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“Titan–”
“Cora–”
We both speak at the same time, cutting each other off before falling silent. I watch the tall, muscled, intense man run his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends as if in distress. My mind goes back to his cabin, the empty walls and dim lighting. Everything in me softens for him.
He’s not a sexist jerk. He’s just… not used to interacting with people other than the gruff rig workers he’s surrounded by. I wonder if he has any friends here. My heart hurts the longer I observe how uncomfortable he is.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” I say cheerfully. Maybe he’s just nervous he’s going to offend me by speaking. I jumped down his throat first thing in the morning.
“Seems to be something that happens a lot around you.”
I blink at him a few times, wondering if I heard him correctly. “Did you just crack a joke?”
“No,” comes the automatic, growled response. He might have everyone else fooled, but I see him trying to hide a tiny, smug smile.
I narrow my eyes at him, then let out a laugh. Titan’s eyes lock onto mine, the look in them unreadable. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s staring at me… in awe? That can’t be right.
A second later, he schools his features over. I’m not sure I even saw anything at all.
“Okay, stop messing around, Titan. This is a professional work environment,” I tease. He grunts, making me smile.
Looking around the room, I observe piles of paper on the desk, at least a dozen boxes haphazardly stacked in one corner, and an ancient desktop computer that I wouldn’t be surprised to find has a floppy disk drive on it.
“Well, here it is,” Titan states flatly. “Your dad seems to think you can help.”
“Yeah, he thinks a lot of things,” I mutter. Titan furrows his brow but doesn’t say anything. “Yes, I believe the key to simplifying and reorganizing this space is to go digital.”
“We are digital,” he says, motioning toward the relic of a computer. “What else do we need?”
“First of all, you need a computer from this decade. That one doesn’t count as a real computer,” I inform him, pointing to the beast taking up half the desk.
“Seems fine to me,” he counters.
“Turn it on,” I urge.
Titan makes a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, but he wades through boxes and papers to get to the desk. Staring at it for a moment, he finally bends and fumbles around for the power button on the computer tower. It’s pretty clear he’s never used the thing, which explains a lot of the clutter and disorganization.
A whirring noise comes from the old desktop, indicating that the cooling fan is powered up. The screen, however, blinks once before going blank. The fan stops a few seconds later, and the machine is dark and silent once more.
“Okay, so the computer could use an upgrade,” he concedes.
“I’m glad we agree. But that’s only step one. The next part of the process is a bit more… tedious.”
“Tedious?” he groans. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’ll be fun,” I lie.
He gives me a dubious look, raising one thick eyebrow as he stares at me. Oh, lordy. That look does something to me. A shiver runs down my spine, and my skin prickles with goosebumps.
“Bullshit,” he grunts, though it’s not a harsh tone. More like a challenge.
“Just you wait and see. Digitizing files can be exciting. We can make a game out of it. Oh! Or bet on who can do the most files in a day. See? Some great ideas are coming to the surface already.” I smile at him sweetly while he scowls. A glint in his deep blue eyes tells me he’s not really upset.
“Let’s get this over with,” he says, motioning to a folding chair next to the desk chair he’s in. I pull out the laptop my father bought just for this project, setting it on the desk in front of Titan. He stares at it, then looks at me, waiting for me to explain.
“This is a laptop,” I start.
He rolls his eyes. “Yes, thank you,” he says sarcastically.
