Page 12 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

Alex wasted no time swapping places with me. There was a lot more brushing and pushing than was necessary as he did so. I made sure to project my displeasure so he’d know I did not appreciate his lack of respect for my personal space. I suppose he couldn’t help that he was large, though—so I cut him slack. Once finally settled into his spot by the window, Alex turned to me.

He patted the seat to his right invitingly.

My hands clenched into fists, and it took everything I had not to snap.

Maybe someone would sit in 16C—so we wouldn’t have to be alone.

They could act as a buffer so I could listen to one of the audiobooks I had downloaded to whispersync with my Kindle for the flight. Perhaps another wrinkled woman for Alex to throw himself at?

I had no such luck.

The person who sat next to us was a woman in what I guessed to be her early twenties. She would not be my savior, that was for certain. Because she fell asleep immediately after giving me an affable nod, her headphones tucked around her ears, making it clear she was not open to conversation.

I could feel Alex staring at me. I sighed before turning, very slowly, to meet his gaze.

He wasstillsmiling.

Little shit was obviously his default setting.

Leaning into me in a friendly but domineering way, Alex’s stupidly massive shoulders pushed against mine.

“Why the suit, you have a meeting in Ohio?” Alex said, as if he expectedme to want to talk to him. Goddamnit. The knowing glint in his eyes gave the illusion that he already knew what I was about to say.

“This is acasualsuit,” I gritted out, shuffling to get comfortable. I was hyper aware of the heat of his thigh where it snuggled tightly against mine. His legs were much wider than my own, and he flexed them so I could feel the muscle tense.

“A casual suit?” Alex echoed, and then he shifted his knee in a way that felt an awful lot like a rub. “Didn’t know that was a thing.”

I shuddered, then surreptitiously attempted to move away from him, because what the hell else was I supposed to do?

“Well, it is,” I said. His knee shifted again. “You have big legs,” I blurted with a grimace.

“Thank you,” Alex’s voice dropped lower, sweeter.

“Wasn’t a compliment.”

It had been. We both knew it had been.

“You ever heard of this thing called personal space? Truly revolutionary,” I asked as I bent down to scrounge around inside my backpack for my headphones—very carefully not knocking Neil free or allowing the woman to my right to see the contents of my bag.

“I like your personal space,” Alex flirted.

I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Maybe if I put my headphones in, he’d get the message? No talky-talky, please and thank you.

I mean, objectively speaking…Alex washot—like fire—but…the urge to stab him was growing with every passing minute. What had started as a preposterous idea was beginning to feel like a solid plan. I needed him to stop paying attention to me or I was going to implode.

I was not used to this kind of attention, and certainly not from a man who looked so out of my league he might as well have belonged to another planet entirely.

It made me feel like…

Like…

I don’t know.

It was better for all involved if we parted ways now, no speaking, no bonding—and no more of Alex’s personal brand of meaningless flirting.

I couldn’t survive it.

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