Page 23 of Lumi

I groaned. “Give me the key. We’ll have to change hands while driving.”

“No, don’t be silly. I’ll drive.”

Unhappy with the situation, I pushed out my chest.

“Stop pouting Damian. Did you think this would be easy?”

“Fine.” Moving to the passenger side, I opened the door. “Ye’ll have to climb in this way. Be careful and don’t scratch the leather, please.”

Lumi rolled her eyes and crawled over my seat to the driver’s side with me following.

She was quiet as we drove.

“What’s wrong? Is yer social anxiety kicking in?”

“Stop making it sound like I’m socially inept. I may not enjoy meeting new people or social situations in general, but I go to the gym twice a week, and I’m among people every day at work.”

“I never said that ye were socially inept, but we’re doin’ this experiment because of your social anxiety, remember?”

“I remember just fine.”

“Are ye always this surly in the mornings?”

“I’m not surly!” Lumi kept her eyes on the road. “I just don’t feel the need to talk every second.”

I was quiet for a moment before I muttered, “That’s a shame because ye’re one of the few that I could listen to for hours.”

Her eyes met mine with a questioning glance.

“It’s true. I meant it when I said that ye’re bloody smart, and what I like about ye is that ye talk about other things than most women. Ye’re eloquent, and I’ve learned a lot from our discussions.”

“Thank you.”

There was another moment of silence before I added, “Of course, ye had a fair point that we use and practice different skill sets for our work. Book smarts wouldn’t be enough in my line of work.”

“Let me guess; you consider street smarts better.”

“I didn’t say that. It depends what ye do with it. But in all honesty, I don’t think ye would survive long at my job, and I’d make a bag of things at your work.” I laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“The thought of ye as a Ban Garda.”

“I would be excellent at it. I have a natural authority and can give an icy stare if I need to command respect.”

I kept chuckling. “Ha! Unless ye’re that princess fromFrozen who can build an ice palace on the spot, I don’t think yer icy stare is going to help much. Ye might scare the accountants at Solver Industries, but not the criminals that I deal with.”

When Lumi and I walked into the gym, I raised my left hand to greet Old Brenna and the other staff members at the desk. The way their eyes widened when they spotted the handcuffs that linked Lumi to me was funny.

“Wud ya get outta,” old Brenna exclaimed. “What is this?” She threw her hands out and winked at me.

“It’s an experiment.”

In no time, the regulars and the staff gathered around us, asking questions.

“How long do you have to keep them on?”

“How long have you had them on?”