Page 29 of The Emma Special

James rolled the sleeves of his button-up shirt. “Lots and lots of copies. I’ll work on the first exhibit if you’ll spread out all the binders and stick them in with the correct cover sheet.”

“Cover sheets. Got it,” Emma said with a salute. That she could handle.

Time passed quickly as they turned into a well-oiled assembly line. James passed her the individual exhibits, already hole-punched by the high-tech copier, and she slid them into the binders. After two hours of passing papers around, James pulled his phone out of his pocket.“What do you want for dinner? I’ll have something delivered.”

The twenty-three dollars in her bank account let out a collective whine. She’d planned to be home for dinner so she could share Katie’s leftovers from The Fountain Bistro. “I’m fine. I had a big lunch.”

James didn’t lift his chin, but his intense stare called her out. “You had tacos. That’s not a big lunch.”

Shoot. He’d bought her lunch too. She couldn’t accept two meals in one day. That was more than any man had ever spent on her during a date, and this wasn’t a date.

She clicked open the rings of a binder. “I have some crackers in my purse. Thanks for the offer.”

“Crackers are not dinner,” James said, tapping on his phone. “Pizza will be here in twenty minutes.”

Drat. She loved pizza. Resisting that cheesy goodness was beyond her fortitude.

When the pizza arrived, they took a break to eat. She accepted a slice of pepperoni pizza with a grateful “thank you,” despite the urge to refuse.

She was only human.

The guilt sat on her shoulder like a gargoyle. She’d overlooked James in high school, and he’d been nothing but kind to her ever since the day he picked her up off the side of the road. Today, he was giving her tacos and pizza, and she had nothing to offer him in return.

Her life was a series of IOUs. She was a fully grown adult, but she still needed help every time she turned around. Every penny she earned was promised to someone else before it even hit her bank account. Allison pretended she didn’t buy Emma’s drink every week, Katie pretended she loved lending her nice clothes, Summer pretended Emma was a product tester for her high-end salves and lotions sold at her shop.

She’d always lived paycheck to paycheck. But sooner or later the IOUs would topple over and crush her. Owing people sucked, and she didn’t want to add James to the imbalance of her life.

“You okay?”

Emma blinked out of her spiral. How long had he been watching her eat pizza like it was her last meal?

“Peachy. Why do you ask?”

James shrugged. “You haven’t said much in the last hour.”

“I said thank you for the pizza.” She held up her half-eaten slice. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“It’s nothing. I’m glad you were able to stay and help me this evening. Trials aren’t as fun as TV makes them out to be.”

A ding came from James’s pocket, and he continued chewing as he read something on the screen.

Emma picked a pepperoni off the slice of pizza and ate it by itself. “Do you usually win trials?”

When James didn’t answer, she glanced over to find him staring at his phone.

“Jamesy Boy, you okay?”

He slowly shook his head. “You’re not going to believe this.”

She lowered the pizza to her plate. “It sounds like I’m not going to love it either.”

James pressed a hand to his forehead. “I can’t believe I did this. We’ve been copying the wrong file.”

Chapter 10

The Emma Special

Emma’s mouth fell open. “What? How?”