He exhales, his shoulders slumping. “Laura, it was a test and you failed it.”
“What? How?”
“You gave me the side you’d picked without discussion, without even asking for a reason.” He tsk-tsks. “And when I provided one, you didn’t call me out on my selfishness.”
I let his unsparing judgment sink in.
“Aw, sweet cheeks, I’ve upset you.” He gathers me into his arms. “I didn’t mean to be harsh. I just wanted you to cut your assertive teeth on something nonrisky.”
“But you said ‘off topic’…”
“It was to trick you into lowering your guard.”
“You bastard!” I snarl at him.
He smiles and hugs me tighter. “We’ll practice more tomorrow, and every day for the rest of the week.”
Why is he doing this?
Is he entertaining himself at my expense? Or is he sincerely trying to help? Could it be that for all his coolness and distance, he’s come to care about me?
A bulb goes off in my head. I could run a test of my own—well, Denise’s test—and find out!
“Since you think I should spend more time on my craft,” I say, “do you mind if I work on a design now? There’s this pendant I started sketching, and I think it’s pretty good.”
“I don’t mind at all. Go for it!”
I grab my sketchbook and pencils. While I sit down at the dining table, Antoine fires up his laptop, balancing the sleek machine on his thighs.
“Taxes,” he explains.
We get to work. My pencil hand doesn’t hesitate. I don’t second-guess myself. The curves of the design flow easily tonight, like they’ve been waiting for this moment. The details of the pendant are sharp and vivid in my mind.
Antoine taps away on his laptop.
Minutes fly by. The soft scratch of pencil against paper and the muffled clicking of the keyboard fill the comfortable silence. Eventually, I shut the sketchbook and lean back in my chair.
Antoine looks up. “Finished?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
Is he going to ask to see it?The pause stretches out, thick with hope and apprehension.
“Want some feedback?” he asks.
Is this him asking…?“You mean you want to see it?”
“I’d love to!”
Did he just pass Denise’s test?“Really? It’s not because you’re being polite?”
He gives me a low-lidded stare. “Do I look like a people pleaser to you?”
“No.”
I can’t stop grinning.He passed it!He passed the time-worthiness test, and I’m way too giddy about it.
God help me.
