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“Nobody asked you to stay, and I certainly didn’t ask you to bring your booze.”
She must have become immune to him, because she didn’t even get riled at his lack of gratitude.
“Oh, so you don’t want me to share?” she asked innocently as she wrestled with the ancient corkscrew.
His answer was to stand and pull the bottle and opener out of her hands. His big hands proceeded to open it like a pro before pouring liberally into two plastic cups. Her lady parts purred. Now this was a Gray she could start to like.
Sophie handed him a plate with two pieces of pizza before selecting a slice for herself. Just one, she thought as she mentally counted the calories. Her metabolism was pretty good, and supposedly the hellish yoga helped to keep her backside from wobbling. But even the best of genes would struggle to overcome these puddles of grease.
“So what are you working on?” she asked once they’d settled into chairs.
“You’re going to make me converse, aren’t you?” he said.
“Absolutely. It’ll help build your character. Oh, and here, I brought you a fork. I figured a tidy man like yourself wouldn’t approve of eating with his hands.”
His eyes flicked to hers, and she thought she read something like dismay. The stony gray depths were somehow warmer than usual, and they seemed to ask, So this is what you think of me?
She looked away, unsettled.
He picked up the pizza purposefully with both hands. “I’m trying to make sense of Martin’s shorthand,” he said, gesturing at the multiple piles. “There are about eight hundred different-colored file folders, pen ink, and highlighters. But I don’t seem to be any closer in deciphering the method behind the color coding.”
“I think maybe he just thought black ink and standard manila folders were boring,” she said around a huge glob of cheese.
He picked up his cup of wine and stared at her over the rim. “Boring? You’re telling me I’ve wasted hours trying to figure out what blue highlighter was supposed to signify and he just was trying to add some color to his life?”
Sophie shrugged. “Yeah, his secretary left a couple of notebooks behind with commentary on Martin’s quirks. I just found them this afternoon.”
That was a lie she didn’t feel particularly guilty about. The notebooks had been there all along, but the thought of helping Gray before now just hadn’t appealed.
Not when he looked like he wanted to call an exterminator every time he looked at her.
“What else did these notebooks have to say? Anything else that can save me time? Despite what you probably think, spending Friday night in the office isn’t exactly my idea of the good life.”
“Oh? Did you have big plans?”
Sophie instantly regretted her question. She’d forgotten that he and Brynn were originally planning to see a play tonight. Probably something scholarly. She hadn’t meant to rub the breakup in his face.
“Did you speak with your sister?” he asked after a pregnant pause.
Sophie nodded as she picked at a piece of pepperoni. “I didn’t really get the details, just that, you know…you guys decided it wasn’t working out.”
He didn’t say anything more, and Sophie was unsettled by his lack of reaction.
Was he more torn up about the breakup than she’d expected? He hardly looked like a man glad to be done with a going-nowhere relationship.
“Do you, um…want to talk about it?” she asked. Please say no.
“Talk about what?”
She sucked in a breath for patience.
“The fact that you just ended a relationship? That usually registers a blip on the human emotional scale.”
“Oh. No, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“No problem,” she said, happy to dodge that particular conversation. “Shall I go get Martin’s assistant’s notes? We can go over them while we eat and see if there’s anything that would help you.”
“Your sister’s great,” he blurted out.
