it as a joke, but her shoulders told a different story—tight and squared, bracing for more fallout. I had no idea how long she’d been out of a job. Was she living in that building because I hadn’t offered for her to move in before?
“I don’t understand, we’d?—”
“Lincoln, please, it’s hard enough as it is. I’m sure you’ll remember in time.” She exhaled heavily. “Alright.” She tappedher palms on the counter. “You need these two now.” Nina handed me two pills and a glass of juice. Thank fuck, no water this time. “Anti-seizure and pain medication. You take them every morning—same time, no skipping. You can take more of these”—she tapped on the pain meds—“as needed, but no more than every six hours. At night, you’ll need another one of these.” Then she tapped on the anti-seizure bottle. “And this one for mood and sleep support.”
I studied her face as I swallowed them. It wasn’t just instructions for her—she had a condition. She knew not to skip medication. My hand brushed hers when I reached out for one of the bottles. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t lean in either. Her going over my meds was an act of service. Now I knew her love language. I could work with this.
“You’re not here to baby me. I take care of you.”
She scoffed. “Sorry, Mr. Macho Man, but babying is exactly what the doctor ordered.”
I arched a brow. “And maybe the doctor ordered a good spanking for you so you know when to listen.”
And if there’d been any room for ambiguity before, there wasn’t now. Nina jerked back at my words before she schooled her features and laughed. “Well, if not for your need to be babied, I wouldn’t even be here, so let’s behave, yeah? We’re adults, after all.”
The cynicism in her laughter scraped at me. She brushed my desire off likenothing. My pride burned off as fast as it’d flared the second she’d flinched away, and I forced my hands to unclench against my thighs. So I swallowed the smart retort itching to get out, kept my eyes on the floor, and took a breath so she wouldn’t recoil from me.
“Anyway,” she added, moving on so quickly it gave me whiplash, “you shouldn’t be reading or watching TV. Light sensitivity will be an issue.” She handed me a pair of sunglasses.Pink leopard print. I traced the rugged edge of the rosettes on the frame, hoping they were at least hers.
“Hey, Lincoln, did you hear me?”
I shook my head and looked into her brown eyes etched with annoyance.
“I said I need the lights to work. I have to do reels, posts, and all of that.”
I nodded. I needed to piece together the puzzle that was our relationship so I wouldn’t lose her.
I’d spentmost of the day napping on the couch while she worked at the kitchen counter. I woke to her fumbling with her belongings next to the door, sending me a not-so-subtle message:I’m on my way out, Linc.
