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For some reason, when Aaron looked at me with those hard, gray eyes and spoke in that silken voice, my body heated up. Initially, I'd thought it was because he unnerved me, but after much consideration, I realized it was because he also made me…feel. Like when he asked me about my clothes and my hobbies. I couldn't recall the last time anyone had taken interest in me enough to ask such basic but thoughtful questions.
Granted, I kept the rest of the world at arm's length, and Aaron was probably the first person I let get this close to me after my friend, Maddy. But still, no one had even tried to get close. All they'd seen was the wall I'd put up, and they'd backed away.
Which begged the question: Why hadn't Aaron backed away too? What did he want? To be my friend? I had enough of that. One was one too many. Why did he want to know me like he'd said?
I shoved the thoughts away and got down to work. The project director had been explicitly clear about the five-month window for game development. This meant the designs had to be created and modeled, with the sounds ready, and finally developed all in that time frame.
We'd been working on the planning process all day, and I hadn't even realized how much time had passed. It was usually like that when I got so into my work. This was my favorite thing to do. Sketch. I loved how lines and curves gradually transformed into shapes, each stroke telling its own story.
Aaron had been focusing on another project as well. I knew this because he said I was in charge of laying the foundation of the entire development and to show him the final character sketches as soon as I was done.
When he wasn't working overtime to weaken my knees, he was staring at the screen of his MacBook Pro and typing away. Being in his office gave me a front-row view of his life as a lead programmer. More than six people had come into his office in the time I'd been here to ask for this and get approval for that.
Jesus. How did he do it?
One of them had been a guy named Arjun who'd tried to be way too friendly with me. I'd kept my head down, trying to say as few words as possible, though he and Aaron had exchanged a look that puzzled me. It was almost like they'd shared an inside joke, and I was on the outside, looking in.
It probably wasn't about me, and I was overthinking it. That said, I wondered why someone like Aaron, who was calm and calculated, was friends with someone like Arjun, who tended to blurt out the first thing that entered his head without giving it a second thought. They were like two sides of a coin. But then I remembered that Maddy was the exact opposite of me, and it made sense. Opposites do attract, after all.
True to his word, Aaron hadn’t said a word, though I could feel his stare poking into my side every now and then. More frequently than I'd like to admit, I thought about what he'd said earlier about wanting to sleep with me and felt my blood heat up.
What annoyed me the most was not that he'd blatantly uttered such a horror. No. It was the stupid throbbing that plagued my core at the thought of him actually touching me in the way I'd touched myself last night.
Oh, and the fact that I didn't hate it half as much as I should.
eight
Felicity
If Jeff Donovan hadn’t threatened to fire me if I didn't show up, I swear I would've been at home, curled up on my couch, laptop in hand, talking to AaRogue.
But we seldom get what we want in life. So there I was, at a stupid company event held in the meeting hall designated for employee gatherings to celebrate the start of a new project. This was a ritual OceansPlay did at the beginning of every project as some sort of commemoration, and I'd been privileged—or not—to attend twice in the time that I'd been working here.
Though if we were being technical, I'd intentionally forgotten about the first invitation…and been threatened to be at this one.
Nevertheless, it wasn't as chaotic as I expected it to be. No disco balls or loud techno music blaring from speakers. Instead, some guy played a slow rap song, and the room was mostly filled with people talking in groups.
The only friend I had in the company was Maddy Oh, a brilliant game artist that I'd taken a liking to. However, I was beginning to reconsider our friendship because she would not stop bugging me about some guy in her department.
"I'm telling you, Fliss." Maddy once heard Derick calling me by my childhood nickname and forgot that “Felicity” ever existed. "He's a dick. Even though he's kind of sexy and is the type of guy I'd totally let fuck me. I can bet his is the smallest dick around because of how much of it he's stuffed in his personality."
I sighed, knowing that she wouldn't budge until I answered. "And you say his name is Arjun?"
"The one and only." She tipped her head back and downed the contents of her wine glass in one go. "The first Indian dick I've met. Figuratively, of course."
"I'm sure." Maddy and I were the definition of oil and water. Where she was extroverted, I was introverted. Where she liked meeting new people and having countless flings to satisfy her animalistic sexual cravings, I was content to stay at home and play video games. But for some reason, she was the first person in four years to walk up to me and say, “Hey, you, I'm going to be your friend from this day forward. Now, scoot over.”
And we’ve been friends ever since. I'd like to believe it was because she was persistent enough to wear me down, but the truth was…her being in my life sometimes made me feel like I wasn't completely alone. And it helped that she'd proven to be there for me whenever I needed her. Horny or not. I swear, that was an impressive feat.
"What about you, though?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. A waiter passed, and she exchanged her empty glass for a full one.
I'd settled for a bottle of water earlier but had yet to take a sip. "What about me?"
"Rumor has it that you and Mr.-Happy-Bird-Hotshot were alone together after working hours a few days ago. How come you never told me?"
I shrugged nonchalantly, and my heart raced at the mention of Aaron. He'd given me some space, limiting our conversational topics to just work. It had stung a bit—just a tiny bit, I swear—but I'd been the one to ask for it, hadn't I?
"There's nothing to tell. We were brainstorming over the new designs,” I said.
