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When we reach the highway, he grabs my hand and links his fingers with mine.
“You should learn how to drive a car, Piper, you know, for emergencies and stuff.”
I run a fingernail along his hairy but corded forearm. I’ve wanted to do this since that day in the elevator. “How sure are you I don’t know how?”
The side of his mouth curls up. “You always ride shotgun, and your free parking space is always empty.”
“Oh my God, Parker. How long have you been watching me?”
His face splits into a huge grin. “Long enough to know you don’t like going out on weekends unless it’s for groceries. Your favorite colors are pastels—pastel pink, pastel yellow, pastel blue. You don’t wear black. You like high heels and don’t own any flats except a well-worn pair of rainbow flip-flops. You never have food deliveries, and your online orders are minimal.”
Parker squeezes my hand. “How am I doing so far?”
I lean back in his plush seat and laugh softly. “That’s so creepy, but is it weird that it’s turning me on? Just how obsessed are you with me?”
“Good question.” He runs his tongue along his bottom lip, his forehead creasing. “I guess part of the reason was because you kept ignoring me, and I took it as a challenge. I wonder if I’m gonna miss that feeling.”
“What feeling?”
“A one-sided obsession. An unrequited love.”
“Are you gonna get bored now that you already have me?”
He levels me with a dark look. “Never. With Thor as my witness, I promise you that the only time you ever have to scream is when I’m buried balls-deep inside you.”
I smack his arm, and he just laughs. “Okay, seriously. You don’t like driving?”
I take a deep breath and look out the window, at the other cars, pedestrians, and shops lining the street. “No. It gives me anxiety. Honestly, I’ve never gotten around to applying for a driver’s license. Maybe one day I will, and I’ll buy those cool self-driving cars.”
“Cool and self-driving cars don’t belong in the same sentence, baby. Now as someone whose love for muscle cars runs deep, I am deeply offended. Respectfully, get out.”
We both burst out laughing, and my chest constricts when I realize I’ve never been this happy. Never. Not when I graduated at the top of my class, not when I received multiple scholarship offers, not when I got a job offer straight out of college, not when I got promoted to a senior position barely a year after being hired.
I always threw 100% of my focus and attention to my goals, and growing up in a household with parents who thought it was financially unwise to go to college, I only had one goal—to succeed and prove them wrong.
But… I have to admit. It’s been a lonely couple of years.
Sure, my officemates and bosses celebrated with me at work, but I always came home to a quiet, empty home, not even Fifi to keep me company.
Parker was right. I spend most of my weekends cooped up in my apartment—reading, watching movies, binging TV shows. If I have the energy to go out, I attend festivals and food bazaars alone. Always alone.
It crossed my mind more than once that perhaps something was wrong with me, and maybe I’d been a bitch to others. I mean, Parker is proof of that.
In hindsight, I don’t even know why I found him annoying. He’s only ever been nice and kind. It’s just that Parker had the audacity to be consistent no matter how many times I tried to be antagonistic toward him.
Speaking of Parker…
He makes me laugh, calls me out on my bullshit, and challenges me. I like it. I like it way too much. But more than that, I can let my guard down around him. I don’t have to be anyone else but myself, even if it’s someone who’s so far from being perfect.
“Piper? Hi. Listen, I’m sorry about what happened last Friday. I was drunk and stupid.” Brent stands in front of my desk in the office, hands buried in his pockets, looking anywhere but me.
I don’t have time for this. I have so much work to do, it’s already late, and the last thing I want is this asshole interrupting me. He’s already gotten on my last nerve.
With my fingers steepled in front of me and resting on my desk, I glare at him. “What do you want me to say, Brent?”
He shifts on his feet, throws his head back, and swallows hard. He’s a slime through and through. It’s oozing out of his pores. “I need you to withdraw your complaint from HR.”
Ah, so that’s why he’s here. It’s not to apologize for his behavior but because he doesn’t want to suffer the consequences of his actions. I should’ve expected it. “Why should I? I didn’t lie. It happened, didn’t it?”
