Page 67 of Heartless
“What?”
“You roll your eyes a lot. It’s a good thing. You look less like a robot and more like a human. It’s also easier for me to read you.”
“If it was easier for you to read me, you wouldn’t make a show of defending me in front of Mel. Or leading me out of the building with your hand on me.”
He came with me to the passenger door of his car and opened it for me. “And if you really didn’t want anyone to know about us going out together, you wouldn’t stop for a chat with Mel. You wouldn’t take the dog from me. In fact if I didn’t know better, I could say you marked your territory.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not my territory.”
“See,” he pointed at my face. “You just rolled your eyes.”
Shit. I did.
And I also just saidshitin my head. Great. My mother would be delighted to hear me swear at the dining table.
“Come on, cupcake.” He waved towards the open door. “You can have your identity crisis on the ride to your mother’s house.”
We drove off from the parking lot. The fact I had started to show signs of emotional discomfort and swore in my internal monologue didn’t change my personality and I needed to challenge him.
“Mel is obsessed with you and she hates my guts. It’s not me marking the territory, it’s her.”
Was it true though? I could have just walked past her like the hundreds of times I had in the last three months.
“She's obsessed with me, huh?” A big smile stretched his mouth and I felt like I was going to be sick.
“Please tell me you are not one of those sleazeballs.”
“I will need you to elaborate about what type you are referring to before I can deny it.”
“The sleazeball that sleeps with his employees.”
He glanced my way but his eyes didn't meet mine. He looked embarrassed. I had never before seen him embarrassed.
“Honestly? I didn’t think I was, but it might turn out that I am.”
“Well, I wish you two a very happy, dysfunctional relationship.”
“What?” He asked like he wasn’t following the conversation at all.
“You and Mel. The moment I told you she had a crush on you, your face changed completely.”
“Changed how?”
“From amused to…pleased.”
“I love how observant you are. But it’s not Mel having a crush on me that pleased me, Madison.” He paused. “Would it bother you? If I slept with an employee?”
Picturing him and Mel together made my stomach turn. “No,” I lied.
“Thirty seconds ago you sounded disgusted that I might enjoy it and called me a sleazeball.”
“Forget about it. I'm on edge.”
“Why are you on edge?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said sarcastically. “It might have something to do with me having to play pretend in front of my family.”
“How is that different in comparison to what you have been doing the first thirty-two years of your life?”
