Page 119 of The Bet
So she explained why. Focusing on facts and talking about test results and internships; taking the emotion out of the equation was easier.
“Internships aren’t a big deal. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself about it.”
“Easy for you to say.” A guy like him had probably been making contacts since kindergarten. “Do you want me to show you how to do those charts?”
“Good idea,” he said, standing up quicker than she would have liked. Maybe he was busy, and she was in the way. “I could ask my other VAs to do it,” he explained, walking towards his office area and giving her no choice but to follow, “but by the time I’ve explained everything to them, I might as well have done it myself.”
She noted that he had changed his screensaver. Now it was the Ferrari. No woman.
“You click a row, then hold the Command key down, and then you can select non-adjacent cells,” she said, feeling unsure as she tried to explain something she did automatically. Now that she had to think about it, she found herself second-guessing her actions.
“Okay.”
“And then you drag it like this,” she highlighted the row of figures.
“I can never get that to drag down and keep all those selected.”
“And you’re supposed to be the poster boy for Apple products!”
“I’m not as smart at you.”
“It’s not about being smart, it’s just tricky. But once you get the hang of if you won’t even have to think about it.” She looked at him, then at his lips, then brought her gaze to his eyes again and hoped he hadn’t noticed. “Try it,” she suggested, and tried to move out of the way, but she was sitting down, pinned in her seat, as he gripped the mouse and tried to follow her instructions.
“Like this?” He tried to highlight the cells, but as he got to the bottom, he lost the selection.
“Like this,” she said, their hands brushing as she took control of the mouse.
She could feel her heart pounding and ground down on her teeth, attempting control. She was already aware of his own familiar smell of cologne, the mix of cool and sweet that was so undeniably him. But he had a heat about him, and she could feel it, could feelsomethingwhich set her on edge. It didn’t make sense, this high state of alertness where she could hear every breath, see every eye blink, see the dark hairs along his jaw, and inhale his scent.
She was turning into one of those girls she detested.
“Try again.” She moved her hand away, letting him take the mouse, and she watched as he tried again.
She kept her gaze on the screen, even though a strange feeling in her stomach heated up, making her not pay much attention to his attempts to highlight the correct cells.
“What keys is it again?”
“It’s …” She didn’t know how to explain it, like driving, or riding a bike, she only knew how to do it, but found it almost impossible to explain to someone else.
“Watch me again.” She repeated her actions.
He sighed loudly. “You must think I’m thick.”
She turned her head sharply towards him, their faces so close now she could taste his breath. “No. I don’t.”
He moved away first, raising to standing, his hands in his pockets. “This is why I don’t have any of those pretty charts. I couldn’t be asked to put them in. I don’t have time to make things pretty in my reports. I just give people the facts.”
She turned around in the swivel chair, now able to because he had taken a step back, out of her personal space. “I don’t think you’re thick. Tobias probably delegates a lot of his stuff to other people.”
Why was she making this be about Tobias?
“I’ll leave you to do those reports, Laronde. Be extra work for you—unless you have a problem?”
Extra work? No, she didn’t have a problem. “That would be great.”
“There might be a further delay on the extra work with the new business in China.” He looked down and shifted from one foot to the other. “I wish I hadn’t raised your hopes.”
“You didn’t.” She didn’t want him to feel bad about it. “I’d already dialed the hours down.”
