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"How do I know?" He finishes my question. "Well, I could tell you the long version or simply say that I saw her leaving your office, and she looked equally annoyed. What did you do?"
My jaw drops. "What did I do? Why do you assume that I did something? You should be asking me what she did. Have you ever seen me this unsettled?"
He strokes his chin. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen you this riled up. At least, not since we graduated, and you started encountering some of the biggest assholes in your years of building this company.
What is it about Harper Quinn, our resident cybersecurity specialist, that has gotten under your skin?”
"She called me a stubborn, flightless bird," I air my grievances, expecting Caleb to be as shocked as I was.
Instead, he bursts out laughing,
"Why is that funny?"
"Oh come on, everything. From the fact that she might be the first person to ever stand up to you to the look on your face. You look stunned, like you can’t believe it, instead of annoyed like your voice."
"I don't get your point,” I say, defensively.
"I'm saying that you like her. You like Harper Quinn."
"Did something happen to you this morning?" I inquire.
"Like what?"
I stand up from my chair and go to lay my hand on his head, feeling for warmth. At first, he lets me feel all around his face, then he smacks my hand away.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking to see if you have a fever," I respond, reaching for his head again. "Did you hit your head?"
Caleb stands up to put space between him and me. "I didn't hit my head. Why would you think I have a concussion?"
I glare at him.
"Why wouldn't I, when you are talking nonsense?"
"What?" It hits him five seconds later. "Oh. Oh." He breaks into a loud laugh. "You think I have a concussion because I said you like Harper Quinn?"
"Why else would you say something like that?" I question, returning to my seat. "I can barely tolerate being in the same room with her, and she just called me a stubborn, flightless bird. What does that even mean? And this morning, she purposefully let her two-hundred-pound dog run me down."
Everyone outside the office can hear Caleb's laughter by now, and I am tempted to throw him out of my office, but I know he's going to poke fun at me for being so hot-wired and I refused to hear the truth.
"I think this is a classic case of enemies to lovers."
What is he saying?
"There is no way that woman," I point to the door, "and I would ever become lovers. We are barely working with each other as it is. Once her job is done here, I don't want to see her again. I'm considering moving out of my penthouse, too."
"You're going to have to give me a minute to digest all this information," Caleb says. “I can't have you throwing me curveballs each time I think I might have cracked the code."
I fold my arms, my mouth downturned. “There is no code."
Caleb pulls his chair close to me. "Of course, there is a code. From everything you've just told me, I have deduced that, one, she lives in your building, and I'm guessing it's the apartment below yours that was vacant three weeks ago.”
“Two, she's the same person I sourced to handle cybersecurity for our very secretive project, but the thing is, you two can't stand each other.”
“Three, you ran into her this morning when you went on a run, and she let her dog loose so it could chase you. From the look on your face, I'm thinking you were frightened, and you let it show."
I throw my hands in the air, exasperated. "It was a big dog! Big Furry Dog, and I could see it foaming at the mouth. You see a dog like that running towards you, and you get scared. I tried to act like I was fine and resumed my jogging pace, but it kept barking at me."
