Page 70 of Soul Mates: Hercules Valentine and I

“So, Lark…” She narrows her eyes. “What are you hiding?”

I cough as food tries to go down the wrong pipe. She waits until I clear my throat. “I’m not hiding,” I say in a tense voice.

“Why don’t you have a boyfriend? And you don’t talk about yourself much. Not to say you should be narcissistic, but smart people like you…” She raises a finger pointedly. “Not to mention, you’re drop-dead gorgeous on top of having brains, but your kind can hardly go a day without throwing their intelligence in people’s faces. That’s why smart people hate to see other smart people coming.”

I’m not done coughing, thank God. “Why don’tyouhave a boyfriend?” I manage to say.

She points her chopsticks at me. “You first.”

“Because I’m a nerd. Now you.” I drink a sip of warm green tea to soothe my throat.

“You’re not socially awkward, so you’re a not a nerd. You’re brilliant. And brilliant people can’t help themselves. They have to let everybody know they’re brilliant. You don’t talk about college papers you’ve written or published.” She recrosses her legs, sitting up straighter. “I mean, in one day, you’ve given our company a product they couldn’t think up in twenty years. It’s like you’ve dropped in out of nowhere. But you didn’t, because every human has a past. What’s yours?”

I stop chewing moo shu pork. At some point, and very quickly, I have to change the subject.

“Everything about me is boring,” I say in a frank voice. “And I don’t know how intelligent I am.” I look over at her artwork. “I can’t do that. I can’t build a rocket. I can’t perform surgery on a brain. Hell, I can’t even teach coding to a classroom full of fourth graders. But what I can do is create software. I love it. That’s it. That’s all.”

She studies me intently before grunting. “I’ll accept that answer. I guess you’re the first person like you I’ve ever met.” Her smile broadens. “Kudos to me.”

We chuckle together. I feel so relieved that the pressure is off.

“By the way, what were you and Mason talking about in his office this morning? You seemed so tense.”

I stop chewing.

“That bad?” she asks, looking alarmed.

“You.” I say, choosing not to lie again.

Her neck shoots forward as she slaps herself on the chest. “Me?”

I explain the whole budget issue to her and how I will definitely figure out a way to give up as much of my salary as I have to keep her.

“They want to get rid of me?” she asks with the corners of her mouth turned down.

“After today, I mean, you practically imagined the entire GUI forShop-a-Lot. So we need you.”

“What about Mason? Does he want me gone too?”

I expand my smile slowly, relishing what I know to be true. “No. Absolutely not. He was all torn about it. He likesyou, Lark.”

Her frown intensifies as she shakes her head jerkily. “You’re Lark. I’m Lake.”

Don’t panic. I can’t make those kinds of mistakes with someone like Lake anymore.

I shake my head like a rattle. “Did I just call you me?”

“Yes,” she says, chuckling delightedly. She sets her plate on the leather ottoman and springs to her feet. “But that’s okay. I’m sure you got us confused because you’re all clogged up.”

I frown. “Clogged up.”

“Yep.” She takes my nearly empty plate out of my hands. “It’s time to get you unclogged.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Close to Herc

Paisley Grove