Page 36 of Perfect Assumption

I look longingly at the food in front of me. “I’m really hungry, Lynne. Can I get through a few courses first?”

“No.” And Lynne immediately begins talking about stock futures.

* * *

By the timeI leave Lynne to head back to LLF, I have a vicious headache. It’s talking about money. As I walk back to the office, I debate calling my sister and telling her I need the rest of the afternoon off when a text comes in from my brother-in-law.

Just sayin’ – Becks,followed by a fireworks emoji.

I type quickly back before picking up my pace.I’m on my way back.

Good. Sooner rather than later would be preferable.

Why?

Can’t say. It pains me to say it, but it’s urgent. Get here, ASAP

Hand the phone back to my brother in law, Becks, I joke.

Ha ha. Funny. This is serious. For once, I’m not inclined to throw him out a window.

D, windows are sealed shut, I remind him.

Good, if the urge should ever arise again, it will hurt more when I finally manage to shove him through it.

I typeLOLand increase my pace.

Entering the building near Rockefeller Center, I wave to the security guard before jumping onto the elevator. Mentally bracing myself for what I’m about to walk into, I don’t realize someone else is already on. Automatically, I press the button to close the door when I hear an out-of-breath voice. “Can you press the button for our floor, Ward?”

Shit. Fuck. No. This is not what I need right now.

Turning slightly, I find Angie in a black coat that does nothing to show off her figure. Then again, I’ve rarely seen her in anything that has. The dim overhead light from the elevator sets highlights off in her windblown red hair. “Angie. Coming back from lunch?” Even I cringe at how superficial I sound.

“Hardly,” she grumbles.

“Leaving it a bit late? Did Becks cause problems again?”

Angie’s lips form a moue of confusion. It draws my attention to them. “It constantly amazes me how you can be related to your sister.”

“What do you mean?”

But I have no one to blame but myself for her attitude. I step out and hold the door for her, only then realizing her arms are overloaded with a tray full of drinks. “Crap. Let me take those for you.”

“Wow. Such a gentleman,” she drawls as she passes by. My heart plummets as she treats me to her usual blank mask. “Don’t bother yourself.” She arrives at our office door and shifts the drinks so she can lift her overloaded arms to fling the door in our direction.

I follow her. “I did offer assistance,” I remind her.

She ignores me as she carefully sets down the drinks and bags on the desk. Picking up her desk phone, she presses an extension. “Hey. I have everyone’s lunch here. Just give me a moment to get my coat hung up.” Disconnecting, she whirls around and hangs up her jacket. On her way back to her desk, she addresses my comment. “Ward, I don’t pretend to make more of what happened between us than what it was—a kiss. Maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, maybe you regret it, but that’s not what today’s about.”

“What’s happening?” I ignore her reference to our kiss, something I don’t want to forget, ever.

“Today, the world’s gone mad for a roomful of people I care about. To add to that, I—and everyone in the vicinity—gets blasted with your attitude again? You run hotter and colder than my plumbing.”

I wince. “I apologize.”

Her laugh is frail. “You’re good at that—doing something sweet, saying the right things when you want something, aren’t you? But right now, you’re making me reconsider taking a chance on the things I fear letting get too close.”

While I’m left to find the right words to try to piece together the situation I put myself in with Angie and the one occurring at work, she plucks out a coffee from the tray she was balancing and hands it to me. “Here, your sister ordered this for you,” she manages before she gathers the remaining drinks on the tray and two bags and makes her way into the inner sanctum, calling out, her voice husky, “Who’s hungry?”