Time had flown.
“I’m fine. Do you need to go? We can carry on tomorrow morning.”
She shook her head. “I really appreciate you doing this. I feellike… maybe I stand a chance of acing this internship. I really, really need this job. Am I being delusional to think I could get it?”
Despite what everyone said about her and her wealth, Elizabeth genuinely seemed to need this job. There was a desperate panic behind those eyes whenever she spoke about the internship ending.
“Not delusional, but you’re not there yet. We could get there in time.”
“We?” She smiled.
I had to look away. Sometimes her beauty overwhelmed me. “We,” I managed. “Best manager-intern team at Simucon, remember?”
She hopped up. “Damn right. In that case, could I make you a cup of coffee?”
My gaze, now eye level with her waist, swept upward until it met her face. Something foreign tightened in my abdomen. “I can make my own coffee.”
She crumpled up a scrap piece of paper. “Loser makes coffee.”
I grinned, activating muscles that didn’t often get used. “Okay, but we have to stand farther back than last time.”
“Deal.” She danced around and then tossed the ball. It hit the edge and fell to the floor.
I collected it and took her spot. I focused on the center of the wastebasket and threw it. Somehow it landed even farther away. I turned to face her. “I clearly didn’t play team sports.”
Her laughter was contagious. “I think I expect you to be good at everything.”
I nearly choked, even though I had nothing in my mouth to choke on. But getting a compliment like that from a woman like this was too much for my esophagus.
On the next throw, I got it in. Sheer luck.
“Fine,” she huffed. Less playful than usual.
I hadn’t expected her to be so competitive.
“I didn’t expect you to be so competitive,” she said.
“Likewise,” I said, stretching. My muscles were loose and light. It was weird.
“Sugar and cream, right?”
I nodded, unable to hide the smile creeping onto my face. I wasn’t a stranger to working late, but I’d never worked late with someone else. Not even during my studies on the tightest deadlines. I’d always send the rest of the group home and finish the assignment by myself; they never minded.
But this was… nice.
“Mr. Carden,” she said as she entered a few moments later with two cups of coffee. Her mug had cat ears. Obviously.
“You can call me Lincoln, if you’d like…” I heard myself saying even though no one called me Lincoln around here. Not even Anders. “We’d need a retaining wall here.” I changed the topic and pointed at the large amount of fill required on one side of the on-ramp.
“Do I have to design that?”
“No. Mark it up and send it off to the structural engineers. They’ll take a look and give it to the right person.” I took a moment to observe her before asking my next question. For someone who had been concentrating for more than twelve hours, she didn’t look tired at all. “Do you want me to tell you about the basic retaining wall structures often used alongside roads?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She flopped into her office seat and kicked off her shoes before tucking her feet underneath her. “If you can take off your shirt in here, I can take off my shoes, right?”
And there it was. Cheeky little thing.
21
