“Nothing. Just tired today.”
“How’d the date go? Late-night partying with demons can make you really tired.”
“It wasn’t a date,” I said, walking back toward the office. I stopped right at the doorway, teetering between wanting to watch or just run out of the building, as was my fallback position. It made me wonder why I’d given up on running. It was such an easy way to be. There were none of these issues if you stayed on the surface with everyone and everything and took off when things got too deep.
Oscar walked over and leaned near the door beside me. He paused, his eyes narrowing on the same scene I was watching. The sight seemed to have frozen him.
“What’s going on over there with them? Is this actually becoming a thing?” Oscar whispered, staring at Gilli and the way she leaned just so, making it appear like her breasts might tumble out of her shirt at any moment. Hawk laughed at something she said.
“I think it’s fairly clear what’s going on. He doesn’t look as if he’s swatting her away either, so it must be mutual.” I never should’ve had a sip of her cocoa. My chest was burning like it had been laced. Was I going to drop dead? Maybe she was going to try to poison me.
“No.”
Oscar’s tone drove my attention away from dying. His eyes were hard, the lines of his face stark enough that I wondered if he was afraid of some bad cocoa too.
Oscar pointed toward Hawk and Gillian. “That is not happening. I’m going to have to step in again, because you’re blowing things up. The work I’m putting into this, and you keep on wrecking it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Oscar’s attention was fixed on the duo with an alarming intensity. “Hawk’s as close to a brother as I’ve ever had. He’s saved my ass many a time, and he’s going to be in my life until I drop dead, which means I better damned well like whoever he ends up with.” He pointed in Gillian’s direction. “That one annoys me.”
I shrugged. “She annoys everyone, but that doesn’t make her the worst person ever.”
Even the way she was flipping her hair right now was annoying. What was wrong with her? She looked like she had a crick in her neck. I wanted to walk over and give her a not-so-gentle adjustment.
Oscar shook his head. “She’s too nice, but she’s not nice at all. She never says anything explicitly bad, but nothing very nice either. She never gives anyone dirty looks. She’s like a plain scoop of vanilla with something rotten on the inside. I would rather have Belinda back.” He broke his gaze from them to give me a sly nod in their direction. “You killed the last one. Any chance?”
“I didn’t mean to kill Belinda. It just happened.” I glanced at Gillian. “She makes the best chocolate in town.”
“I’m telling you, a week with her and you’ll be looking to drown yourself in her cocoa. No. This won’t do at all.” Oscar shook his head and groaned. “He can’t be interested. That woman couldn’t get a sail up in a tornado.”
“Are you saying she can’t get a man hard?” I asked.
“Yes, Tippi, that is what I’m saying. It’s your fault if he ends up in a relationship with her. Then we’ll all get stuck with her. And don’t act like you’re okay with this either. I can nearly feel the anger rolling off you.”
“I am fine.” Hawk could do what he wanted. I’d come to terms with that, and Oscar would as well. But if this continued, I’d have to find a new place to live. No way could I stay here.
Oscar was still shaking his head. “It’ll be Belinda 2.0. Instead of a raving bitch, we’ll be bludgeoned to death by boredom and bravado. I’m telling you right now, I’m not having it.”
“There’s nothing you can do. If they have something, that’s between them.”
“You really think that those two fit?” He was smiling now, in spite of how annoyed he was a second ago. “I don’t think so, and there’s plenty to be done about it.” He pushed off his side of the doorframe to lean on mine, resting a hand over my shoulder and then dipping his head, his cheek grazing mine. “I’m telling you now, I’m not giving up easily, and I can fight dirty.”
“What are you going to do, Oscar?” There was a gleam in his eye that made me think of masked men sneaking about at night.
Hawk’s attention shifted in our direction, his gaze lingering on Oscar, almost as if he could smell something afoot. Oscar’s gaze was still on me as he leaned in closer, his broad shoulders blocking my view.
“I think we’re going to have to take some drastic steps.” He smiled, his tone flirty.
“What are you doing?” He was cranking out sex appeal the way Gillian cranked out cocoa. It was enough to make my body waver over whether this was real or not.
“You know what I’m doing,” he said.
“Do I?”
There was a flicker in his eyes. “I think so, but I might be open to diversions from the plan.”
“Hawk, are you walking me?” Gillian called out across the office.
There was no response.
Oscar’s smile grew as his shirt brushed mine.
“Hawk?” Gillian called again.
The door shut loudly a few moments later.
I glanced over in time to see Gillian and Hawk crossing the street, my heartburn making a return.
I turned my attention to Oscar, who was still standing a hair away from me.
Oscar’s gaze lingered on my lips. “If I wasn’t so sure I’d be runner-up, the things I would do…”
He broke away before I had a chance to argue that he was wrong about my feelings for Hawk.
23
The door to the office opened. Zab, Bibbi, Musso, and I all turned to see who was walking in. We had so few people coming in these days that any activity had everyone’s attention. I immediately dropped my gaze again. This wasn’t a visitor I was interested in seeing. The visits from Xazier were enough of an issue. Someone else could handle the high ground.
Lou continued into the office and no one said a word in greeting. If I had the nerve to glance up, I’d imagine all their heads were down as well.
The footsteps continued until he was standing in front of my desk. I ignored him for another few seconds, because the bottom line was that a representative from “up there” was as scary as one from below.
Not able to take the tension a second longer, I broke and looked up slowly.
He was grinning. “So glad I caught you here. I wasn’t sure if this would be a good time.”
“For me?” I couldn’t stop the urge to glance around. There had to be someone else here he’d be more interested in talking to.
He followed suit, looking about the office before looking back at me.
I reshuffled some papers on my desk, acting as if I were so busy. “Maybe you’d want to talk to…”
His perpetual grin and shaking head made it clear. He was here for me, for better or worse.
“Do you have somewhere we could talk alone? I have an issue that I’m hoping we could come to an agreement on,” Lou said.
Oh God, the scary-ass angel wanted to talk to me alone. Musso, who wasn’t scared of anyone, was getting out of his seat in case he had to run for help. Bibbi and Zab were shoulder to shoulder, and people in Xest didn’t like to touch, even through clothing.