“Yes,” he replies, greeting me with a curt nod.
“We’re looking forward to having you,” she says warmly. “If you need anything, you can let us know.” Her phone starts vibrating in her pocket and she checks the screen. “It’s my better half—I should take this.”
She gives him an apologetic smile and then ducks out of ourconversation as she answers the phone, leaving Ryan and me alone together. Traitor.
“So,” he begins.
“So,” I reply.
“We need to make this work,” he says, lowering his voice so no one can hear.
I wrinkle my nose at him. “Makewhatwork?”
“Us. Together. Sitting next to each other. Being on the same team.” He lets out a long sigh. “Clearly, you’re still upset about what happened, even though it was a long time ago and I think that—”
“Excuse you,” I hiss, “I amnotstill upset about what happened.”
He snorts. “Oh, really.”
“Really.”
“Because from what I can tell from our recent interactions, you still have a lot of hostility toward me,” he says, scowling.
“That’s not because of what happened, Ryan,” I say crossly.
“Then why is it?”
“Perhaps your general personality annoys me.”
He rolls his eyes. “Okay. That’s mature.”
“You know, you’ve hardly been lovely and sweet toward me in our recent interactions,” I point out. “Maybeyou’rethe one who bears a grudge.”
“Why wouldIbear a grudge?”
“I don’t know. I won’t pretend to understand how your scheming mind works.”
“Harper,” he says quietly, pinching the top of his nose as though he’s trying to keep his temper, “can we at least becivil? So that both of us don’t dread going into the office every day? Can you forget about what happened and—”
“As far as I’m concerned, nothing ever happened,” I snap, looking him right in the eye.
A flash of emotion crosses his expression, but I can’t quite work out what it is. Hurt perhaps, or regret? Maybe confusion. It’s gone as quickly as it came.
“Great,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Why do you keep doing that?” he growls impatiently.
“Doing what?”
“Youhaveto have the last word whenever I speak to you.”
“Maybe it’syouwho always has to have the last word and that’s whymyhaving the last word pisses you off so much,” I observe smugly.
