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“What else am I going to do around here?” she laughed.
I waved and headed off.
Surprisingly, when I got to the site, Keith wasn’t nit-picking at all. He actually looked pretty impressed.
“This place is looking good,” he said as I walked in.
I tried to ignore the way his eyes ran down my body slowly and the soft, slightly awkward smile on his face that told me he remembered what happened the other day all too well.
“It’s coming together,” I nodded.
I tossed down my bag and crossed the room to look over the plans and the clipboard, which outlined the expected progress for the day. His eyes burned into me the whole way, but I kept pretending not to notice.
“They’ll finish building out the rest of the docks today,” I added. “That’s exciting.”
“You can have a marina without selling t-shirts and serving burgers, but you can’t have one without a place to dock the boats,” he smirked.
I rolled my eyes. Of course, he was still going on about the retail and hospitality portion of the business plan. I was certain that wouldn’t be his last smart-aleck comment about it.
“Maybe five or ten years ago, you didn’t need those things, but now you do,” I argued.
“Hey, I’ve decided to bow down to your expertise on the matter,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to have opinions.”
“You? Without opinions?” I laughed. “That’s hard to imagine. But you bowing down to me is a pleasant sight to think of.”
He stepped closer, and his voice dropped down low. “Is that what you want? For me to bow to you?”
His words were dripping with suggestion. I tensed up and swallowed hard, insisting to myself that, of course, I didn’t want that. Not in the way he made it sound, anyway. I didn’t, right?
“We should do a run-through of the waste disposal system again,” I said, quickly pivoting. My voice sounded weaker and more unsteady than I wanted it to. “We, uh, need to know it by heart to keep it running and to show the customers how to use it.”
“I think I get it,” he insisted, looking defeated. His attempt at flirting had failed, which was absolutely for the best.
“I was planning to go to the printers downtown when I leave here today. I wanted to get some pricing on signs for all the guidelines and procedures. I know someone who can design those for us once we know how much they’ll cost.”
“I can come with you,” he offered.
Actually, he didn’t say it as a suggestion, but rather stated it as a fact. He was always doing that, so it shouldn’t have been off-putting to me anymore. And yet it was. Then again, everything about him was off-putting to me in one way or another. Just in some slightly more complicated ways as of late.
“No, that’s okay. All I’ll be doing is getting some quotes. It doesn’t take two people.”
“But if I tag along, then we can grab a drink at Frank’s afterward.”
“Ooooohhhh nooooo,” I laughed. “No more drinks.”
His eyes widened, sparking with mischief. I had blurted that out too quickly and gave away too much. I didn’t mean to allude to what happened the other day, or imply that I had even given it so much as a second thought. Nothing happened! So why think about it? I barely even noticed what could have almost happened. At least, that’s what he was supposed to believe…before I blew it.
“As business partners, it’s pretty far-fetched to think we’ll never get together for drinks again.” He took another two steps closer. “Besides, the other afternoon wasn’t so bad. Was it?”
“No,” I chirped with a shrug. “Of course not. Bad? Why would it have been bad? I don’t know why I said that. I just meant that…well, I won’t have time today. I’ll have to get home to Claire by then.”
“So, I’ll come along with you to the printers, then come by to say hi to Claire with you. I can make you two dinner. I’ve been meaning to stop by and see her anyway.”
“No!” Once again, the words were spilling out in all the wrong ways, too fast for me to stop them. Where was the cold, calm indifference I was usually so good at channeling? “We, uh, we have plans tonight.”
He nodded, accepting defeat. “Alright, so maybe not tonight. But sooner or later, you’re going to have to lighten up to being a little friendlier with me, Lana. We’re going to be working together a lot and…”
“You’re going to have to stop taking things so personally,” I fired back, crossing my arms. I had managed to latch on to one last remaining shred of my ice queen persona after all. Only because I really didn’t like being told what to do. “It’s just business, Keith. We don’t have to be best friends. I’ve been civil to you, haven’t I? That should be enough.”
