Page 6

Chapter Six

JACK

I was in such a funk about this trip and having to break my plans with Holly that I couldn’t concentrate on the paperwork in front of me. I’d brought last night’s leftovers for lunch. Hopefully, I’d have more appetite today than I did last night after I cooked it. I picked up my lunch cooler and walked to the staff lounge, hoping it would be empty. Instead, I got the opposite. It was occupied, albeit by only one person—the one person I’d successfully avoided all morning.

Ava glanced up from her salad. I ignored her and walked straight to the microwave. I planned to heat my lunch and leave so we wouldn’t have to sit in awkward silence in the cramped lunchroom.

“I sent you an email this morning,” she said as I stared stupidly into the microwave.

“Haven’t looked at my emails. I’m sure it was something riveting.”

“I’m booking the flights and buses for the trip, but I need the names of your team members.”

“Still trying to talk people into going. Not to be insulting, but your team of rug rats are not exactly quality researchers.”

“And how is that not insulting? Seems to me the grant society thought they were quality enough to award them the money for this trip.”

The microwave dinged. I opened it and pulled out my lunch.

“Hold on, did you just cook fish in the microwave?”

“Wow, brownie points on the nose skills, Lo.”

“Everyone knows the unwritten rule that you do not cook fish in the microwave in a shared lunchroom. How am I supposed to enjoy my salad with that stink floating around the room?”

“If it’s an unwritten rule, then it is not a rule at all. It’s just someone’s opinion.” I turned around, pulled a fork from my lunch cooler and plunged it into the breaded fish.

Her chair scraped the floor. She walked over to the paper towel dispenser, pulled a pen out of her pocket and hastily scribbled something on a towel. She walked over and held the piece of paper up right in front of my face. “Heating fish in the staff microwave is against the rules.” She slapped it down on top of the microwave. “There, now it’s a written rule. Not that it does anything to help now. And there are no windows in this closet space they call a lounge.”

“Hmm, maybe you should move to a different university. One where the lunchroom is bigger and where coworkers have the decency not to cook fish in the microwave.” She was tall, but I had a few inches on her. I stared at her. She stared back, unflinching. It was hard to deny the fact that she was incredibly beautiful, but that didn’t make her any less annoying.

I held my ground. It was our usual game of chicken where we stared harshly at each other. “Maybe you’re the one who should find a new school. I’m not the one stomping around like an angry bear all the time.”

I chuckled. “So, I’ve gone from Scrooge to an angry bear. Think I like that better.”

“No, you know what? You’re right. It’s a total insult to bears. It’s back to Scrooge, a despicable, crotchety old man.” After she said it, I noticed the slightest hint of a smile due to the absurdity of the whole conversation. I felt my own mouth tip just slightly but made sure not to show any amusement. “If you can find any way to talk Brimley out of having to include you and your team of lofty scholars ,” she said with a posh accent and a haughty lift of her chin that was undeniably cute, “then you’d see me doing an Irish jig all the way to Costa Rica. Otherwise, I need those names by the end of the day or the three of you will have to find your own way to the rainforest.”

With that, she turned and walked back to her salad. She sat down, crinkled her nose, grunted in annoyance and started packing up her lunch.

“I heard that about you.” I regretted it the second it left my mouth, but the fuse had been lit.

Ava looked up with those gemstone-colored eyes. “Heard what?”

“‘I need those names by the end of the day,’” I mimicked with a shake of my hips. I picked up the “no fish” rule she’d written as further evidence. “I’ve heard that you always get your way. You think because you’re smart and ‘easy on the eyes,’” I said with an eye roll to pretend like I wasn’t on board with that assessment, “that you can get what you want.”

“You’re so full of—never mind—you know how to finish that sentence.” She shoved her salad into the lunch bag. “What do you mean you heard it? Who have you been talking to?”

“My friend, Zach Edmonton, he said you take control of a research site, and you don’t like to take orders from anyone.”

A laugh shot from her mouth. “Oh, that’s what your pal Zach told you, is it? I’m sure he wasn’t biased about his opinion. I broke things off with him because he stood over me and criticized everything I did. Somehow, he thought that the two of us starting a relationship meant that he had complete control over my life. But you know what—it doesn’t matter. You think what you want.” She picked up her lunch. “I need those names by the end of the day, otherwise you and your team can swim to Costa Rica for all I care.” She swept past me, then stopped. “Oh, and if you talk to your good buddy, tell him I stick by my statement. He’s a lousy kisser.”

She left the room. “Well, Jack, that went about as well as a skate across thin ice,” I muttered under my breath. I had no idea why I brought up Zach. Maybe I just liked to see that fire in her eyes when she got angry. I planned to have one more round with Brimley before I gave in and accepted my fate.