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“Why didn’t they take you with them?”
“I cramped their style.”
The fact that he says it so matter-of-factly makes his words that much more chilling.
“Enough about my childhood. What’s one bad decision, outside of this one, that you’ve made?”
I consider, for the briefest moment, telling him. After all, he just opened up to me in a big way. But the waitress saves me from making the decision. We order this time, and Hayden asks for another drink. And when she walks away, I rush to change the topic.
“So how did you meet Mr. DeLuca?”
Hayden gives me a look of amusement.
“Enzo? I think we’re past formalities, don’t you?”
His words, coupled with his tone, set off warning bells. Ones I can’t ignore.
“Maybe. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.”
“No?”
God, he’s cocky.
“No. And you know it.”
“Hmmm.”
What the hell kind of response is that? For some reason it freaks me out, and I find myself blurting, “Honestly? I have no idea what I was thinking. When I texted back. Or met you today.”
“You weren’t.”
A breeze brushes a strand of hair on my cheek and onto my lip. I open my mouth and peel it off. The look on Hayden’s face reminds me of how badly I’m screwing myself.
“And neither was I. If someone you worked with walked in here right now, what would happen?”
“Depends. Do they like me?”
He thinks about that. “No. Definitely not. They’re up for the same promotion as you and have a vested interest in taking you out.”
That makes me smile. “We typically don’t take each other out in my office. There’s some backstabbing, maybe. Posturing, definitely. But you make it sound like someone will be ordering a hit on me.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
I wait as the waitress comes back with Hayden’s beer.
“No, I’m not.” At least not that question.
His gaze could unbalance a champion Olympic gymnast simply standing on the beam.
“They could tell my boss. Who would probably ask what the meeting was about.”
“So no big deal?”
“I mean, it’s not a crime. And we’re not talking about your application.”
“But we could be.”
He’s right. “Yes, we could be. But my boss trusts me.” And I’m not going to whittle away that trust, like I did in Maryland. “I go on multiday site visits with sponsors all the time. There’s no exact rule about this.”
