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“Cool.”
Silence settled between them. When James didn’t say anything else, Everly set the cup on the desk and turned back toward her computer.
“V.” James rounded the reception counter. He waited until she looked up to speak. “I miss us.”
Once upon a time, Everly would have believed they were some kind of “us,” but now she wasn’t so sure. More likely, there had been a her, and a him, and the things she could do for him.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have used a whole-ass TV show to tell me to stop crushing on you.”
He jolted at her words as if she’d physically smacked him. “That’s not what happened.”
“Isn’t it?”
She’d learned that James was one of those people whose niceness was dangerous. They didn’t understand boundaries and it could make the signals they sent wildly unclear. Flirty and nice weren’t the same. And when you were someone who looked like him, who the whole world wanted to flirt with, you could forget that.
His golden eyebrows pulled together, and he frowned deeply.
Guilt soured her stomach, but Everly tried to swallow it down. Whyshould she feel bad? He was the one who’d wrecked them. If there ever was a them.
“I appreciate you nominating me for the show. It’s been a really great experience in so many ways.” She took a deep breath. “But”—his frown cut further into his face—“it wasn’t okay for you to decide you knew what was best for me. You should have talked to me, not submitted me to be on TV.”
He scrubbed at his face, then opened his mouth. She kept talking, though. It had been so long since she’d spoken her mind so openly, and now that the words were out of her, she didn’t want them back in. It was like someone had finally carved away the mountain that had been sitting on her shoulders all this time.
“Do you know how embarrassing it was to have you say that stuff to me on camera? I know I had no business kissing you, and for that I’m sorry, but you had no business touching and complimenting me when you didn’t mean it, never mind grinding up on me at the bar.”
His chin fell to his chest, and he scratched at the back of his neck. “I know it’s no excuse, but I got caught up in the moment, I guess. You’re fun to hang out with. We were having a good time. The music was great. You’re a good dancer. But your guy over there,” he gestured to the empty section of wall where Logan usually stood, “let me know how shitty I was being.”
“What?” This was news to her. Everly jerked back against her seat in surprise.
“Yeah. He let me have it. Totally ripped into me about leading you on and being a coward.”
Everly bounced a knee nervously beneath her desk. The same part of her that adored a good romance novel loved that Logan was trying to defend her, but she wanted to fight her own battles. She should have been the one telling that to James.
James cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to lead you on or embarrass you. But I can see why you felt this way.”
She appreciated that he recognized it now, but in some twisted way, Everly was glad this had happened. She’d needed the distance from James this whole debacle had given her to see that he was never the one for her. That made it easier for her to get the next words out. “Why do you always ask me to help you with projects? Is it because you know I’ll do it?”
“What? No. You’re just better than me. And we’re friends. Friends help each other out. I’m sorry if it felt like something else.” The expression in his eyes was genuine.
Everly nodded. “I want credit from now on, since I’m hoping to be back there in Design with you all soon.”
For the first time since they’d started talking, James smiled.
She couldn’t bring herself to return it. She was glad he’d apologized, but it didn’t fix anything. He’d still nominated her forOn the Plus Sidefor all the wrong reasons. He’d still led her on because he didn’t want to think harder about the implications of his actions. She knew now that James was someone she needed to be careful around, someone who needed a proverbial fence. Clear boundaries.
Once he’d walked away, she stood and gathered the materials sitting under her purse. Speaking so plainly to James had motivated her to do the other thing that she’d been putting off.
She left the smoothie on her desk, the contents untouched.
Bob Matten was in his office, forking pasta salad into his mouth as he watched recaps from a Red Sox game on his computer. When Everly knocked, he waved her in, a smile appearing under his salt-and-pepper beard.
Though he was probably only a few years older than her parents, there was something grandfatherly about Bob. It might have been theround bifocals, or how he wore golf shirts and khakis instead of suits, or the way he just always seemed happy to see her.
Everly perched on the edge of the chair across from his thick mahogany desk. “Do you have a second to talk?”
He smiled again. “I have many seconds for you.”
She blew out a breath. “I know that in the past the company has done pro bono work for fledgling charities and organizations, and I was wondering if you’d consider taking on another one.”
