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I snort out a laugh as I sit back down in my chair and spin it to face him. “The first time? I guess I should’ve been more clear with him. I figured he knew I wasn’t a virgin considering I’m a grown ass adult woman.”
Nicole seems to notice we’ve cut her out of the conversation even though we’re still talking in hypotheticals. She stands from her desk with her mug in hand. “Going to grab more coffee.”
“Maybe you were giving mixed signals to him, so he didn’t want to take advantage of someone clearly having a breakdown.” His voice is more cutting, and he’s absolutely right so I can’t really be mad. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to be though.
“You’re right. I clearly wasn’t in my right mind.”
He leans forward onto his forearms, lowering his voice. “Why are you angry with me?”
“I’m not,” I huff.
He shakes his head, leaning back in his chair and grabbing onto the armrests. “Did I do something wrong between yesterday and today?”
I roll my eyes, clicking around on my computer. “No, you didabsolutely nothingbetween yesterday and today.”
I cringe, closing my eyes for a moment. Even I can hear the disappointment in my tone. The words slipped out before I could stop them.
I regret looking at Declan the moment I do. His face tells it all. He knows exactly why I’m upset. I want to smack that smile off his face.
“What?” I ask, irritated.
“You’re mad I didn’t call you,” he says like it’s a fact.
“What?” I laugh nervously. “No.”
“Yes,” he says, slapping his hands on the desk and pulling himself forward. “You’re mad because you wanted me to call and talk about myfeelings.” He whispers the last part like it’s a bad word.
“You can shut your fucking mouth,” I laugh.
“I needed to take care of some things before I could talk to you,” he says all matter of fact like there was no question that he was eventually going to talk to me.
“Take care of things?” I ask sarcastically. “Oh yeah? Is that what got you beat up?”
His eyes drop momentarily before meeting mine again. His face is serious. I narrow my eyes, tilting my head to the side. “Declan…”
A hint of a smile appears on his face. He pushes off the desk and stands, clasping his hands together. “Well, I have a meeting with Ben.”
“Declan!” I call after him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What the fuck happened?”
His smile only grows as he continues to walk away from me. “I’m going to be late. We’ll talk later.”
“Declan! Don’t you dare walk out that door! What did you do?”
“We’ll talk! I promise!” he calls over his shoulder as he pushes through the office door to the hallway.
???
“You miss me already?” I tease as I lean into Mack’s hug.
He gives a nervous chuckle as he hands over my coffee. He got here a few minutes before me, so I texted him my order. We sit down at one of the barstool tables by the window.
There’s an uncomfortable pause as we both settle in. I already suspected this little coffee date had something to do with what happened to Declan, and the way Mack is behaving only confirms that.
He lets out a long sigh before beginning. “So the reason I wanted to talk today is…” He trails off like he can’t quite come up with the words.
I let out a nervous laugh. “Does this have something to do with whatever happened to Declan’s eye?”
His whole body cringes like he’s regretting the memory. He lets out another sigh before placing his hand on mine on the table. “Look, he really likes you.”
