AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One side of her mouth quirks, and her gaze slips to the floor. “Only my family calls me that.”
I know.
“Oh, sorry. I won’t do it again if you don’t like it.”
“Thanks,” she mutters as she passes me to enter the break room, effectively ending our chat.
Great. Racking up the strikes. That’s two in as many minutes. Nothing like tripping out of the gates.
Usually, I put people at ease with little effort. All it takes to endear them to me is a few smiles or a witty joke. Especially when I’m not in disguise. Something about my red hair and freckles is non-threatening— unless you’re one of those people who thinks gingers are soulless monsters. And if you are, fuck off.
I have a soul.
Somewhere inside that hollow cavity under my neck. It’s just buried deep.
Situation with Cal— err, Klein— aside, I’ve been known to be quite caring.
But today, I’m not making many friends. Other than Peggy, no one seems to care that I’m here. And I don’t know if I can count her because she probably loves everyone. I bet she’s the type of person who gets rear-ended and then apologizes to the person who caused the accident.
Dawdling to my desk, I’m met with a few gawking looks and the occasional smile from a passing staff member.
No one attempts to speak to me. Something feels… off.
Do they all know what I’ve done? How I manipulated one of their own? Hacked the server? Or maybe they know I’ve investigated every single one of them. I canfeeltheir judgment burning into me.
Paranoia, paranoia, everybody’s coming to get me.
I’m being silly. They’re not judging me. No one knows what I’ve done, except Klein. But he’s not the kiss-and-tell type. Besides, admitting that he fell for my tricks isn’t a good look for him.
I expected a far more welcoming environment. They tout the wholeRedleg Familyvibe like it’s part of their creed. But if itisa family, then I’m the black sheep. The one they’d like to adopt out at the soonest opportunity.
I’ll need to expend some effort to win over my new coworkers.
Oh, I know.I’ll bake a big cake and invite everyone to my office for a slice. Everybody loves cake.
Speaking of being adopted, Sawyer comes bounding down the hall. He’s whistling and looks as cheery as a pig in slop. His dark brown hair is styled to perfection, and he’s well-dressed in pressed black denim and a crisp button-up shirt.
I watch him from my end of the hallway like a creeping creeper since that’s what I do best. It would be easier for me to observe everyone from the security feeds, but that feels redundant at this point.
Like the observant bodyguard he is, Sawyer notices me spying on him, so I wiggle my fingers in a subtle wave. After giving me a tip of his head in response, he lifts one finger in front of his lips in a shushing gesture.
But I wasn’t saying anything.
What’s he up to?
His smile grows impossibly wider as he stops at the office near mine. He peeks inside Tomer’s empty workspace, then reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a shiny piece of slim plastic and what looks like a roll of tape.
For some reason, I’m drawn closer to him. It might be because I’m perpetually nosy, given my need to know everything that’s happening around me. Or it could be because Sawyer smiled at me, and I’m suddenly craving a friendly face. I know he’s very much taken, but I’m not interested in him that way. I need to make some damn friends around here and fast.
My feet carry me steadily toward him. His shoulders are shaking with silent laughter while he fiddles with the tape. Once I’m about five feet away, I see what he’s doing.
A deep belly laugh rips from me, and I cup my mouth to contain it.
Sawyer whips his head at me, eyes widening in a silent warning, but the corner of his mouth quirks a half second before he joins me in raucous laughter.
He placed a new sign on Tomer’s door plate that readsChuck Nofunfuck.
With one act, Sawyer has officially beat out Peggy as my favorite person at Redleg.
