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“No, Jesus, please go home,” I gaped. She jumped a little at my outburst. “Wait, does that mean that all these nights you’ve been working late, you’ve been staying because of me?”

“Uhm, yes?” she said uncertainly.

I wanted to punch myself. “No, Marina, when you’re done for the day, you can leave,” I told her. “Just because I’m staying late doesn't mean you have to as well.”

Her mouth dropped into a little ‘o’, her cheeks pink.

“Go home,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She left shortly after that and I stared at my computer screen for a long moment.

Work had become my only distraction, and I’d happily flung myself into every new project, chasing the frenzied rush it brought to my schedule.

“Why am I not surprised that you’re chained to your desk?”

“Because your powers of clairvoyance are astonishing,” I told Reid, not bothering to look up from my computer. “Or you’ve invented a spectacular device that can detect when I’ve been at my desk for more than seven hours in one sitting.”

“Neither, smart ass,” she huffed. “I just so happened to bump into Vincenzo today.”

“How convenient,” I said pointedly, but she shrugged the suggestion off.

“He told me you’d broken things off.”

“He’s not lying.” I sighed.

“What happened?”

“The same as always,” I lied, shifting in my chair. “I got bored and figured it was time to move on.”

“Ah, so who are you seeing now?”

“What?”

“When you get bored, it’s usually because you’ve found a shiny new toy,” she explained. “So, who is it?”

“No one, okay?” I answered, my words a little harsh. “I lost interest, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Bullshit.” Reid smirked. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”

“So what?” I huffed, pressing at the aching hole in my chest. “It was time for Vinny to move on and I was tired of him.”

“Hayden, please be serious,” she said. “You always do this; you always try to lie when you should know better. We’ve been friends forever. You do have someone new, but you won’t let yourself have that, so you’re working through the night like a freight train.”

My shoulders slumped. “Do you have a kink for always being right?” I grumbled, trying to dodge the topic with a feeble attempt at humor. “Is that what gets you off?”

“As a matter of fact, yeah.”

“You’re insufferable.”

She walked over to my desk and sat on the very edge, her arms folded across her chest and her eyes hard. “I didn’t want to have to tell you this.” She sighed. “I can’t believe it’s come to this but… I miss your stupid jokes.”

My startled laugh cut through the silence, getting louder as Reid’s ‘confession’ sank in.

“It must be pretty serious for you to admit you like my dad jokes,” I teased.

“And this is exactly why I didn’t to tell you,” she grumbled. Her phone vibrated in her hand and she checked it with a sigh. “I’ve gotta go, but stop fighting things so hard, okay? Let things happen instead of stepping into the ring with every good thing that comes your way.”

“Welcome back,” Blanca greeted as soon as I stepped foot in the store.