Todd waved off my apology. “Whatever. I’m over it.”
I knew deep down that he wasn’t. It was why he drove himself to become a partner at his law firm before thirty-five. It was why he married and had kids first. It was why every conversation between us usually imploded into Todd airing his grievances. Todd was light-years ahead of me. Not much of a competition. If he could get his head out of the bottom of a glass of rum, maybe he could see that.
We sat in silence for several minutes, avoiding each other’s heated glares until Todd’s head was unsteadily nodding. Yep, he was officially drunk. I was never sure which Todd I was going to get when we went out. Baby brother with the sage advice or the heated, inebriated one who liked to dredge up old stuff and reopen wounds. I guess today I was getting heated, inebriated Todd.
I let out a sigh, running a hand over my head. “Todd, I didn’t come here to argue with you. I just… I just wanted to talk to you. Get your advice.”
“Why? Why do you care what I think?”
I laughed uncomfortably. “Because despite your bullshit, I love you. And when you’re not two sheets to the wind, you give good advice.”
Todd mumbled “whatever” under his breath, then got up from the table, wobbly but still standing. “I’m going to go to the bathroom…no…the bar. Maybe they have something stronger than this weak-ass rum.”
I slid his keys off the table into my pocket. No way was he driving home.
Chapter Twelve
Porter
“What about this elevation?”
“No. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Then give me a better solution because nothing you’re suggesting is working.”
Ari and I had been going at it like this for days. Our kiss was the elephant in the room, making our work dynamic weird, and running into her at Dunn’s River Café had only compounded the tension. The vibe I had bragged about to my brother was clearly off.
I stared at Ari, raking my hand over my head. Her eyes darted away from me, choosing to stare out the window. “Porter, we’ve been at this for hours. I need a break.”
I shrugged, loosening my tie. “Sure. Whatever you need.”
Ari nodded with a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes. I watched as she made her way toward the door. I took off my glasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I couldn’t sit here and say nothing. We could either dance around what happened or address it head-on.
After a few minutes, I made my way toward the break room. In the cramped space, we did an uncoordinated two-step toward the coffee machine, trying to keep a respectable distance between us.
“Sorry,” I said as we simultaneously reached for the last espresso coffee pod.
“It’s okay. You can take it,” insisted Ari, pulling her hand back.
“No. It’s all yours.” I watched as she did her morning ritual of way too much sugar and cream in her coffee cup, her head straight ahead avoiding me.
“Where’s the coffee to go with that sugar?” I quipped, hoping to elicit at least a chuckle out of her. I reached for one of the tea pods, opting for Earl Grey. Not my favorite but it would have to do.
Ari shrugged. “Sugar helps me focus.” She stirred her coffee slowly and turned to face me, looking directly at me for the first time in hours.
“Ari, we need to talk about…”
She held up a hand. “We really don’t. What we need to do is focus on our presentation.”
“That’s the thing, Ari. We aren’t focused.” I glanced into the hallway to make sure no one was approaching before closing the sliding glass door for privacy. “Everything’s been off since our kiss. Really since I ran into you at Dunn’s last week. Your emails are short. You scurry back to your office after we have a meeting. Ari, you won’t even go to lunch with me. I…” I miss us. I stopped myself before I could say that out loud.
I hated every moment of this. This wasn’t the woman I was enjoying getting to know just a week ago or the coworker with the brilliant ideas who understood my ideas. It sure as hell wasn’t the passionate, sexy as fuck Ari that I’d kissed on her porch. We felt like strangers.
After taking a sip of her coffee, Ari took a breath. “Porter, it was just a kiss. We’d been drinking. We just got caught up in the moment and the vibe. Right now, I really want to focus on our presentation at the end of the week. That’s what’s important right now.”
I threw up my hands. “Fine. But for the record, I wasn’t caught up in the moment. This wasn’t about the drinks or the vibe. I was fully present. That wasn’t just a moment for me, Ari.”