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Her hair was piled on top of her head, sticking out everywhere. Her face was red, and sweat beads were rolling down her cheeks.
“Why the hell do you look like that?” I asked, waving my hand at her head.
She glanced down and then turned her attention back to me, her brows drawn together. “You know, for a certified genius, you’re kinda dumb sometimes,” she quipped, not answering my question.
I just stared at her.
With a huff, she finally responded. “Sports bra, shorts, tennis shoes. Doesn’t give it away?” When I just continued to glare, she rolled her eyes. “I’m working out!”
I snorted. “Since when do you work out?”
Her only response was a glare.
“Uh-huh. Well, you think you could maybe do it a little quieter?”
She put her hands on her hips and stomped a foot. “I wasn’t that loud.”
“Piper. I could feel the music.”
She grinned. “Gah, me too. I love that song.” She began humming, “After the poison summer’s gone… What do you think that means? Poison summer?”
Was she punking me?
“Poison summer?” I asked, one eyebrow arched.
Her eyes were bright as she nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. What does it mean?”
I couldn’t help it. I tried. I really did. But resistance was futile. And before I knew it, I was bent at the waist, belly laughing.
“What is so funny?”
I sat back up in my chair and swiped at the moisture that was pooling in my eyes. Piper’s own eyes were narrowed on me, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Piper, they aren’t saying poison summer. It’s ‘boys of summer’.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but then clamped her jaw shut. With a tilt of her head, her eyes went to the wall behind me and I could see the gears turning in her head. Finally, she gave a little shake of her head and looked back at me.
“Yeah, I guess that makes more sense.”
Laughter escaped my lips again, coming from deep in my gut.
“Did you actually need something, or did you just call me in here to laugh at my expense?” she huffed.
I’d called her in my office to yell at her for being so damn loud all the fucking time. But now I didn’t have the heart to embarrass her any more than she already was. Besides, I’d had a shit morning, and the bit of comic relief she’d unwittingly bestowed on me was just what I needed. Not that I was going to tell her that.
Not to mention, that Piper in workout gear was pretty easy on the eyes. So easy, in fact, that it was an effort to keep my gaze trained on her face.
“Uh, yeah. You think you could turn the vo
lume down? Like, way down?” I asked, a trace of humor in my voice.
“It wasn’t that loud!” she argued again.
“My boss could hear it,” I told her, pointing to where my phone sat on top of a stack of papers.
“Oh,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Her eyes left mine and she looked down at the floor. When she looked back up, her eyes were sparkling. “Remember when you decided you were going to be a rock star?”
