My gaze slowly moves along the shore. The sound of calm waves carefully caressing the sand leaves a cozy feeling deep in my chest. The fresh scents of the ocean and pure, untouched nature give a hopeful feeling to my fazed mind.
“I’m sorry, Maeve,” Ezra suddenly says in that deep voice of his.
“What for?” The nature has been so calming that I’ve forgotten what I was mad about.
“For acting the way I did. In the water before.” He glances at the back of his hands like they hold an answer to everything. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just… can’t get distracted now.” His head turns to me, and his tortured eyes find mine. “Do you understand?”
“Yes. You were clear from the beginning when you told me we just need to survive, and we don’t need to know anything about each other.” I look at the quietly splashing water before returning to him.
The corners of his lips fall down. “Yes, I said that. Didn’t I?”
I sigh. “You were right about that though. This, right here,” I wave my arm at the general direction around us, “is only for a few days. We don’t like each other, and our lives outside of this place definitely don’t align.”
He snorts. “Why do you say that?”
“P-p-please.” I roll my eyes. “Your underwear costs more than the whole contents of my sunken luggage. Including the suitcase. You probably spend fifty-five hours a day in your corner office overlooking the city and eat at restaurants every day where your assistant makes reservations for you.”
“That’s…” he swallows, “oddly accurate.”
“See.” I widen my eyes at him. I know. Because I used to be in the same world he lives in. “And I’ve been surviving on ramen for the past few years.” On cue, my stomach growls. I’d give everything for a bowl of ramen right now. I make a mental promise that when I get back to the mainland, I’ll never be sad eating ramen—it sure beats eating bananas. “My clothes are from thrift stores, and I work in a coffee shop. Inyourbuilding.” Then add with a sigh, grabbing a banana from the ground, “Well, used to work there anyway.”
“It’s not my building. It belongs to the company I own.”
I glare at him with a scrunched nose while angrily peeling the banana. “Does it really matter? We’re not going to see each other again, and it’s for the best. This, right here, is a fantasy. Once real life hits, your snobby nose will be tipped back up, and I’ll turn back into a pumpkin.”
“Don’t you want to change that?”
“A-a-a-and just like that, your nose is back,” I say with a glare.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” He throws his arms in the air. “I’m genuinely curious. You’re young. Smart. Why do you stay at the place where your boss treats you like shit?”
“How do you know he does that?”
He gives me ac’monlook.
“Do you enjoy it?” he keeps pushing.
“Of course not!” I blow up. “But people have different life circumstances. Plus, I don’t have a college degree to get a well-paid job. I’ve been trying for the past few months, and look where it got me.”
“You don’t have to have a college degree to get a well-paid job.”
My turn to snort. “Right. Say it to the people in HR of every company in the world.”
“My company hires a lot of people without a degree.”
“To do what? Bring you coffee?”
“That too. But once they prove themselves, they move up in the company. We don’t keep good employees just because they have a degree. It’s the twenty-first century, Maeve. We’re better than that.” His tone is sure of the words he speaks. Like he’s living in some alternate reality.
“If you believe that, then you’re even more delusional than I am.” Shoving the peeled banana into my mouth, I start chewing it like a maniac.
He blinks. Then blinks again. And then starts laughing. “You’re a bit odd, that’s for sure.”
I grab another banana from the bunch, rolling my eyes at his unfunny comment.
“But I like it. Turns out I was missing odd,” he adds with a soft voice.
“Great. Happy for you,” I deadpan.
