A small laugh escapes from me when she reuses the same silly word from the other night. The urge to tease her is too strong. “I don’t think business-y is a real word.”
“Semantics.” She shrugs while closing all the apps that she has been scrolling through. “As long as the meaning can be understood it doesn’t matter if it’s a real word or not. Anyways, that’s how new words get made up, right? Spoken dialect allows for changes and interpretation all the time. That’s why language is ever-changing and we don’t speak the same way as we used to one hundred, five hundred, a thousand years ago.”
Being rendered speechless was not something I thought was going to happen today, but the more time I spend with Ellie, the more she surprises me. It seems like she puts in a lotof effort to not reveal her true self, but when she has these slip ups, I can actually see her. Under her hard surface, she is utterly captivating, and I am in awe.
“Wow, yeah. I never thought about it like that.”
When I stand up and make my way over to the door, she watches me curiously.
“Is it okay if I close this? I don’t really think it would be productive to our plans if someone were to eavesdrop. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable with me, so I’ll just—” There is a window looking into my office, so I swivel the blinds open before I close the door. “I don’t need my coworkers to think there’s anything but eating going on in here.” Ellie’s cheeks start to blush at the thought of what people might think. “Not that there would be anything going on in here. I’m just going to shut up now.”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, I sit down and grab Ellie’s Chipotle bowl out of the bag. I’m glad I remembered to get her order when I stopped by The Brew this morning. She gave me an incredulous look when I took out my notebook to write it down, but it was important to me that I get it right.
Removing me from my thoughts, Ellie shakes her bowl aggressively for at least a full minute, and I stare at her with an eyebrow raised.
“What?” When she notices me staring, she explains, “I do it to get the most ideal homogeneous mixture. It gives me the perfect bite every time. You should try it.”
She meticulously peels the lid off of her food to reveal a surprisingly well-mixed bowl. There is no shame as she digs into her food, which makes me think that this is the first thing she haseaten today. She was obviously joking when she said I should try her method, but I will always take the opportunity to tease her.
Lifting my bowl off the table, I theatrically shake it for thirty seconds.
Daggers shoot from her eyes, but I’m pretty sure they’re fake.
“You know, you should try to mock me less if you want any chance ofyour girlfriendshowing up to your company weekend.” She crosses her arms and offers me a playful smile. “But I will let you know that I am available that weekend; although, I think I need some more convincing.”
I raise my hands up, accepting defeat. “You’re right, you’re right.”
Taking a big bite of my perfectly mixed concoction, I try not to let any emotions show as I move to my computer to look up the email from Greg with all the details because, fuck, she was right. This is the most perfectly balanced bite of a burrito bowl I’ve ever had in my life.
Keeping my pleasure to myself, I take another bite and swivel my monitor, so Ellie can see the email from Greg. “Okay, let’s discuss the logistics before you decide to abandon me because I’m such amean boyfriend.”
We go through the attachment quickly, and I explain what I know.
After finishing with the basics, I move on to the part that I fear will make her back out of our deal. “So, there’s no way I can book us separate rooms without it being suspicious, but I can get a room with two beds? I totally understand if you’re not comfortable with that, and like I said at happy hour, I am morethan fine with going alone. I just want you to know everything before you make a decision.”
When she takes a moment to think about what I just asked, it makes me wish I knew what was going on in her head. That’s something I need to work on as we get to know each other better. Once I can read her body language, I can get a better grip on figuring her out.
She squints her eyes at me as I take another bite of my food, trying to pretend like I’m keeping my cool. “Hmmm, okay, but Nick knows where I am at all times! And if you kill me, you will be the first one they suspect! It’s always the boyfriend.”
It all comes out in quick succession, and I’m barely able to catch what she says. Her stare is intense as she watches my every move. It’s interesting how this is the second time she’s brought up me murdering her, but if that were a real fear, I imagine she wouldn’t be okay willing to spend the night with me.
I know I shouldn’t be a sarcastic asshole, but every reaction I’ve gotten out of her so far makes it so hard for me to rein myself in. Drawing out my actions, I reach across my desk into the cup of writing utensils and fish one out. The click of the pen is loud when I cross off the phone call that I just finished off of my to-do list. It is just far enough away that Ellie cannot actually read what it says. “Okay, I will take murdering Ellie off the weekend checklist.”
A small gasp escapes her lips, and I do my best to suppress my smirk.
“I don’t appreciate your sass.” She says firmly.
“Actually, I think you do.” I throw back at her, and this time I don’t hold back my smile.
She lets out a huff. “Okay, what else?”
“Greg shared an itinerary for the whole weekend, so let’s go through the plans.” I scroll down, so she can see what I’m talking about. “He scheduled us a half-day on that Friday, so we have time to get to the hotel. It’s about three hours away, so I was thinking we could drive together. You know, helping the environment or whatever. That is, if you are still interested in coming with me?”
She takes a moment to chew the bite of food while mulling over what I just said. “Hmmm, that sounds reasonable. I get off at 12:30 on Friday, so the timing works.”
“Awesome. It looks like there is just check-in and a casual dinner Friday night, so it should be pretty chill.”
“I can handle that. What about Saturday?”
