Page 71 of Even If the Sky is Falling
“It wasn’tthatfunny,” I interjected once she’d regained most of her composure.
“It was.” She fumbled around on the desk behind her until she found a box of tissues to dab at her eyes. “I mean...” She waved around at our surroundings. “You once pushed me down a flight of stairs when we were racing to get to a research opportunity first and now we’re back here together for the end of the world. And you’re—what?—hitting on me? It’s funny.”
She looked young in that moment, dabbing at her eyes. She looked young in a way I know I used to look, too.
“I wasn’t hitting on you.” That was a lie. Kind of. I hadn’t intended to hit on her, but when the words left my mouth, I knew I wanted her to play along or volley back. “And you tripped. We were racing and you tried to jump in front of me on the stairs and you tripped. I didn’t push you. I would’ve never done that.”
She cocked an eyebrow and narrowed one eye. She was wearing makeup, dark shading around her big, brown eyes, and I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen her in makeup.
I learned a long time ago it was never my place to comment on a woman’s appearance, or anyone’s appearance for that matter, but I thought she didn’t need it. The rich color on her lips, though, that drew my eyes to her mouth in time to see her lips part to speak. “No. You’re about to twist the truth, but I came back to help you and you still tried to beat me to Dr. Hart’s office, hobbling along.”
“I got there first.”
My phone buzzed on the desk and a calendar reminder flashed on the screen.Reminder: Edison Alumni Awards Banquet, one hour.In fifteen minutes, everything had changed and my laugh wasn’t as raucous as Piper’s but I chuckled. “I let you win.”
She sat back in her chair, crossing one shapely leg over the other. “Still counts.”
I let my eyes fall to her strappy heels and wander over her ankles before meeting her gaze. “You’re pretty cocky for someone in the wrong shoes for a rematch.”
She bounced one foot, the buckle on her shoe catching the light. “It’s not being cocky when you’re the best.” She glanced around the office. “I guess we should make a plan. We’re supposed to shelter in place but we could try to get somewhere.”
I walked to the door and looked up and down the empty hallway. Everything was unnaturally still. It was unsettling to be in a place you always felt teemed with so much life and energy, and have it feel so still. “I don’t know where we’d go. We’re in the middle of rural Iowa. Should we see if anyone else is in the building?”
I glanced over my shoulder and watched her rise to her feet, again smoothing her hands down the front of her dress. “Good idea. Maybe someone is working late and will save us from being alone together.” Piper bent to fix something on her shoe and the full round ass that had arrested my every waking moment in college had only gotten better and more appealing since we’d last seen each other.
Great. I’m going to greet the end of the world with an erection.
3
Piper
We’d searched the top three floors of the building and hadn’t found a single soul. “It’s ironic,” Hale said, trying the last door on the hall, even though we could see the lights were off. “But you have to give it up for their commitment to work-life balance. Friday night and no one working late.”
“Self-care is so important,” I returned, trying the doorknob nearest me. It twisted slightly left and right but the door was locked. This old building, constructed in the fifties, was all concrete and the fluorescent lights gave everything an eerie hue. In college, we’d joked how vampires would be at home in this fortress so guarded from the sunshine and natural light. I wondered what we’d see if we looked out a window. We’d somehow both silently decided we didn’t want to know.
“I guess we should try to find some food,” I said walking back toward the elevator. All this preparation for the day the sirens would go off and I hadn’t thought to put even a granola bar in my purse. “You probably have a fully stocked blast shelter at home, huh?”
I was ready for a witty comeback as we stepped into the elevator.Huh. Are we supposed to be taking elevators?I tried to remember the guidance we’d all gotten nonstop for months, but Hale’s lack of a comeback pulled me into the present. “Is that a yes?”
He shrugged again. “My ex has one. She got the house.”
Well, don’t I feel like a jerk.It was easy to forget Hale wasn’t the same soft-spoken boy I’d met freshman year. He’d been married and a pang of jealousy I didn’t like hit me. Of course, never one to lean into emotions, I kept going. “You should have fought for half of the canned goods and toilet paper.”
“Oh, thanks to my great lawyer, I got all the supplies, just no shelter.” He snapped his fingers. “But if a robber was in my apartment when the sirens went off, he’s in luck.”
“Could be she, or they. Don’t be so provincial, Edison. The worlds of thieving and squatting are not just a man’s game anymore.”
“Sisters and siblings are out here doing it,” he said, leaning against the wall of the elevator car as we descended to the floor below. “Don’t worry. I heard you put enough entitled white boys in their place in college. You don’t need to remind me.”
I met his eyes. “Entitled white boys like you?”
“Hey, I may have been entitled and a white boy, but I always appreciated the power of women.” His smirk was annoying and sexy and annoying. I couldn’t decide which and the conclusion ping-ponged in my mind, even when his eyes dipped from my eyes to my lips in an exaggerated way. “Always.” In the time I knew him, Hale adopted a confidence that bordered on cocky, but it always seemed like an act to me. Between classes and research and work, I might have spent more time in college with him than anyone else. Still, I’d imagined what would happen at the intersection of that confidence and my body.
I didn’t want to react to the way his expression changed ever so slightly and just for a flash, but I did, the familiar heat moving up my spine until me shaking my head was one part waving off his ridiculousness and the tail end of a body shudder. “Anyway. I guess the robbers in your house will be okay.”
Hale nodded, looking around without meeting my eyes. “Is there...anyone at home with your supplies?”
“Not that I know of.” I didn’t tell him I’d always lived alone, never finding someone who challenged me enough to risk taking a relationship to the next step. No one who challenged me in the way he had.
