Page 31 of Lau Ahi
“Well, you’d be wrong.” Her commenting mid-conversation meant she’d heard at least part, if not all, of what we’d discussedand my irritation with her flared again. It was clear I wasn’t going to have an ally in anyone in this room.
We work better alone anyway.
“Wrong?” I looked at Margo trying to understand what she meant.
“Why might I need to interact with him? Matter of fact, why are you here?”
“Do you two know each other?” She glanced between the two of us the obvious familiarity clear in the hostile way I’d spoken to him.
“No.”
“Yeah.” He spoke over me in a way that infuriated me because I knew that Margo wasn’t going to let up on her questions now. She might not do it in front of them but she was now more intrigued about our connection and I didn’t feel like explaining it. Hell, I wouldn’t explain it, which would only piss her off even more.
God this school term is going to be impossible.
“I would hardly sayyeahwould be the right way to frame it.”
“Biblically would be accurate if accuracy is what you’re reaching for.” I knew he was trying to speak under his voice but it was so heavy that the sound carried anyway. Margo’s eyes shot to me and I had to pretend as though I hadn’t heard what he’d said while praying my face didn’t betray me.
“Excuse me?”
“We’ve had a mild and fleeting acquaintance.” He addressed Margo but didn’t bother to elaborate. Somehow his choice of words further pissed me off. More so than him actually being here.
“Fleeting?”
“Is that characterization insulting to you?” The side of his mouth quirked up into a semblance of a smile that I wanted to carve off his face.
I took a deep breath forcing myself to remain in control of this situation because I was done responding emotionally to him. “No. Just confirming, sadly.”
“You sound almost disappointed that I am reinforcing your prejudices about me.” He turned to me his focus putting Margo in the background of the conversation yet again. The narrowing of her eyes showed she realized she was the odd one out. And she didn’t like it.
My eyes widened, and my previous thoughts about maintaining my composure quickly flew out of the window. “Prejudices?”
“How else could you classify them?”
I bristled at his instances wishing he would let this drop. “I wouldn’t classify them at all since you are none of my business.”
If you say so, Dr. Asha Avery.” He hesitated before he chuckled slightly. “That’s not your real name.”
“Excuse me! Are you trying to be xenophobic?” Margo was hopping in with her white liberal feminism at a time it was truly not needed. I hoped that she would’ve just let me handle this since it was clear I was doing fine on my own but I should’ve known better. She thought she was being an ally but she was truthfully getting involved in a fight that she wasn’t equipped to handle. Of course her trying to check a man who was clearly ethnically non-white instead of having a talk with the asshole who didn’t respect my boundaries was par for the course.
“I’m not trying to be shit. But I can look at her and tell that’s not her real name.”
I rushed to speak before she further involved herself in a conversation that really needed to happen outside of the office. Or, not at all, really, because I wasn’t sure why this banter was needed. “And how would you know anything about me for a fact?”
“Because the vast majority of people who immigrated to England came in the last one or two generations. They all anglicized their last names in order to fit in. You seem to forget that my people have firsthand knowledge of how the English do things.” He stared at me knowingly and I had to give him credit because he wasn’t wrong. His last name was Polynesian and every one of those cultures had been done wrong by Europeans.
“Your people. Would that be the part of your heritage that is the Samoan or Hawaiian side?”
He nodded his head as though he were impressed with my being able to discern his heritage. “Picked that up did you?”
“It was hard to miss.” He was tall as shit and his features were clearly mixed with multiple Pacific Islander nations. There was still that one question that lingered but asking him would mean I was interested and I didn’t want that.
I thought I saw a fleeting blush steal across his face but he swallowed down the emotion as he regained his footing in our banter.
“You two seem to have an issue with getting along.” Margo’s voice broke the standoff that existed between the two of us and we both turned our attention to her.
“I would probably say that was the understatement of the year, wouldn’t you?” His sarcasm was made all the more hilarious by how deep his voice was. Hilarious and foreboding, which had Margo finally shutting up.
