Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“You’ve been through a lot.”
He knows that because boundaries and personal privacy notions don’t exist for him, but I can’t even summon up the same amount of my usual annoyance.
“I like you better when you’re more the asshole type, just an FYI.”
I quickly get the sandwich together, butter the bread, and set it onto the still-hot pan. I adjust the gas stove, taking care because cooking with gas is a whole different level and there’s only so much char I can handle. Also? Cooking with gas seems less dangerous than the electric current Thorn and I seem to have drawn. He came in all his prickly, Thorny glory, but now he’s just…I don’t know what he is, and that’s a problem.
“Anyway,” I say with my back turned so I can’t see if his eyes are doing sparkly things or if his face has gone soft, “so have you. Mine’s just public knowledge.”
“Sorry,” he has the grace to mutter. “Sorry, the job called for it.”
“Yeah.” I flip the sandwich around long before it’s even time. “I get it.” Doubly, what the farge has this man done with the regular Thorn? Apologies? The man I know didn’t apologize to anyone for anything. I think I like lumberjack/office nerd Thorn 2.0.
A beat of silence and hot eyes on my back. I’m so painfully easy when it comes to not wanting to make others uncomfortable that it’s natural for me to break first. “I wasn’t really going to invite anyone here. I would never do that. As someone who grew up with little but a heck of a lot of love, I never aspired to this level of wealth. I don’t have an opinion on it. Others can do what they wish with their money. It’s not for me, but at the same time, I would never disrespect or ruin someone else’s property.”
“I didn’t figure that you would.”
My lips wobble, but in a smiley kind of way, not as an indicator of future bawling. “Yeah, right. That’s why you’re here now when your note told me to make myself at home for the duration of the week because you wouldn’t be present.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t be here.”
“It was heavily implied.” Left with the note was a credit card, a phone, and the name and contact number of a driver. “I get it. I forced myself here. But you forced me to take a vacation. No choice. We were at an impasse in our vendetta.”
“Is that what this is? A vendetta?”
“In our life ruining competition.”
He exhales loudly and grunts a little. I should not be starting to figure him out and bracing for the caveman noise only to find that predictability slightly endearing. That would be called letting my guard down, and I just can’t do that. It’s so, so, SO much easier to be butting heads and clashing wits with this man than to think of anything else. At the same time, I’m not naturally a fighter. I’m a nice person, and I’ve put real effort into truly becoming that way.
“Now that you’re here, are you going to stick around? You do know it’s bad manners and just straight-up weird to invite someone to your home and then ghost them.” I don’t even know what I want the answer to be.
“Invite is a strong word. So is ghosting,” he responds noncommittedly.
“I knew you were close by. You do security for a living, and most of the time, you’re pretty good at it. I expected six thousand and eighty-five cameras except in the places that might be considered creepy because it’s not your style to push past people’s boundaries and disrespect their personal privacy.”
“It’s my job to safeguard that.”
“Yes. So…I’m sorry I had to lie to get your attention.”
“It’s just part of the game of who can annoy the other more. I’ll cede this round to you. I didn’t believe you’d actually do it, and I wasn’t planning on coming back here. I would eventually have talked to you over the cameras if required, but…”
He sounds as baffled as I am that he’s here.
I’m not surprised he is, but what I am surprised at is the little tickle in my belly—alright, fine, lower—that tells me I was pushing past annoying him into wanting to see him. And not just because I forced my way to be at his house either. But more because my va-jay is a secret fangirl who is fangirling so hard.
“I do have work to get back to.”
“Damage control, fixing my life, fixing your life, fixing everyone else’s lives, stopping them from needing fixing in the first place, and keeping the world going round, I get that. If you live here, then this is likely where you work from when you’re not…on the ground, or whatever you call it.”
“Office work never suited me. It’s fine for a little while and somewhat inevitable, but I prefer to be out there in the field, taking jobs like everyone else. My salary has no correlation to what I love doing. Death before desks and all that.”