So tall. So handsome. So smart. So kind.
Such a pain in the ass.
He must be stooping, because otherwise she’d only see his chest in that square of glass.
His dark brows had furrowed above those ocean-blue eyes, and he made some sort of weird chin-jerk at her. Oddly enough, she could translate that gesture.
He’d heard something that worried him, even through the door. Which seemed impossible, given both the ambient noise in the library and the single-minded, damnable focus he normally displayed on the desk.
However improbably, though, he’d detected something amiss. And now he wanted to know if she needed help. As if he, the architect of her current despair, the main reason she needed a freaking beach vacation to begin with, could solve her problems.
She sniffed back more tears and waved him away.
When he didn’t budge, she waved him away again.
At that, he pressed his lips together, horizontal lines scored across his high forehead, and slowly, reluctantly, left the window.
She stared after him for a moment.
Single. Thomas was single. Charming in his own way. Exceedingly telegenic, she’d guess.
And she’d seen his upcoming schedule. As soon as the spreadsheet came out every month, she immediately compared her shifts to his. Out of morbid curiosity, of course, and also to confirm once again just how thoroughly she was fucked.
Their schedules were always in sync. Always. No matter how fervently she wished they weren’t, or how late she entered her schedule requests. Somehow, even if she waited until the very last hour, his requests still came in after hers, and whatever he put would mean the two of them were on the desk at the same time.
It was inevitable. Unavoidable. Like choosing the slowest checkout lane at the grocery store.
This month was no different. They were working together almost every shift. And for some bizarre reason, he’d even taken vacation next week, the same week as her.
Maybe it was all a huge coincidence. Or maybe he knew her work ethic would allow him to function as he preferred on the desk—i.e., at the pace of a molasses-coated sloth—and he was gaming the system.
The latter possibility had caused her no small amount of rage over the past few months.
But before then, back when she’d first started at the library, she’d searched for his lean, handsome face in the breakroom and sighed happily when she’d found it. She’d arrived early at work to talk with him about whatever she was reading that day. She’d showed him pictures of her nieces and nephews, and he’d smiled down at the images with such gentleness she’d nearly gone liquid.
She didn’t want to remember. It hurt to remember. But she couldn’t seem to help herself.
And at that moment, something in her brain shorted out.
She cleared her throat. When she opened her mouth again, Professional Librarian Voice rang out, loud as her heartbeat and clear as the Caribbean.
“I do have another question, Cowan.” Inexplicably, her mouth had said that. Her voice. “What would you say if I told you I had a new boyfriend?”
As soon as the last word emerged from her mouth, her face twisted into an instinctive wince, her stomach began to roil, and her skin might as well have burst into flame.
Oh, Jesus. What had she done?
She never spoke without thinking. Ever. So why had she done it now? To representatives of a cable television network, of all people? The two of them were in the entertainment industry, for God’s sake. Savvier and way more sophisticated than a woman like her.
They had to know she was lying. But they weren’t saying anything.
If they remained quiet much longer, Callie was going to throw up.
Confronted with such a brazen falsehood, maybe they’d lost the power of speech. Maybe they’d muted the phone or were communicating via carrier pigeon or semaphore flags about how much they hated her. Maybe they were preparing to hang up on her. She didn’t know, and the uncertainty was killing her.
Finally, Irene broke the silence.
“My, my, my. Callie Adesso, total dark horse.” For the first time in Callie’s memory, the other woman sounded highly entertained. “Didn’t you say you broke up with your ex earlier this morning?”
