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“So after I stopped by Quik Wok for our dinner,” Tess forges on, “I drove out to the party store for balloons, and then over to Dex’s. I figured this was an occasion worthy of doughnuts with the extraugh. Especially since we weren’t even sure welikedKayla when she started working here.”
“You weren’t?” Kayla asks, after planting the balloon bouquet behind our desk.
“Oh, it wasn’t your fault at all,” Tess adds quickly. “It’s just that we were sad about Emi leaving. And you were her replacement. Plus this was the job Lucy wanted. And we loved Lucy. Right, Spence?”
Extraughis right. Kayla Herrera might be the only employee here who didn’t witness my crush on Lucy firsthand. Tess isn’t just loud and balloon-bearing. She’s also making things awkward.
More awkward.
“Anyway, it all worked out,” I say.
“It sure did,” Tess agrees. Which is a rarity. She holds up her takeout bag. “AndI’m on time for your dinner break.”
I jerk my chin up toward the clock above circulation. “Actually, you’re early.”
“Okay.” She shrugs. “Call me the bird that catches the worm then. Which makes you the worm, I guess. I brought Chinese. Isn’t that your favorite?”
“Italian.”
“Close enough.” Tess turns to Kayla. “So you really had no idea we didn’t like you?”
We’re back on that now?
“We all like you now,” I pipe up.
Tess darts her eyes between Kayla and me. “Spencer likesallhis coworkers. Don’t you, Spence? How many has it—”
“Anyway,” I interrupt, before Tess can embarrass me further. “We can’t eat that in the employee workroom.”
“Why not?” She frowns. “Because it isn’t Italian?”
“No, because you’re not an employee overseeing a job here anymore.”
“Oops.” Her face falls. “I forgot that little detail.”
“Shocking.”
Tess ignores my excellent sarcasm. “So what do we do?” she asks. “Ineed to eat.Youneed to eat. But we can’t eat in the employee workroom.”
I look out across the room at the wall of windows. On the other side is the park. Most of the pet lovers club is gone by now. “Find us an empty picnic table out there,” I say.
Tess arches a brow. “You almost sound a little bossy, Spencer. Which is weird. Especially since I’m kind of your boss now.” She plops her bag of food on the desk by Kayla. “I suppose he told you about the camp thing?”
“That he’ll be working there overnight?” Kayla nods. “He mentioned it.”
“Exactly,” I say to Tess. “Bothof us will be in charge overnight. Working together. Coworkers. As in co. Co.CO.”
Tess snorts. “You sound like a parrot.”
“That’s funny,” Kayla says, peeking into the bag.
“My parrot joke?” Tess chuckles. “Thanks. I thought so.”
“Not that.” Kayla’s lip curves up on one side. “The part where you said Spencer likes all his coworkers. And nowyou’llbe his coworker.”
“Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!” Tess tosses her head back and laughs, as if the idea of either of us liking each other is patently ridiculous. “Spencer likes all his coworkersexceptfor me. That’s why this situation is brilliant for us. There’s absolutelynothinggoing on here.” She puts extra pepper on the wordnothing, and waves her hand like she’s erasing my existence. I stand there listening, my pulse picking up, but I say nothing as she continues to dismiss me. “Spencer and I won’t run into any complications. There will be no distractions. No attractions. We don’t havetionsof any—”
“So, I’ll meet you outside then,” I interrupt. For the second time since she got here. Yes, I’ve becomethat man. The interrupter. And I even threw in anactuallyearlier, when she said she was on time. I pointed out that she was early. I’m behaving no better than Frank. But as Tess kept talking about how the mere idea of being attracted to me was lunacy, something in my gut took over. And I wanted to stop her nothing-between-us train before my ego completely imploded.
Now I’ve derailed us.
“All righty then.” She coughs out a laugh, then snatches up the Quik Wok bag. “I promise, next time I’ll remember Italian is your favorite.”
I bet you won’t, I think.
