Page 74 of One Midnight Kiss

The coffee machine sputtered and spit, telling me it was finished. I grabbed the cup and dumped in some creamer.

“Are you worried about it?” she asked. “You seemed pretty confident about it before.”

I shrugged. “When we test it, we’re doing it in our lab. We do the setup. We know the limitations. Beta is always risky. No matter how many times we test it and how many different ways we test it, a consumer is always going to find a way to break it.”

She gave me a long look, tapping her fingers on the rim of her coffee mug. “Seems like there are a lot of variables at play here, huh?”

“You could say that,” I replied, leaning back against the counter.

“So are you worried?”

“No. Not really. There will be hiccups. Always is. We’ll make adjustments.”

“Good,” she said with a nod.

It felt so easy, so natural to be standing there with her, drinking coffee and talking shop as if we had all the time in the world.

I was glad she wasn’t trying to bail on me. Last night, she tried to run out on me. I didn’t want her to ghost me for a couple weeks again. This thing, I didn’t know what it was, but I wanted to try and figure it out.

“I got you something.”

She frowned, looking genuinely puzzled. “Why would you get me something?”

“For Christmas,” I said, shrugging as I walked over to the corner where I had stashed the box.

“It’s the sixteenth,” she pointed out. “And why would you get me a gift?”

“Because I wanted to,” I said.

I carried the box to her and put it down in front of her. “For your horrible, disgusting sex books,” I said, gesturing proudly.

She laughed, a real, genuine laugh. “It’s a bookshelf,” she stated flatly.

“Exactly. For your collection of smut. It’s quirky. I’ve never seen a bookshelf like it before. I thought it would match your eclectic style.”

Natalia looked at the box, then back at me, her lips quirking up in a half-smile. “Are you going to put it together for me, or just leave it in the box? I do a lot of things, but building furniture is not one of them.”

“I will,” I said. “Got any plans for the day?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I need to go get my car.”

“I’ll take you.”

We finished our coffee and got dressed. I took her to pick up her car and followed her out to her place. I carried the box inside.

“I’m going to change,” she said.

“I’ll be here.

I opened the box and sat down on the floor. Natalia returned wearing a pair of black yoga pants, a T-shirt that hung off one shoulder, and her hair up in a messy bun. She was barefoot with her red-painted toenails looking just as perfect as the rest of her.

Damn, she is fucking gorgeous.

She looked at me and the mess spread out around me. I was surrounded by wooden planks and screws.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked skeptically.

“How hard can it be?” I asked.