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Her eyes clouded. She paced a few feet away, her spine rigid. She spun back around and extended her hands.
“It’s so fuckingembarrassing, Grant. This harassment crap is what everyone is going to remember when they look at me, not the programs I designed or the articles I’ve written. Your father probably doesn’t even know about my ideas for merging artificial intelligence with virtual and augmented reality. How can I beanythingwhen I’m dragging around all this garbage? I don’t even know how to get rid of it.”
“You don’t have to.” Pain cracked through him, along with a sudden sense that everything was about to change. “Just like you don’t have to be stuck in a job where you’re either invisible or humiliated. No one should be.”
“So, the alternatives are to work at Intellix at a job I didn’t earn or to quit tech altogether.” Her mouth tightened. “Maybe it is time for me to leave. I’ve tried and failed to get to where I’d always hoped I would be, so…”
“You’re not going to quit. It’s not in you to quit.”
“But this time, I’m out of options.” She held up her hand when he stepped toward her. “Look, I…I’m going to need some time to think.”
“Okay. We’ll go back to your place and—”
“No.” She shook her head and skidded her gaze away from him. “I need to be alone, Grant.”
The edge to her voice sliced right through him. He stepped back.
He knew her. From the moment they first met, he’d sensed what she’d needed. Over the years at the Mousehole, he’d learned when to give her space, when she wanted to talk, when her snarkiness was hiding something more. He knew exactly how crispy she liked fried cheese curds and that cherry gummy worms were her favorite.
Now, he also knew that she needed three pillows to sleep, that she liked mint-flavored dental floss, and where to kiss her to make her giggle. He knew that the crease between her eyebrows meant she was struggling with a design problem and that when she unconsciously licked her lower lip, she was thinking about sex.
He knew how to touch her. He knew how to love her.
But he didn’t, for the life of him, know how to walk away from her.
“Take these.” He handed her his car keys. “I’ll borrow one of Nathan’s cars to drive home.”
After a brief hesitation, she got into his car. Seconds later, the taillights disappeared into the darkness.
