Page 70 of Loathing My Boss
Viktor shakes his head as he plates my favorite breakfast for two and slides into the seat next to me. “The difference between a green smoothie made with hate, and a green smoothie made withlove.”
“For your edification,Viktor—” I lick love smoothie off my lip, “—hate tastes like flowers.”
“Flowers,” he says, then he stands. After disappearing into my guest room for a few minutes, he reemerges with a bouquet. “I got these for you while I was out shopping for breakfast.”
I blink—calculate. Breakfast…is an act of service. Now he’s on gift giving. He’s just ticking off love languages all willy-nilly this morning, now isn’t he? “A whole bouquet of hate?” I croon as he places the overwhelming number of blush lilies, pink roses, and lavender balanced with baby breaths in my arms. “You shouldn’t have.” I nuzzle the soft petals, letting their cloying scent fill my nose. “I shall gleefully watch them die.”
While I’m contemplating where in the world to keep the bouquet as it wilts into nothingness, a black and yellow splotch moves in the corner of my eye.
My stomach drops as a yellow jacket rises from a blush lily, locates me, and charges. I—obviously—squeak and fall off my stool.
“Crisis—” Viktor jolts, sees the wasp deadset on my demise, and lunges, swatting it away from me. He winces as the evil thing flings across the room, hits the wall, and lands on the kitchen tile.
Viktor’s shoe sends a horridcrunchpouring into the silence while I take deep breaths and cling to my flowers. Mytrapflowers.
Scrambling, I push the bundle away from me and sail backward like a crab.
“Crisis, are you okay?” Viktor drops to one knee beside me when my back hits the wall of my living room. He searches my face, looks at the flowers, cringes.
Heavy breaths fill my lungs as he examines the petals. “I think it’s safe now.” His shoulders sag. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please…please don’t think I planned this.”
Everything in me wants to.
But I can’t. Not while he’s babying his dominant hand—the one that swatted the wasp. Already, even from here, I can see a welt rising.
“Did it sting you?” I ask, the concern in my voice something wholly foreign to my ears.
He attempts to flex his fingers and winces instead. “Yeah, I think it got me pretty good.”
“Are you allergic?”
His head shakes. “Not fatally. It will swell quite a bit, though, then be gone in a few days. Nothing to worry about.”
And, yet, I worry.
Once again, he’s hurt because of me. Physically hurtbecause of me.
When he turns his attention back to me, care fills hiseyes. Probably, I can only assume, because I’m choking back tears. “Hey,” he soothes, approaching and pushing hair back from my face with his uninjured hand. “It’s okay.”
“Please.” I blink. A tear falls. He catches it on his thumb. “Give up now. Before something worse happens to you. People shouldn’t be this close to me. I’m a hazard. It’s not worth it. Unless you’re magical like Crimson and can premeditate hero moves,it’s not worth it.”
“You are worth everything, Crisis.”
I shake my head, hiding in the curtain of my hair. “This prank to get back at me isn’t going to be funny if something else, somethingworse, happens.”
Hard, he states, “Crisis. The green smoothie was a prank. Loving you is not. I’d handle a thousand yellow jacket stings if it meant you’d let me love you.”
“And how is that supposed to make me feel, Viktor?” I peer at him, past the loose strands of my hair. “How am I supposed to handle that if I figure out how to care for you in return? How can you expect me to watch someone I love get hurt for me?”
“You’ve dealt with all of this by yourself for twenty-seven years, Crisis.” Pushing my hair aside again, he cups my cheek. “I can at least help now. You don’t deserve to be alone. Not anymore.”
I cut my attention to his hand. “You’re blowing up like a balloon.”
“For someone who’s hated me so long, you really can’t stand it when I’m in physical pain.”
“Emotional is worse. Physical islazy.”
“Mhm.” Unhurried, he pushes aside my curtained bangs and kisses my forehead. “Is now a bad time to tell you that the majority of your emotional attacks I’ve found humourous and adorable?”
