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“Good morning, Mr. Park!” The receptionist grins from ear to ear.
I smile back. “Please, Pen. That’s my dad—call me Liam. Being called Mr. Park makes my skin crawl.”
“Of course. Good morning, Liam.”
“Good morning, Penelope.”
I walk past Hannah’s desk as I barrel into my office, noting she’s not sitting in front of her computer. She is typically the type to start her work the moment she walks in the door and doesn’t typically say hello to me or Jackson until at least 11:00 AM.
As the leather of my briefcase hits the dark mahogany of my desk, Jackson clears his throat. I look at him, my movement only stuttering slightly at the sight of Hannah looking at me too.
“What’s up?” I try to act nonchalant, but the way her green eyes bore into me has my stomach doing somersaults.
“Hannah just got in.” At first I think Jackson is mentioning it because he clearly has caught on, but he just laughs. “She said she overslept too.”
She couldn’t come up with a more creative reason? Jesus, Hannah.
“Yeah, uh. I was up late. Raid night.” This appears to quell his interest.
I haven’t had as much time to game as I once did, which sucks. That being said, I also know it’s a necessary evil to face when building a life and career in your twenties.
“Raid night? What, can’t find friends inreal life—have to spend your nights playing video games with strangers online?” Hannah says.
The bite in her words doesn’t meet her eyes, but I retort anyway. “At least Ihavefriends. Online or not, at least people actually enjoy talking to me.”
We’ve thrown these exact jabs at one another before; it’s so common in my memory that I’m shocked Jackson doesn’t realize just how fabricated our animosity is. To my delight, he doesn’t say anything to imply he doesn’t buy into the narrative.
“Damn, it’s 10:45 AM. Talk about record time. Next time, at least let me finish my second cup of coffee before I have to be front row to the feud between the two of you.”
“Whatever, man,” I say as I make my way back to my desk. The stack of post-it notes from the morning I’ve missed causes me to sigh. Something tells me this is going to be far from a quick Monday.
TWENTY-NINE
HANNAH
The moment Jackson leaves, I find my way into his office and continue my workday from his desk. For the most part, I’ve been getting out of the office by 6:00 PM, but after showing up so late this morning, I opted to make up the time this evening.
Apparently, Liam had the same thought.
Silence sets in pretty quickly and I’m a bit surprised at our ability to focus on our work tasks so well after how things have been between us recently.
The ticking of the analog clock on the wall is a metronome of passing time, each minute seeming to stretch into oblivion. Liam hasn’t looked up from the stack of papers in front of him in over an hour, the clock striking 7:00 PM a reminder of how long that’s actually been.
“Everything okay?” I cut through the silence, earning a melancholy smile from Liam. My stomach ignites, swirling with anticipation but dying just as quickly when I see his exhausted eyes.
“Yeah, just trying to make sense of this transcript. I think I’m missing part of it.” He leans back in his seat beforebringing his hand to his eyes, wiping away the stale air that has settled over his skin.
Before I realize I’m moving, I’m standing at his side, peering over his arm to get a look at the paper in front of him. “Have you looked into the digital file? I know you prefer when you’re given the printed-out version, but every document that comes into Baker & Park is catalogued digitally too. Maybe the missing snippet is just a matter of a lost piece of paper.”
This lightens his expression, which makes me smile. “That’s a fantastic idea, Hannah. Can you print that out for me?”
“Sure.” I grin.
Liam’s hand wraps around my wrist as I attempt to walk away from him, stopping me.
“Did you need something else?” My concerned voice seems to loosen Liam’s grip and he drops his hand. I want to know what he was going to say, but I see his desire to say it leave just as quickly.
“Oh, uh. No, thank you, Hannah. Just get that printed for me.”
