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He swiveled in his chair, bracing, frowning, putting every ounce of effort into looking as unapproachable as he could.
It was difficult with the meowing melody ricocheting through his ears.
He reached over and shut it off. Then he removed his headphones.
His eyes caught on the silver hoops in her ears. And the slope of her neck. And the soft smile she was offering him that hit him in all the places it shouldn’t.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked.
He waved a hand at the leather couch.
She sat down and took a breath. Her eyes skated over the control panels and along the walls of switches and equipment.
Asa didn’t want to have to ask. He wished she would just tell him what she wanted so he could get back to work.
Even though his work was done. She didn’t know that.
“What are you working on?” she asked, not starting where she wanted to start.
“A cat food commercial,” he said with a sigh. He flicked a switch and the jingle played through the speaker.
Zara’s light laugh tickled his eardrums and he turned away from her pretty smile.
“I like it,” she said. “It’s cute.”
He rolled his head to the side, stretching his tight neck.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked quietly.
He swiveled around to face her.
Should he lie and say yes? It might be easier to let her believe that his anger is why they couldn’t be friends. Why they couldn’t even be acquaintances. Why they couldn’t even share a cab.
But he had that overzealous need to be honest.
Thank you, trauma.
She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, folding her hands together. “I get it. What happened after…” She looked away and shook her head. “You didn’t deserveanyof that. I’m sure it didn’t make life very easy for a while. So I get it, why you’d want to stay away from me."
His eye twitched.
She thought he was mad about what they’d said abouthim?
Like he was some whiny little Logan Black crybaby?
Fuck that noise.
“I wasn’t mad about what they said about me,” he said. “I was mad about what they said aboutyou.You didn’t deserve that.” He snorted in disgust and crossed his arms. “You never deserve that. It’s bullshit.”
“You don’t deserve it either,” she said.
He had no reply to that because he disagreed but didn’t want to argue about it.
Her pink tongue slid along her lower lip as she studied him. “So, you’renotmad at me?”
He opened his mouth and then shut it.
They stared at one another in silence for a minute.
