Page 40 of Just for the Cameras
“You’re right. Mine is more interesting.” He sets his beer down and pulls his bottom lip over his top lip, wiping away the foam from his beer.
I punch down the irritation that spikes up my spine. “If you actually have me training, it’s going to be much harder for me to keep up, whereas you just have to—”
“Wash dishes? My hands get pruney quickly, and you haven’t taken it easy on me.”
I press my fingers to my brow and say, “Can you just…God, can you just be nice for one second?”
“Did you want to work over a schedule, or did you want me to be nice?”
“Can’t you do both?”
“Never been good at multitasking.” He takes another drink of his beer, this one bigger.
“Fine, be a jerk.” I start typing away on his phone. “What time do you want me at your facility?”
“Whatever time it says in my phone.”
I check out the time, and my eyes nearly bug out of my head. “Some of these are at six in the morning—like be there at six.”
“Exactly.”
My nostrils flare because I know this is just him being a jerk and trying to get back at me for something that wasn’t even my idea in the first place. Trust me, if I had a choice in all of this, I wouldn’t have asked for him to be an advocate for my flamingos, but here we are.
“Fine.” I’m going to have to talk to Phil about my schedule to make these times work, and the early mornings are going to be a rude shock to my system, but a deal is a deal, so I plug in some dates for the next month and then do the same for him, including the fundraiser events.
“What are you adding?”
“We have a board of directors event this coming weekend that you need to attend.”
“Says who?”
“Says Gretchen,” I shoot back. “It’s on the list of events that you haven’t plugged into your calendar.”
“I thought those were optional.”
I shake my head. “Nope. Mandatory.” I push his phone back to him and smile. “Looks like you’ll be seeing me almost every day for the foreseeable future.” I circle my finger around my head. “Get used to this face, because I’ll be everywhere, even in your dreams.”
“More like nightmares,” he mumbles.
“Yeah, well, you’re going to be in my nightmares too.”
He lifts a brow in my direction. “Great comeback.”
I lean back in my chair, planning an exit strategy. I could ask for my food to go because sharing a meal with this man is the last thing I want to do, but guess who is just stubborn enough to stick around to make things uncomfortable?
This girl.
If I have to eat my meal in silence, I will.
I will sit here until every last bite of my meal is consumed.
And that’s what we do.
We don’t talk.
We just sip our drinks, quietly avoiding eye contact.
I grab a piece of bread and put some butter on it while he picks up his phone and starts looking through some emails.
