AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hashem isn’t allowed to say anything as Lana threatens to call security and he leaves, his face white as a sheet.
Raymond follows Lana out but not before looking reluctantly at Halley.
“She’s safe here with me,” I tell him.
Once it’s only me and her left, I turn around and my voice is kind for a change, “Come on. Sit down.” I guide her to my chair and she obediently sits down.
I hand her a water bottle but she refuses it. It’s bothering me that she’s not speaking or meeting my eyes. I sigh. “I can’t tell you to shut up if you don’t say anything, Halley.”
This makes the corner of her lips twitch.
I take it as a good sign. “Good job elbowing that bastard in the balls. Although if it were me, I would have used my hands and twisted them right off.”
Halley makes a face at this.
I feel a hint of relief.
She finally says in a small voice, “I’ll change my clothing from tomorrow. I—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” I tell her, firmly. “You wear what you want to wear and what you’re happy with. If you want, you can ask Lana about the dress code here if there is one but you don’t go changing yourself over what somebody said to you.”
She grips her hands in her lap.
I hate seeing the cheerful girl I know reduced to this. So, I grab her hands. “Hey, this is my office. As long as you do your work properly, I don’t give a fuck as to what else you do, you got it?”
My words calm her down but she still isn’t smiling, so I ge
t up. “Come on.”
She looks up at me, confused and anxious. “Where?”
Her light blue eyes and the way she looks at me with them, makes me feel a little off-balance, and without thinking, I cover her eyes. “Stop that.”
Baffled, her hands reach up to grip my hand as if she intends to remove but she just asks, “Stop what?”
“That!”
“I don’t know what that is!” she responds, sounding frustrated.
Stop looking at me with those big blue eyes of yours and making my chest feel weird.
She pulls my hand away and glares up at me, a hint of her old self in her eyes. “Why are you so weird?!”
“Shut up,” I tell her, embarrassed. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to that sushi place you never shut up about.” I start walking and after a moment’s hesitation, I hear her feet scuffle on the floor as she follows me at a distance.
“That’s the shawarma place.”
“The other one.”
“Oh…” She pauses. “I thought you hated sushi.”
“Shut up, Halley,” I mutter, and I hear her giggle. The sound is like a balm and I feel a little bit at ease.
I don’t let myself ponder too hard, as to why her actions are wreaking havoc on my emotions.
Because a part of me fears …I won’t like the answer very much.
4
