“Hey, I couldn’t help falling over myself. You stared right at me just as I was about to casually bump into you. You completely ruined my whole accidental segue into a conversation thing.”
“I know, I know. But I do feel I’ve since made reparations.”
“You didn’t need to. Though, man, youreallyhave. The stuff you’ve done here alone…”
He glanced around his handiwork, in a way that suggested he didn’t think much of it. “It’s really nothing. It took me all of five minutes—and the window thing waspretty selfish, truth be told. I mean,spending time in the arctic tundra was never really a major goal of mine. I’m more of a light jacket in eighty-degree weather kind of guy.”
More joking, she thought. But this time, she didn’t draw attention to it.
She just kept going, in the hopes that he would too.“And I’m guessing you have a good excuse for the mats, too,” she said, and sure enough, he followed her.
Like he couldn’t help himself, once he got going.
“Well see, that’s the other thing about me. I’m really not into getting cholera from a floor.”
“I seriously doubt you could get cholera from this floor.”
“Are you kidding? I think I have choleranow.The floor looked at me, and that was it, I was fucked. I would say save yourself, but I’m pretty sure your feet are already glued to the sticky surface.”
He waved at the offending thing, but she didn’t look down.
She was too busy watching his face, for all the tiny hints of expression.
The way he looked faintly surprised at himself, every time he cracked a joke. The constant quirk of his upper lip, whenever she batted a comment back.It was nothing really, yet more exciting than most people saying a thousand revealing things. And of course, that only made her want to do it more. She couldn’t banter with guys she’d bantered with a million times before, but with him, it was easy. More than easy.
Addictive, she thought. Then hot on its heels:safe.
“I’ll concede that itisincredibly sticky. Like a million kids made it out of half-eaten lollipops,” she said, and he nodded as if she’d said the most serious thing in the world.
“That was also my suspicion.”
“I think I even smell strawberry flavor.”
“Actually that might be the air freshener I sprayed. The place stank like an old toilet; it was a whole thing. Only problem is, now I think it smells kind of like a fruit tree grew in a sewer.”
“The lesser known sequel toA Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” she said, and expected that lip quirk. That slight flash of light through his dark as midnight eyes.
But instead, he gave her something so surprising she wasn’t even sure what it was, at first. It sounded like he was coughing. Like he’d gotten something caught in his throat, and needed to hack it out. Then he seemed to get hold of the sound and yank it back, and she knew. He hadlaughed. Not a huff of amusement—a full blown laugh, riddled with rust but still so sweet, it actually made her heart jump.
Especially, when that confusion flickered over his features.
When he sort of wriggled his jaw, as if the sensation wasthatunfamiliar to him.
God, if this was his reaction to it, how often did he laugh or smile?Never, she thought and immediately wanted to make him do it again. At the very least, she wanted to reassure him:it’s cool to do that any time you want.But of course, by the time she got around to it, he was already trying to shift things in another direction altogether.
“Okay, so you want to get started with this?” he asked.
He even clapped his hands together, like a full stop on any sentence she wanted to say before she actually got chance to say it.No more, that hand clap said.
And she felt the least she could do was obey his wishes.
“I do. I have no ideahowto get started with it, but I’m ready to learn.”
“You just tell me what you wanna know, and we’ll go from there.”
“Yeah, but maybe what I want to know is super crazy.”
The idea of the masked man on his knees flashed behind her eyes—strong enough that she was sure he could see it. He eyed her carefully, steadily, and when he finally spoke his words seemed to confirm her suspicion.“I’d imagine it’s moreabout stopping people who want to hurt you than dodging a handshake.”
