They were both breathing heavily, on the edge of their seats as they faced each other.
“Fine!” she snapped. “You didn’t copy my idea. Happy?”
But he wasn’t, not at all. Shehadto think about that time; it couldn’t just be him.
“Stop trying to distract me,” she said, blowing a stray tendril of hair out of her eyes. It bounced up, then back in place, landing by her lips. His gaze dropped.
“I...” he started, but she was already looking away. He clenched his jaw.
He hadn’t been trying to distract her, but hewasbeing distracted himself when he really shouldn’t have been. He needed to focus.
Two weeks of six were already done, and while he’d madeprogress on his proposal for the coffee shop, there was still a long way to go. Muttering an oath under his breath, he returned to his laptop.
Trying to regain his bearings, he looked at his notes, checking over the projected financials for his plans for the coffee shop addition. It took him about ten minutes to stop his thoughts from racing, but the calculations were a good way of getting his emotions under wraps.
After some time, he stood to search for the contractor on file for the bookshop. Now that he had an idea for what the project would cost, he needed to reach out to the contractor to get a quote, which he would most certainly try to negotiate.
When Luke went to the filing cabinet to search for the contractor’s file with the business’s history, he found something else. It was a profit report from the last three years that had evidently been misfiled; both he and Emmeline had been looking for this. The store manager Ola had said she would find it for them, but now he wouldn’t have to wait for that.
An idea sparked in his mind.
“I found the profit report,” Luke said, holding the file up.
Emmeline glanced up from her laptop, standing up from the chair she was sitting in. She came over to the filing cabinet to see, and after she’d had a glance to corroborate his claim, he quickly closed the file while she was still looking.
“Finders keepers,” he said smugly, and her mouth jutted open.
“Not fair! Let me see it.” She reached for it, and he shook his head.
“Nah.”
Narrowing her eyes, she made an irritated sound. “You’re being petty.”
“Don’t care,” he replied with an easy shrug. He truly didn’t. She had been quiet all week, and then she didn’t even remember the idea of animal-roasted coffee was theirs. Now, he wanted nothing more than to piss her off.
“Don’t be a child.” She folded her arms across her chest.
He gave her a pleased smile. “I think I’m going to keep this.”
Her eye twitched. “Fine,” she snapped, going back to her chair. “See if I care.”
Following behind her, he sat down in his seat. As Emmeline went back to typing on her laptop, he opened up the file.
Emmeline’s fingers slowed on her keyboard as she looked over, and he bit back a smile.
“Hmm,” he loudly mused, jotting something down in his notebook.
He pretended to be absorbed by the file, making exaggerated sounds of interest, as if he was discovering groundbreaking information. He could feel Emmeline’s intrigue, her darting glances increasing in frequency.
Thoroughly entertained, he made more notes, smiling to himself as he sensed Emmeline losing her patience.
Until finally she snapped.
“Give it to me!” she said, holding out her hand.
Luke stood, stepping away from her with the file. “Why should I do that?” he asked.
“You’ve had it for long enough.” Emmeline stood as well, glaring as she reached for the file.
