Secret Admirer Pact by Bernadette Marie

Author:Bernadette Marie [Marie, Bernadette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 5 Prince Publishing

14

WILL

Again, I hear the TV when I open the door to my apartment. This time, though, it’s not turned off the moment the door opens.

I hang up my coat and messenger bag and step into the living room.

Brandy looks up from her position on the couch.

“Hey,” she says, tucking her legs up under her.

“Hey,” I say, watching her watch me. “How was your day?”

“Good. We had a stellar year, last year, and they treated us to lunch and gave us each a bonus,” she says, smiling.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her smile in my direction. Sure, I had nothing to do with the reason, but she’s talking to me—and smiling.

“That’s fantastic,” I say.

There’s a silence that falls between us, so I move back to my messenger bag, pull out my travel coffee mug, and head to the kitchen.

While I’m standing at the sink washing my mug, Brandy moves into view, standing against the counter, watching me.

“Did you have dinner? I mean, I know you didn’t come directly home from work.”

I bite down on the inside of my cheek and consider my answer. “No. I didn’t have dinner,” I say. If I tell her where I went, this conversation is over. I won’t lie—but I’ll avoid.

I rinse out my travel mug and set it in the drying rack before turning around and pulling the towel off of the oven door and drying my hands.

“I got a big salad at the deli. I only ate half. The other half is in there if you’d like it,” she offers, pointing to the refrigerator.

“Thanks. I just might.”

When she lifts her thumb to her mouth, I know she’s run out of small talk, but she doesn’t want to leave. I don’t want her to leave either, so I move to the refrigerator and pull it open. She’s gnawing on the side of her thumb when I turn back around with the salad in my hand.

Because I can’t stand to watch her cause damage to herself, as she does when she chews on her thumb, I reach up and guide her hand down—something I used to do when she was stressed she and didn’t even know what she was doing.

Brandy blinks hard and tucks her hand behind her. “I didn’t even realize I was doing that,” she says.

“Old habits are hard to break,” I say, wondering if she understands that I mean her biting her finger, and me stopping her.

She looks out toward the TV. “If you had something you wanted to watch on TV, it’s all yours.”

I pull a fork from the drawer, open the salad container, and lean up against the counter. “There’s nothing I was looking forward to watching. In fact, I need to do some work on a code I’m working on,” I say.

She nods. “Work tends to come home with you, doesn’t it?”

I shrug as I fill my fork with lettuce. Yeah, I’m going to eat this, but I’ll need something more later. There’s no way this is going to hold me over, but it’s the principle.

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