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He laughed. “Yeah, you were pretty gone. You told me you were at home. I figured you would still be here, nursing a pretty wicked hangover, if my spidey senses are correct.”
“Spidey senses?” I wrinkled my nose at him as I plopped ungracefully into a dining room chair, my legs feeling like Jell-o.
He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me. “Yeah, like Spiderman.”
“Ugh, what is it with boys and super heroes?”
He chuckled and went back to unpacking the bag. “Actually, I would be more like Batman, if you stop to think about it.”
I pinched the back of my hand to make sure I was actually awake. This whole conversation was weirding me out. The sharp sting assured me that I was, in fact, awake. “And why’s that?” I asked, deciding to play along and see where in the world he was going with this.
“Well, I’m rich, I don’t like bad guys, and let’s be honest, I do wear black quite well,” he answered, wiggling an eyebrow in my direction.
I looked him up and down, considering if maybe this was some sort of imposter version of Cooper. “Do you have a twin?”
“No. Why?”
“Just curious. You don’t exactly seem like yourself, is all.”
He laughed and held up his palms, as if surrendering a battle. “What? A guy can’t be happy and just have a normal conversation?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just shrugged at him and he went back to whatever he was working on at the kitchen sink.
“All right, here you go,” he said, turning back to me. He stepped into the dining room and set a couple pills in front of me and then a glass containing a pale, orange-colored liquid.
I raised my eyebrow at him. “What is this?”
“Hangover cure.”
“Aha. What’s in this?” I asked, picking up the glass and swirling the contents. It looked…chalky.
“Just trust me. It works.”
His avoidance annoyed me. I set the glass back down, rebelling against his instructions. “I need to know what’s in it. I’m vegan, so if it has any—”
“It doesn’t have any animal products,” he interrupted.
“You know what vegan is?”
“Yes, actually, I do. My—” he paused, a new emotion flickering briefly across his face. “Well, it doesn’t matter who. Point is, I know.”
I wanted to press and get him to tell me who he was talking about, but something told me to leave it alone. At least, for now.
“So, you want to tell me what’s going on? Why are you here?”
He sat in the chair next to me. “I heard about what happened at Spotlight. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
A wave of nausea ripped through my stomach, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t just a side effect of the hangover. I jumped up from the table and went across the kitchen to lean against the counter, folding my arms across my chest, desperate to put some space between us. The smell of his cologne was suffocating and intoxicating all at the same time and I couldn’t think clearly with it triggering steamy memories of being in his arms and the feel of his warm skin on mine.
Fortunately, my mind was slowly waking up and his mention of Spotlight instantly resurfaced the memory of the discoveries I had made the day before, and all the anger rushed back to the surface.
“I don’t know why you’re bothering to apologize. You got me fired. You know, it’s weird how this all worked out entirely in your favor. Almost like it was planned. Don’t you think?” I arched my eyebrows at him and waited.
He leaned back in his chair and mirrored my posture. “No, I don’t. So why don’t you explain it to me.”
I scoffed. “You really think I’m that stupid? What is your problem, Cooper?”
“My problem? Right now, it’s you. What the hell is going on?” he fired back. “I came over here to check on y
