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“Whoa, hey!” Gracen shot out his hand to catch my arm, except I’d already caught myself and was upright again, so he basically wrapped his warm fingers around my bare forearm for no good reason.
Except to drive my hormones crazy.
Looking into my eyes with concern, he asked, “You okay?”
I nodded stupidly for a good two seconds before I was able to fumble out a semblance of words. “Y-yes, fine. Thank you. I—I’m sorry. I’m such a klutz.”
His beautiful, heart-stopping grin flashed at me again. “Nah,” he said, unfortunately dropping his grip from my arm and taking a respectable step back. “That chair had it out for you. It jumped right into your path. I saw the whole thing.”
I offered him a miserable smile of thanks. But I felt so stupid because I was acting so stupid. I wasn’t even sure why I was doing this. I just…
I missed him.
“Yellow?” He tilted his head to the side, his expression suddenly troubled and full of worry. “You sure everything is okay? Not just with the tripping chair but, you know, just in general.” His gaze filled with horror. “Oh Jesus. Art hasn’t bothered you again, has he?”
I swallowed and shook my head. “No. Not at all. He avoids me like the plague, actually.”
Gracen blew out a relieved breath and nodded. “Good. That’s good. What about Jackson, then?”
“Jackson?” I blurted, not expecting to hear that name.
Jackson was an employee here who worked on the marketing side of things. He’d flirted with me a few times and even asked me out to dinner once. But I had turned him down.
Gracen flushed. Which made me blink in confusion because what the heck did he have to blush about? Must be some strange lighting in this office.
But then he reached up and uneasily rubbed the back of his neck and winced as if he was uncomfortable before he explained, “Yeah. I, uh…” Coughing out a small, embarrassed laugh, he flailed out a hand. “I saw him ask you out the other day.”
“Oh God.” Embarrassment flooded me. I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Did everyone see that?”
He offered me a small, chagrined smile. “Probably. He’s not giving you a hard time, though, is he? After you turned him down?”
I shook my head slowly, my gaze straying to his face as I looked for maybe, possibly a hint of jealousy or possessiveness from his expression. But I found none.
“No,” I finally murmured, my voice barely audible. “He’s kind of avoiding me like the plague too after that.”
Gracen’s lips quirked with amusement. “Strange. I haven’t noticed a single plague-like vibe coming from you at all.”
After huffing out an amused sound, I looked down at my hands. “Are you…” But the question stalled on my tongue. When I looked up, he lifted his eyebrows, letting me know he was patiently awaiting the rest of the question.
I cleared my throat, not even sure what I wanted to ask. “Had you heard about the new release of the next Venom movie coming out this Friday?”
“Uh…” He paused for a blank moment before settling with a simple nod for an answer. “Yeah. I heard. I’m pretty excited for this one.”
I nodded as well, much more slowly than he had. “Me too,” I said in a small voice.
He squinted, watching me suspiciously.
Probably trying to figure out if I was just making conversation with him or if I was telling him that I wanted to “accidentally” meet there, like we had the last two movies? And honestly, I wasn’t all that sure what I was trying to accomplish either.
He glanced down, then back up. “If I may be so bold, why did you turn Jackson down?” he finally asked, the blunt question making my eyes flare.
Then he seemed to realize how much he’d just revealed by asking it, and he quickly added, “I—I mean, he…” Flailing out a hand, he cleared his throat and grimaced. “He’s not a bad guy. He’d probably make for a decent date.”
I bobbed my head stupidly before whispering, “I know.” Jackson honestly did seem like a nice guy. “I just…”
When I gave a forlorn sigh, completely lost for words, Gracen shifted curiously closer. “You just what?”
Glancing down because I was unable to keep looking into those too-intent blue-gray eyes, I realized I’d never brought my sack lunch with me as I’d intended to do. I had been so excited to see him again that I’d completely forgotten that dropping off the memo with him was supposed to be a secondary thing I did on the way to the breakroom for my lunch.
