AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Excuse me?”
“My name. It’s Lana so you can quit calling me Ma or whatever. Though with how you refuse to use Yoda’s…”
“Do you understand how an apology is supposed to work?” I asked, cutting her off. She seriously couldn’t help herself.
Lana’s face filled with color. She really needed to get that under control. She’d suck at poker.
“Yes, right. Sorry.” She looked down at her laptop, took a breath, then glanced back up at me. “I was rude. Unnecessarily rude, and for that I apologize.”
“Well, shit. That almost sounded sincere.”
She frowned. “It was. Is. You were being nice-ish, to offer help. And I shouldn’t have been flippant about that.”
“Nice-ish?” Again, pressing her buttons was too damn easy as evident in the huff and deepened frown on her face.
“What the hell do you want me to do? Get on my knees and worship you as the great computer god?” The widening of her eyes let me know she knew she’d promptly shoved her foot back into her mouth.
“Later,” I replied with a wink. I pushed the door open wider and extended my arm. “Welcome to Casa de Emilio.”
Lana hesitated before stepping over the threshold, cradling her laptop to her chest. Her now sadly bra-covered chest. At least she still wore the shorts.
5
Lana
Emilio closed the door and walked past me to resume his seat. I stood there, clutching my laptop and looking around. I couldn’t believe I’d actually come here. To he-who-annoys-me because I needed help. His help. Help he’d offered after I’d been rude to him.
He kept his eyes on the silent big screen mounted on the wall and ate his burger. A burger he’d said Yoda was begging for. His thick mass of dark curls hung free around his shoulders. In the times I’d seen him, he’d always had it up, but holy fuck with it down, panties probably melted on sight. I shifted my weight, desperate to ignore how my own were trying to spontaneously combust. Focus Lana. He’s not your type. You like practical. Analytical. Safe. Not chaos.
“So,” he started, “what’s wrong with it? You been watching porn and got yourself a virus?”
“What?” I squeaked “No. Who the hell does that?”
He took a drink and smiled. “More people than you’d think. Want one?” He tilted the bottle in my direction.
“No thank you.” I looked around again. I needed to focus on anything but the man giving off way too many inappropriate vibes. No watching him chew, or lick his lips to catch a drop of ketchup. Diversion. “Your place is surprisingly clean.” I inwardly cringed the moment the words slipped out.
He briefly glanced over at me but didn’t say anything. Numbers. Numbers I could do. People not so much. Evident in the fact that the happy hour after work invites only extended my way if I happened to overhear the plans being discussed. Too direct. No small talk. Standoff-ish. My lack of people skills garnered me pity invites out of obligation. But I wasn’t at work to make friends, so I didn’t let it bother me. Too much. Just like I wouldn’t let this man bother me. I didn’t need to be friends with him, but I could at least attempt to be pleasant all things considering.
Emilio finished his meal, took his plate to the kitchen, and returned, walking right up to me close enough I had to tilt my head to look at him. I licked my lips. My mouth went dry and all the naughty thoughts from earlier played on repeat in my head. Him. I could do him. Shit. What? No!
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just insult me, again, while still needing my help.”
“Sorry, it wasn’t meant as an insult. Really. It’s just most of the guys I’ve interacted with at work and personally aren’t always as tidy.”
“Fair enough. If you met my parents and grandmothers, you’d understand.”
His full lips pulled into a genuine smile, revealing a set of pearly whites, and his deep dimples. Those dark eyes of his sparkled and my attention was again drawn to the long lashes. Lucky bastard.
“So, Ma, I need to earn some on your knees, computer god worshipping action.” He held his hand out, and I relinquished my laptop while pointedly ignoring his comment.
Emilio opened the lid as he headed back to the sofa. This time I followed, choosing to sit on the end farthest away from him.
“What’d you do to it?” He spoke without looking in my direction as he typed in things that brought up commands.
“Nothing. It, um, worked fine yesterday but when I went to do some work a little bit ago I had that blue screen of death. But, oh, it had one of those system updates you can’t bypass.”
He nodded. “Have you backed up?”
