Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 108846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“Hey.” Jean slides into my cube, strategically blocking my view of David’s desk hidden behind a tall gray divider. “How’s it going?” She’s always been soft-spoken but now she sounds like she’s consoling a grieving widow.
When I started working at Wolf, I didn’t think much of my counterpart. All she talked about was her sewing club, knitting scarves, and her four cats. Fast-forward two years, I consider her a friend. She’s certainly one of the few people around here who I truly trust. Her only flaw? Her colossal crush on Connor.
“I’ve been better.” I sink back into my chair. “So, I guess everyone knows?” Because I’ve felt the prying glances all morning.
The sympathetic smile I get in return is answer enough.
Bitterness and hurt flares. “He’s such a jerk.” How do you do this to someone?
“Big jerk,” Jean agrees, her arched eyebrows disappearing behind a heavy, dark bang.
“Do you know when they started talking?” Because Eliza and I haven’t crossed paths once. She’s not part of our circle.
Jean hesitates. “I heard something this morning.” If there’s been any talk, Jean would have caught it. She’s quiet, unobtrusive. She’s a human fly. Even if people notice she’s there, they assume she’s not listening.
“Like?” I push.
With a covert scan over her shoulder for eavesdroppers, she leans in and whispers, “Remember that Thursday night when a bunch of people went out to the pub after work and ended up at that club?”
“Yes,” I say warily. I have economics on Thursdays so I missed out, not that I would have followed the crowd to their debauchery. “Everyone came in late and reeking of alcohol.” Except for David. He called in sick. Claimed he ate bad sushi.
“Rumor has it David and Eliza left in a cab together. They were pretty close.”
“Define ‘pretty close.’” Did my coworkers watch him cheat and say nothing to me?
She winces. “It didn’t sound like they were only sharing a ride.”
Her words are a punch to my stomach. But this is all beginning to click. Aside from a text to tell me he was lying low on account of his food poisoning, I didn’t hear from David all weekend, and when I offered to go over to take care of him, he was quick to hide behind explosive diarrhea.
Was it all a lie?
And come to think of it, he’s been acting strangely since. Distant. That’s what inspired me to declare my feelings.
Jean stares at me like a scientist with a bug under her microscope on which she’s conducting an experiment.
How will this organism react to the truth?
“Whatever.” My eyes sting with threatened tears. Does it matter when they hooked up? I told David I loved him and a week later, he dumped me. We’re over and he’s already moved on, with no qualms about flaunting it in front of my injured heart. “I wish it wasn’t with another staffer. I wish I didn’t have to see it at work.”
Jean’s lips purse. “Well … what about Ronan?”
I frown. “What do you mean? What about him?”
“I don’t know. You sat with the crew guys at lunch, and you, like, never sit with your brother—”
“It had nothing to do with Ronan. I needed to get away from David!” I whisper-hiss. Not that it helped because in the end, he came out there to see her. I veered for Connor and Ronan out of desperation because they were the only faces I recognized and I didn’t want to be that awkward girl standing in the middle of the high school cafeteria, clutching her lunch tray with nowhere to sit. “Why, are people saying I’m hooking up with Ronan?” Damn it, those two may have been trying to get a rise out of me, but they weren’t wrong.
“Most of them are talking about how they want to hook up with him.” She snorts and then quickly covers her nose with her hand, embarrassed. “He’s hot, Ryan. Like, really hot.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” I lie. That angular jaw? Nope. His intense green irises? Nada. The way his full lips kick up at the corner in the slightest, most hidden smile? Does nothing for me.
But I’m not even fooling myself. The truth is, Ronan keeps sliding into my thoughts even though I don’t want him there. I’ve secretly admired that body from the first moment I saw it, even when I was yelling at him about my towel and calling him an STD-laced Neanderthal. It didn’t help that he was so kind to me the other day when he had every right to be a dick after my shower stunt. My first impression of him was way off. He’s not actually that bad.
Jean snorts again.
“If he wasn’t leaving for Alaska, I’m sure everyone drooling over him would get a ride.” Connor always wins, which means this latest scheme to swap Baker for Ronan will work and I’ll have the condo to myself this summer. No complaints there.