I knocked onceon Marlon’s office and didn’t wait for an answer.
“Hey, you busy?”
“Yes, Rory, I’m busy,” he said without looking up from his laptop. “Can you come back later?”
Tuh!
I did not spend an hour on the phone with Orim hyping me up for this conversation just for him to dismiss me. I pushed the door open anyway, stepping inside and closing it behind me with a soft click.
“Anyway,” I said, walking further in. “Lavender just suggested something crazy to me so I had to ask.”
His fingers paused over the keyboard for half a second before continuing.
“Are you drunk?”
Well I needed a little liquid courage.
I shrugged and hiccuped. “I had a celebratory drink. What’s the big issue?”
“The issue is it’s three in the afternoon and I had to send you back to the office because you couldn’t handle conversations longer than five minutes at your own event! You were supposed to be resting. Not drinking on the fucking job.”
I had to bite my lips to keep from laughing. Normally, I would be scared of his outburst, but now it just rolled off me.
“Go the fuck home, Aurora.” He looked down at his keyboard, done with me. “I’ll call a car for you. Don’t fucking come back until your sober.”
“But I have to tell you what Lav asked.”
“I’m not interested in you or Lavender’s foolishness,” he said flatly. “I’m five seconds away from firing both y’all’s asses.”
I laughed this time, dropping into the chair across from his desk.
“You’re so funny,” I said, leaning back. “Like I was saying… she asked if I was in love with you.”
That made his hands stop moving completely. He didn’t look at me but I saw the caution. Every nerve in his body was on fire. I kept going anyway.
“I told her I don’t know, ’cause I've never been in love,” I said, watching him now. “But you’ve been in love before, right?”
“Aurora—”
“So you can tell.” I leaned forward slightly, eyes locked on him. “You think I’m in love?”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Tell me.”
“I don’t know, Aurora!”
“Well, do you love me?” He finally looked up at me.
There was something tight in his expression, something controlled that didn’t quite hide fast enough.
“It makes no sense for you to fall in love with me or me to fall for you,” he said, voice even, measured, “when you are not someone who I can have. So please… close my door and go home.”
Not gonna lie, even as tipsy as I was, that still got to me. Still, I played it cool. I tilted my head slightly, then leaned back in the chair.
“No fair,” I said, a small smile pulling at my lips. “You said you loved me in New York.”
His jaw tightened. “Get out, Aurora.”
