As we threaded our way through the hectic airport crowd, I shot him a skeptical look.
He took it in good humor. “Man, I reallyhaven’twon you over, have I?”
“Don’t take it personally.”
“Hard not to. I’ve just always worked to be the type of guythat people like. It’s my whole thing. My superpower. And here you are…human kryptonite.”
Oh, sothiswas why I didn’t like him. Not because he was too sexy. Not because he knew nothing about specifically coding sex toys. And not because he contributed to the mess of a deal with Mr. Ose.
It’s because he was toonice. Most people who met me got my “Oh, she’s intense and doesn’t want to talk about anything but work and her lunch order” thing within seconds. He was persistent. Even when he was calling mehuman kryptonite(which, rude but true), it didn’t feel like an insult. It felt like a self-own—like he was disappointed inhimselfthat he couldn’t find a way to reach me.
I had a hard time dealing with him not because I wanted to push him away, but because he made me want to keep him close. Or, you know, closer than I let other people get, anyway.
“I like to keep things professional,” I said lightly.
“Right. About that…I know it couldn’t have been easy, having me chained to your side all week.”
“What? No, it wasn’t a problem at all—”
His turn to flatten his gaze. “Scout, you had to explain to me what Ben Wa balls are. Jesus, what did you do to Clara to deserve such a cosmically bad punishment?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. He was funny, too. Maybe it was hypocritical, coming from an engineer, but I hadn’t expected that from the computer nerd.
Not today, anyway. For some reason, I couldn’t hold back a joke of my own:
“I accidentally ate one of those twenty-dollar cookies Clara saves for her cheat day. I’m surprised she didn’t try to send me to the Hague.”
He laughed, and I felt it all the way down to my toes.
When was the last time I’d made someone besides Claralaugh? In the office, I led my team with a detached, hyperprofessional air. I kept everyone at a distance besides my boss, and I only kept her close because once upon a time, she’d met me at my worst and decided to hire me anyway.
It felt nice to make him laugh.
I shook off the feeling. Must have just been my brain’s final, lingering sex chemicals in the last flashes of their half-lives.
“Actually, I think she sent you here to help me make the sale. You were great with Mr. Ose.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, like I said, like you’venoticed, I need a guide dog for human interactions. You were a very good service animal.”
There I went again with another joke. Maybe Hudson was just being nice, but he laughed again.
“Maybe, except for the part where I told him the one thing he didn’t want to hear. And I don’t think Clara sent me to guide-dog you. Clearly she loves your work. I think she sent me along so I could learn more about the industry. I mean, why would she send me to close with Mr. Ose? I’ve never even used a sex toy before.”
I nearly tripped into the girls’ volleyball team shuffling ahead of us. “Wait, so not only have you neverworked ona sex toy before, you’ve neveruseda sex toy before either?”
“Nope.”
There was going to be an entire true crime docuseries about what I would do to Clara when I saw her at the office tomorrow.
“Actually,” he said, a note of optimism creeping back into his tone, “I wanted to talk to you about that.”
Don’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.
“I’m not really familiar with this stuff. This sex toy stuff,” he continued. “Not the way you are.”
My jaw dropped. His eyes widened.
