“What do you want, Elliot?” I ask as I close the door.
His eyes find mine. “You know what I want.”
“No, I actually don’t.” I walk over to the window and stare out over the street.
I don’t know what to say without sounding needy or whiny, perhaps just plain bitchy . . . damn it, I don’t even know what I am.
“The thing is . . .” he says.
I turn and sink down to sit on the floor, up against the wall.
He stops what he’s saying mid-sentence and we stare at each other, and after a while he comes and sits down on the floor beside me, his back against the wall like mine.
We sit in silence and stare straight ahead. It’s like he doesn’t know what to say either.
A first for Elliot Miles.
“What did I say?” he asks softly.
“When?”
“On the second day that we met and you told me that I had blue eyes, what did I say?”
“I don’t remember,” I lie.
“I’ve been thinking about this. There’s a reason why you’ve hated me for all these years.”
I stay silent.
“Just tell me.”
“You told me that you didn’t appreciate women being inappropriate in the workplace.”
He frowns.
“And I . . .” My voice trails off as I stop myself.
“You what?”
I shrug.
He continues to stare straight ahead and we sit in silence for a while. “Kate . . . at the risk of sounding conceited . . .”
“You . . . sounding conceited?”
He smirks.
“Go on.” I smile.
“I get hit on by women a lot . . . and it’s not because they like me.”
I listen.
“It’s my surname and bank balance that women find attractive.”
My heart drops.
“I deflect flirting all day long, I don’t even notice that I do it. My brothers are the same.”
I frown.
“So, when you told me that I have big blue eyes all those years ago—not that I remember you doing it, by the way—I obviously took it that you were hitting on me . . . and I put a stop to it before it carried on.”
I bite my lip as I listen intently.
“Is that why you’ve been a bitch to me for all these years? To show me that you weren’t flirting?”
“I’ve been a bitch to you because you’re an asshole.”
He drops his head and chuckles.
I find myself smiling too. “Well, it’s true.”
He picks up my hand and links his fingers through mine. “What are your reservations about doing this with me?”
“Well.” I glance over at him. “Don’t you think it’s weird that you’re suddenly attracted to me?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “I do, I can’t explain it.”
I frown again; that’s not what I was expecting him to say.
“I don’t know why this happened but it was instantaneous. I saw you dancing in your red netball dress and I got hard.”