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Proveme, a trial lawyer, wrong. Someone who argues professionally for a living. Oh, this is going to be good.
Interested, I also lean forward. “Because they’refiction.”
“Huh. Interesting,” she says, but her tone tells me she’s anything but interested. I feel like she’s just getting started on her argument over useless books.
“What?” I ask, waiting for her to enlighten me.
“It’s just sad,” she says with a shrug.
“What’s sad?”
“Just that you don’t believe in love. You must not have experienced real love with a partner before.”
“Wow. You think so?” I say, sarcasm evident.
“Oh, Iknowso,” she replies, then stands and puts her purse on her shoulder.
“And why do you think that?”
“Because if you had, there’d be no question about it.” She bends over to whisper in my ear. “You’d know deep down in your soul what love feels like.” Her lips brush my ear, and my skin feels about a million degrees warmer. I feel a rush as my body feels paralyzed in this chair. “But you don’t have a soul.”
At that, she strolls right out of the office, and I watch her strut all the way across the street to Baked Inn Love in her wedge-heeled shoes.
I lean over and take a sip of her coffee. It’s good. Too good. It’s from Allie’s bakery, I know it. Decaffeinated coffee, my butt. That woman drinks enough caffeine for ten people and still does yoga calmly. No way she’s going for decaf.
I close my eyes, then open them. I look over at Theo, who’s somehow tried to fit himself onto the tiny animal bed under her desk. The raccoon is nowhere in sight.
“Theo. Where’s Pancake?” I lean down and scan under the desk for the wild animal.
Theo shifts, and the raccoon pops up from underneath him with his eyes half-closed like he’s just woken up. Jesus. He loves that raccoon.
* * *
I bury myself in work to avoid thinking about her lips grazing my ear and her ass in the air while she was doing yoga. And then that dress. She’s a weapon of mass destruction. But before she comes back, I switch the coffee in her thermos with the nasty coffee she had in the coffee bar. Serves her right. Then I finish Baked Inn Love’s delicious signature coffee. I wonder if Allie’s in on the pranks. Without a doubt. Beth, Allie, Mellie, and Paige are thick as thieves now.
Curious about what she’s up to, I head out to the front and find her reading one of the law manuals I set on her desk. There are all kinds of rainbow page flags sticking out of it. What the actual hell?
“Yes, Daddy Warbucks?” she says, glancing up at me over her glasses.
“Reading anything interesting, Sunshine?” I say with a smirk.
“Oh, yes. I have a lot of questions for you.”
My eyes widen and I groan. “Just go back to your Kindle, Paige.”
“Well, I would, but I actually have to leave soon,” she says sweetly. “I have a date tonight. You know, real romance. That exists.”
“Right,” I say dryly. What does she mean she has a date? Is she serious?
She flutters her eyelashes at me. “I do,” she says, then reaches into her ugly Afghan blanket-looking rainbow purse and pulls out a tube of lipstick. She turns her phone on to the camera so she can watch herself as she takes her time applying bright lipstick to lips I’m thinking very dirty things about. I freeze as she slathers the color on. Then she pops her lips and smiles at me in satisfaction.
“So I’d better be going. Any fun plans for you and Theo tonight?”
I stare at her and swallow, saying nothing. I’m still trying to come back to earth from watching her apply that lipstick. I’m her boss, I remind myself. Why am I letting her get to me like this?
“Well, I’m off,” she says as she picks up Pancake and puts him in his carrier. Then she rubs Theo’s head. “Bye, buddy. See you tomorrow,” she tells him, then kisses him on the head.
“Later,” she calls cheerfully as she slings her purse over her shoulder and strolls out with her raccoon.
