I squared my shoulders and held out a ten dollar bill.
Noah took it, and promptly leaned forward and shoved it back in my purse all the way to the bottom.
“Hey!”
“Afraid it’s lost now?” He grinned, knowing he had me there. I cleaned out my purse about once a year, and it was not pretty.
Just to prove him wrong, I dug around until I found the ten dollar bill between two old envelopes and shoved it into the front pocket of my slacks. My glare was a promise I’d get it back to him later, and he knew it.
He raised one eyebrow. “I’m not taking your money.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Whatever retort he had planned never left his mouth because the elevator dinged, followed by the sound of voices pleasantly chatting. We both peered out to see who it was at the end of the hall.
Elena, in shiny black stilettos and a red flouncy skirt, stepped out of the elevator with the vice president of the company, Curt Holloway.
I whirled around, but Noah was already hiding under my desk.
“How is that going to look better?” I hissed. He was crouched behind a two-inch table leg like a two-year-old playing hide and seek. If they passed by and happened to look in here, he wasn’t exactly invisible.
He reached out for my hand and gave it a little tug. “They won’t come talk to you if they don’t know you’re here.”
I stared him down, debating. He was right. Curt Holloway could talk the paint off of walls, but his victim of choice was Connecting Hearts employees. If they knew I was in here, they’d come talk to me. Forever. “Okay, fine.” I ducked down with him. Ignoring the fact that he was still holding onto my hand, I cocked my head and listened.
Elena was saying something about a news story featuring Connecting Hearts. Were they getting closer or moving farther away? I couldn’t tell.
Noah moved aside for me, so I edged all the way under the desk with him. This was ridiculous. Just like it was ridiculous to notice how my breathing moved in sync with Noah’s, or how soft his hoodie jacket felt against my skin, or that his hand in mine was slightly calloused and warm. It was sort of like getting a hug. A hug for my hand.
“It’s not a crime for you to bring me lunch, even if you said it was for Genesis in accounting.” I whispered.
“That wasn’t the only lie I told to get in here.” Noah unzipped his hoodie jacket and pointed to the visitor badge security gave him. In Sharpie, one of the security guards had written out Huntington McGilicutty the Third.
I snorted and immediately threw a hand over my mouth. Security really needed better training. And maybe a class on detecting goofballs.
I couldn’t hear Elena and Curt anymore, but I stayed put just to make sure. I could handle hiding out with Noah. Being under a desk wasn’t even romantic. The high-traffic carpeting was digging into my knees through my dress slacks, and if I lifted my head all the way, it pressed against the underside of the desk. I was not lingering for the handholding. That was just some strange byproduct of all of this.
“Jen.” Noah’s fingers from his free hand reached up and played with a strand of my hair, but I kept my eyes down, ignoring the way my pulse picked up at his touch. “Jen, I’m gonna make a run for it. I’ll see you after work, okay?”
“Oh. Okay.” I looked up and met his eyes. That was a mistake, because his eyes dipped to my lips before meeting my gaze again, and he smiled, like he knew exactly where that took my thoughts. If he hadn’t dropped my hand right then and crawled out, I totally would have shoved him.
After checking both ways, he grabbed his sunglasses sitting on top of my desk before making a run for it.
I eased out from under the desk and peered around my cubicle just in time to see him dash around the corner, hoodie back up. Dork. Handsome, exasperating dork.
I was in a happy little cloud of denial for a few minutes before reality returned to settle on my shoulders. I swept Noah’s origami shapes into the top drawer of my desk, messages unread. It wouldn’t be good to have to explain where they’d come from to my coworkers. It made me feel productive and powerful for all of three seconds before the rest of my problems hit me one by one.
Should I temporarily move back in with my parents instead of staying with Denver? That would be a long commute, but a less complicated situation. Should I stay with Clarissa until I figured something else out? Maybe I could out-awful her, andshe’dbe the one to move out.
I dropped my face in my palms. You couldn’t just decide to be a villain because the moment called for it. Or at least, I couldn’t.
Sometimes you’re mean to Noah, my brain reminded me.And that’s out of necessity.I sighed. While that might be true, I’d also ended up under a desk holding his hand today. Villains didn’t hold people’s hands. And like it.
Chapter 13 – Noah
Sneaking lunch up to Jenny had been unforgivably risky. Not that I was sorry, but the stress I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in the moment caught up to me as I entered my building and took the stairs two at a time back up to my department.
If Elena and Curt had seen me sitting with Jenny, they would have freaked out, assumed I was meddling, spilling all their dirty secrets. And they’d be partially right. I was going to tell Jenny. Soon.
