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"What is it?" I ask curiously. "What happened?"
"Oh, please," Joanne says with a roll of her eyes. "Don't play coy. We know you went out on a date with Hal!"
Shit.
I shake my head and hastily make things clear before people start assuming things. "It was just a friendly date."
"Sure, sure."
Everyone's either winking or snickering like all of us are in on some huge secret, and no one seems inclined to believe me despite my vocal protests.
Great, just great.
This is so unfair to Hal, and so the first thing I do come lunch break is dash to the front desk so I can have a word with him.
Hal looks at me in surprised pleasure. "What's up?"
"Um..."
"Or can I hope that you're here because you've changed your mind? Have you realized that my kiss was way better than you expected, and you've decided to take me out of the friend zone?"
I can only shake my head with a laugh. "Stop it, okay?"
"Admit it," Hal teases.
I open my mouth to tell him I can't admit to any such thing when I suddenly feel the hairs at the back of my neck stand. I turn to look over my shoulder, and that's when I see the sheikh staring at us from a short distance, a hardened expression on his gorgeous features.
Shit.
How long has he been standing there?
"I'm right, aren't I?" I hear Hal say, and I force myself to turn around to face him.Keep it cool,I tell myself. If the sheikh can ignore me, then I can ignore him, too.
"Are you game for lunch?" Hal asks.
"Actually...I just want to talk." I unthinkingly grab Hal's hand as I speak, and all I'm thinking about is dragging him as far away from the sheikh as possible. It's only when Hal squeezes my hand back that I realize how this can be misinterpreted—-
Shit!
I take a look behind my back, and the sheikh is gone.
Shit.
"Seven?"
I force myself to look back at Hal.
"You know how much I like you, right?" Hal starts to squeeze my hand again, but his smile fades when I quickly pull my hand out of his hold.
"I'm sorry," I say miserably. "I know it seems like I like leading you on, but it's really not that."
"I see."
"I'm sorry." I know it's far from adequate, but saying sorry is all I can think of, with half of my mind still busy worrying about the sheikh. What could he be thinking now?
"It's fine," Hal assures me after a moment. "I can always ask you out again, and you never know. You might change your mind about me one day."
I slowly shake my head. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. IknowI'm not going to change my mind about you," I say awkwardly, "but the thing is..."
