Page 14 of Not the Plan

“No. Bad word.”

Once the retching stopped, he spoke at a normal volume. “Christina, are you okay?”

“I think—” She was cut off by another retch.

Wow.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Christina coughed. “Isadora, if you don’t mind, I’ll need to take this with me.” She kept the trash can close to her chest.

“Not a problem, Christina. Take all the time you need.”

“Thanks. Will you start, Karim? My notes are in that folder.”

“Sure thing,” he said.

Isadora chanced a look at him once Christina was gone.

“This is a surprise,” she said.

“It is.” He let out a long breath. “Not an unpleasant one, I hope.”

“No,” she smiled, thumbing an imaginary cardigan cuff. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You too.”

A faint charge crinkled the air between them, his eye contact as hesitant as hers.

“Just…so improbable, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He rolled his shoulders. “What are the odds?”

“Yeah.”

Each tick of the clock in the outer office clacked in Isadora’s ears, matching the thump of her heart.

“I, uh, didn’t guess right about your job, huh?” he asked.

“No.” Isadora chuckled. “Would have been funny if you had.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

He glanced around the room, looking just as nervous as she felt. She searched for something else to say.

“Poor Christina. And poor you.”

He brightened. “Why poor me?”

My god, he’s got a sexy smile.

She refocused on the words, not the lips. “It must be someexperience to land a new job and learn that one of your first tasks is to have a trash can at the ready in case someone needs to vomit.”

He laughed, warm and rich, sending shivers down her back.

“It has been…unique,” he said, taking off his glasses to clean the lenses. He glanced up at her through dark, lush lashes, and she had to squeeze her crossed ankles together as the room wobbled.

“I…I bet it has.” Maintaining eye contact got difficult again. “I’d die of embarrassment if I got sick at work,” she whispered.

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