Page 105 of As They Are
I rolled my eyes, but she was right. “Thanks, Mollie. I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Have fun getting yelled at if Henry catches you!”
I waved her off. Henry didn’t expect me to be there. I highly doubted he would even notice me.
Slowly, I got in my truck, cursing how high it was, and drove to the square. I parked right in front of the set, letting a PA pull my truck around to a better spot, and hobbled over to where we would do interviews.
“I’m here,” I told Madison. “What do you want me to do?”
“Finally.” She folded her arms across her chest. “The contractors have loads of questions for you.”
“They could’ve called me.”
“They would have if your little boyfriend hadn’t told them not to. I swear, two injuries and he’s acting like you almost died!”
She walked off in a huff, and I realized I had a line of people wanting to talk to me. I kept my weight on my good foot and listened to all of them. We were at an important part of the renovation, and my injury couldn’t have come at a worse time, so I tried to be as patient as possible, even as I grew tired.
“All right, enough questions.” Jude walked over and then stopped in front of me. “We have interviews to do.”
“I need to sit down,” I informed him. “Give me ten minutes.”
“The faster we do this, the faster you’re done for the day.”
“Jude, seriously. Stop pushing me. Didn’t you learn when I fell off a fucking ladder?”
He frowned. “I said I was sorry for that.”
“Was that as I was falling to the earth? Because I didn’t hear it.”
“Just—”
“No, Jude, my ankle fucking hurts and I need to sit for a bit! What’s gonna make you listen to me?”
“Maybe a doctor telling him to,” another voice piped in. “Because I specifically said she needed rest, and I’m sure you don’t want me to report you to OSHA for endangering heragain.”
Every hair on my arm stood. That wasHenry.And he was using his hot doctor voice.
I slowly turned. “H-hey, Henry.”
His chest puffed as he glared at Jude. He only spared me a glance. “We’ll be talking aboutyoulater.”
I probably should have been worried. That would be a normal reaction in the face of anger, but there was something about Henry that was sohotto me at that moment.
Maybe there was something wrong with me.
I wasn’t trying to do it on purpose, but every time he did this, I thought about it for days after.
“Fine.” Jude threw his hands up. “I guess I’ll just keep waiting and doing nothing! God, this is all soboring!”
Once Jude was gone, Henry was on me. “Wren. Sit.Now.”
I did what I was told, even though my thighs clenched at the order.
“In my defense, I was bored.” I said it the second I sat.
“So that’s a good excuse to work when I specifically told you not to?”
“I was only planning on doing an interview, not any real work. I couldn’t help that every contractor had a question for me, which kept me here for way longer than I intended.”
