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Thank God for that because he was turning out to be a creep.
A very handsome creep by the way, a voice in my head whispered.
I pushed it down as quickly as it reared its ugly head. I couldn't think of him that way. Or in any way, for that matter. Aaron was practically my boss. The fact that he had curly dark hair that framed his head like a lion's mane, or that his cheekbones were the highest I'd ever seen on a man, did not matter. Neither did his bulging muscles that strained beneath his off-white shirt…
Right now, however, I was already self-conscious as he kept staring at me like red horns were sprouting out from my forehead.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Pegg?" I asked.
His response was immediate. "Aaron."
I paused, then sighed. Today was the first day of the next few months of our collaboration, and I was already this close to abandoning ship. "Do I have something on my face, Aaron? You've been staring at me like you can't believe I'm human."
"Tell me about it."
"What?"
He blinked as if trying to clear his thoughts. "I apologize, Felicity. I’m admittedly…out of sorts today."
"We can continue this some other time," I offered reluctantly. There was nothing more exciting than starting a new project. I'd wanted to design characters for a virtual reality game ever since Jungle Justice became a favorite. But it wasn't like we could make any progress if Aaron wasn't up for it.
He nodded. "Thank you."
I took that as a dismissal and stood to my feet. For a brief second, I was tempted to ask him if he was alright because it looked like he'd just seen a ghost. Then I remembered that I'd once asked that question. It’d ended up with me on the ground, helpless and broken, so I grabbed my sketchbook, gave him a final nod, and exited his office.
I was almost at my desk when my phone started to ring. I sighed. The only people who ever called me were my family. Since my father and I had a strained relationship, which led to equally strained phone conversations, we refrained from participating. My mother—who was most likely preoccupied with her human rights activism and would much rather do that than call me at this time of the day, so that just left my older brother, Derick.
My money was on the latter.
I would’ve won the bet. Grabbing my phone and quickly swiping at the screen to answer the call, I pressed the phone to my ear.
"Have lunch with me,” Derick demanded.
I rolled my eyes at the authoritative tone, knowing my brother had a penchant for throwing orders around. And it wasn't limited to me.
"No, thanks," I answered, lowering myself into my seat. I disliked receiving personal calls at work, mainly because it forced me to talk. If it wasn't about video games, I didn't like to talk that much.
“Come on. You haven’t seen me in so long, Fliss. Don’t you miss me?” Derick teased, earning himself an eye roll.
I literally saw him last week.
"I'll buy you your favorite,” he promised. “Italian."
"No can do." I made sure to keep my voice low. After that embarrassing episode in the auditorium earlier, if I had to draw any more attention to myself, I might just evaporate. "I'm busy."
"Too busy for your older brother? Bullshit."
Derick wasn't used to hearing the word “No,” which was why I said it to him so frequently. His arrogance was alarming, and while it was one of the traits that made him the badass programmer he was, it was also very annoying.
"I'm sorry." I tried to sound disheartened, but it didn't work.
"Alright then. I guess I'll just keep calling you until you humor me. Let's see who caves first. In fact, to spice things up, I think I'll just show up there. I've always wanted to know what the inner walls of OceansPlay look like."
My heart skipped a beat.
"Fine," I said a little too sharply, sucking in a breath to calm myself. I took a quick scan of the area, but other than Aaron, whose gaze I instantly met through his glass window, no one else was paying me any attention.
Aaron quickly averted his gaze, going back to focus on his laptop screen. I could've sworn I saw a muscle in his jaw tick before his expression became blank. Seriously, what was wrong with the man? Why did he keep looking at me like he knew me from a previous life or something?
