“Not even the one grapefruit cider.” She holds her half-full glass.
“I’m just wondering if you’re ready to show us your skills,” I quickly try to recover.
Her head drops back with a groan but she smiles. “I knew I’d regret telling you that.”
“Look at you.” I gesture her upper body, rocking to a song I don’t recognize. “You can hardly hold yourself back. You know you want to.” Was I flirting? I’m so out of practice that I don’t even know. No, “out of practice” implies that I had ever beeninpractice. Flirting and my level of nerd-dom never managed to synch up.
She stills herself and a little frown forms between her eyebrows. In this light her eyes have the depth and color of an amber gemstone. “I didn’t realize I was doing that.”
“I noticed,” I say. “You do it in meetings, too.”
She holds my gaze with an unreadable expression. Shit. Had I given too much away?
“Why don’t you go first?” she says.
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“You show me your hidden talent and I’ll show you mine.” Her tone is completely light and friendly, but those words coming out of her mouth causes me to cough.
“I don’t have any,” I say.
“Don’t be modest. What do you do when you aren’t building super tech or winning patents?”
I grin at the ground. I didn’t realize she knew about all that. “I don’t have a ton of free time. Mostly I just hang out with Lincoln when I’m not here.”
Her smile remains fixed but something flashes in her wide eyes. Something like disappointment. I know I’m not very cool or exciting. It’s still very weird and new that people look to me like I am somebody worth knowing. No super-secret talents. Just a big nerd with more paper on his office walls.
“I know. Pretty lame,” I say. “But if you’re too chicken, you really don’t have to do it.”
She purses her lips at me. “Don’t try that with me. It won’t work.”
“What won’t work?” Jared walks up, asking.
Jared is a good-looking guy. I know because every time we venture outside our building he never fails to get approached. He looks like he should be a rock star but his brain is a freaking machine at coding.
He’s about to sling his arm around Julia’s shoulders in a brotherly fashion before catching himself and dropping it. Only I catch her small flinch. He smoothly leans against the stool instead as though nothing happened. She glances at her hands and takes a deep breath.
“I was just telling Julia that since it’s her birthday and since she’s too shy, she doesn’t have to reveal her super-secret hidden talent.”
Her eyes widen for a flash before she forces her smile wider.
“She dances,” I say conspiratorially to Jared.
“Oh, you play dirty.” She shakes her head, glaring playfully.
“You can dance?” Jared asks.
Others have walked over with interest. I watch her closely as I take a sip of my beer.
“I guess she’s just too shy,” Jared says, quickly grasping the thread of teasing.
She shakes her head back and forth but her leg shakes with barely contained energy.
“I’ll do it if you do it.” She holds my gaze, daring me. “I’ll teach you a few steps. But afterward, that’s it, and I never want to hear about this again.” She points a finger at me but it’s hard to be intimidated by her coy smile. “And it depends on the next song.”
The song ends and a familiar one starts. Fingers snap and T-Pain sings.
“Ohhh damn,” Jared says punching the air. “A classic. You have to know this one.”
