The thought comes to me unbidden. Still, I know it’s the truth.
I knew from that first night together in the hotel, just months ago, that I’d failed at my one-night stand. Failed, because you’re not supposed to want your one-night stand to turn into more. But I did then. And I think I do now, even if Harrison can be a grumpy boss-hole sometimes.
Ellie says something beside me, and I don’t even process her words at first because it yanks my attention back to reality—and the fact that I’m about ninety-five percent sure she’s Harrison’s girlfriend.
I think back to the day we went to the building department and stopped to get smoothies. Yeah, he left one for me, but I was with him, so he probably felt like he had to. But I didn’t miss that Ellie was sipping on one that same afternoon—the green one.
There have been a couple of times I’ve seen Harrison talking at Ellie’s desk. Then, on the day of the smoothies, I even heard him laugh. I was in the accounting area, and I heard him guffaw at something she said. Later, while I was still in the room with Leah, they both burst out laughing so loudly I could hear it from twenty feet away.
It stung.
“Delaney, did you hear me?” Ellie asks.
“Shoot, sorry, no. Sometimes I daydream. What did you say?”
“I asked if you were involved with anyone.”
“Oh, God, no. Definitely not.” I vehemently shake my head.
Both women laugh out loud.
“Why not? You’re pretty, cool to talk to. You can’t convince me no one ever asks you out,” Leah says.
“What aren’t you telling us? There’s something…” Ellie teases.
“Nothing. I’m… I’m just really busy with some family issues, that’s all.”
“Oh, and even though I don’t want to admit it, I’m hung up on your boyfriend. Who, funny story, is the same guy I had an amazing one-night stand with just a few months ago.”
Yeah, voicing that thought out loud would probably go over really well.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Harrison
I’m two hours late getting to the office. Okay, I’m technically not late for anything except that I desperately wanted to get back in time to talk to Delaney.
I wrack my brain trying to figure that woman out. It was clear I pissed her off when I acted like a caveman at the building department last week. I thought she had forgiven me, though.
It seemed like it, but maybe I really don’t know how to read women anymore. I scour my memory trying to pinpoint what I misunderstood.
I can’t stand knowing she’s angry at me. I’ve walked by her desk twice since we’ve been back from the building department, and she’s completely ignored me. If I needed more proof, the untouched pink smoothie sitting exactly where I left it on her desk speaks volumes.
Now I have to pull out all the stops. It could backfire, but I’m going to try. I grab my kale smoothie and march out to her desk. She pretends I’m not there, but I’m all in, so I wait. It paysoff when she sighs, looks up at me with an expressionless face, and crosses her arms.
Here goes.
“Never have I ever acted like an asshole and embarrassed my colleague at the Aron Falls Building Department.”
I lift the straw to my mouth and take a sip of the smoothie, never moving my eyes from her face. That’s how I notice the hint of a smile forming at the corner of her mouth.
“You’re playing it wrong,” she says in a quiet voice. Still, she lifts her smoothie, takes a small sip, and places it back on the desk. “You’re supposed to say something you haven’t done. Not what you just did an hour ago.”
I fight a smirk.
“Can I try again, then?”
She nods.
