Page 49 of Married As Puck
I shake my head, trying to ignore the flutter in my chest. “You shouldn’t have, Cameron.”
“You need food,” he says simply. “So, eat.”
I fold my arms and glare at him. He’s not going to get away that easily. “You know, there are delivery apps for that, right? I could have easily made an order.”
He shakes his head. “Nice try, Brie but newsflash, I’m not leaving here until you have a bite.”
That shuts me up. I look down at the bag again.
“Fine,” I mutter, pulling it closer. The smell of warm pasta and garlic hits me, making my stomach growl loud enough for him to smirk.
“See?” he says.
I glare, but a smile tugs at my lips. I hate how right he is.
I glance up at him. He’s leaning against the edge of the desk, arms crossed, watching me eat without batting a lash.
I drop my fork with a clatter. “Seriously, though. I’m curious. What’s the catch? Is there a photographer hiding somewhere? Should I reapply my makeup?”
“No,” he says flatly. “Can’t a man just be nice?”
I want to tell him that nothing goes for nothing, but I resist the urge to. It will probably make him throw a fit and leave and I don’t want that.
I force a laugh, shaking my head. “Well. Congratulations, you’ve not only done a good deed by coming here but you have gotten Mrs. Randolph to believe our charade. Maybe you should drop by more often.”
He huffs out something that might almost be a laugh. “Noted.”
The apartment is too quiet when I finally drag myself into bed, the kind of quiet that’s unsettling. My body’s beat from today’s workload but my head won’t give into the exhaustion yet. It’s replaying everything that went down at the office like a reel.
My phone vibrates and I squeal when I see Julia’s name on the screen. Just the person I want to talk to.
“Hey, girlie.”
Her voice sounds tired but still carries warmth. “Hey, babe. Didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No. I just got back a while ago. I can’t even sleep.”
“Same,” she breathes out, this long sigh that sounds like she’s been carrying it all day. “I’ve been buried in my research work since this morning.”
I roll onto my side, frowning into the dark. “Yeah, how’s that going? Have you made any headway?”
“Yeah. Thought it would be simple, you know? Translate, compare, analyze, and go straight to documentation but the dialects here, damn, they’re so complicated, and the natives never give me straight answers. Most of their dialects boggles me. I can’t tell if it’s me not catching it or the fact that it’s just difficult. Either way it’s exhausting.”
I shut my eyes and picture her slumped over some desk with papers everywhere and a coffee that went cold hours ago. “Don’t quit. You’ll figure it out. You always do.”
She laughs a little, “I wasn’t planning on quitting. Just needed to rant for a minute.”
“Good,” I murmur, smiling into the pillow.
“So, Mrs. Hockey. How’s that going?”
I swallow nervously and stare at the ceiling, trying to find the right words. I finally sigh. “It’s complicated, Julia. I don’t know anymore.”
“Okay, spill all the tea. Now I need to know. Complicated, how?”
I cover my face with one hand. “We… slept together.”
She goes quiet, then whistles. “About time.”
