Page 31 of Open To Negotiation

I let out a breath and relaxed my shoulders, the tension bleeding away. “You’re getting in this car,” I said as she looked down.

“Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.” I frowned as she twisted a ring on one of her fingers. “Probably going to follow Noah,” she mumbled.

I smirked as I realized what her problem was. “Jealous, Love?”

“No.” She answered too quickly, only making my smirk grow.

She cared enough to be jealous and that made me fucking ecstatic.

I put a finger under her chin and lifted her head so she had to meet my eyes. “I’m not going to pick up a woman. Asher and I have apartments in the same building, we’ll ride home together. He has a service on call.”

“Oh, okay…” I locked eyes with her to make sure I saw understanding and then dropped my hand from her chin. “Guess not everyone can bring their personal driver with them across the ocean.” I stepped back so she could climb into the back seat.

“Text me when you get home.” I was surprised to realize I actually cared if she made it home safe, even though Arthur could provide that information to me. I wanted to hear from her.

“I’ll be fine.” She waved me off.

“Quinn,” I said firmly, which had her meeting my eyes again. “Text me,” I demanded. That got me a nod and a smile.

I took a moment to memorize the soft look in her eyes and that smile on her face before I shut the door. At least if she wasn’t coming home with me, I knew I would see her in my dreams tonight.

10

Quinn

The week was dragging by and it was only Wednesday, but it was made marginally better by the constant stream of texts that Theo had been keeping up with since I had texted him letting him know I was home safe on Friday night.

I woke up to a good morning text on Saturday, which was surprising. But even more surprising was that he carried on the conversation. I even made a comment that he didn’t seem like the type of guy who liked to text and he said he wasn’t. That had a smile growing on my face and butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

Work had been busy, I’d started each day at seven a.m. and wasn’t getting out of the office until after eight p.m. and even then, I had to go home and work in an attempt to finish everything I needed to.

When Theo had told Richard to clear my schedule and Richard had agreed, I don’t think he realized that I would be the one to clear it.

And that he would require me to do a shit ton of work so the projects just didn’t need me on them anymore. I had cancelled my volunteer shift this week because I could hardly take a bathroom break.

I rubbed my hands over my eyes and sat back in my chair. There was a cleaner vacuuming the carpet in the office, but the rest of the place was empty. I’d planned on doing an online Pilates class, something I’d been seriously lax with. But I was probably too tired and just setting myself up for failure or injury.

“Shit,” I said as I looked at the clock, it was nine-eighteen. I groaned and put my head down on my desk for a few minutes before pulling myself up, packing my things and making my way out of the office.

It was a beautiful April evening, despite it being dark the days were getting longer each night. Spring was in the air, and I was pretty sure it had rained earlier because everything smelled like fresh grass. I yawned as the cool breeze hit my face.

I lived just outside the core, so I couldn’t walk home but I would walk a few blocks and then grab a ride. I just needed a little bit of exercise and some fresh air since this was the most I’d gotten in a few days.

I knew it was a bad idea to not pay attention to what was going on around me, but I was looking up food on my phone, trying to decide what I was in the mood for. It was an important choice, especially since I’d been eating out all week. I was contemplating Greek food versus tacos when I ran straight into a wall.

I let out a squeak and started to fall backwards but managed not to fall flat on my face because someone grabbed my arms. I was relieved for zero point two seconds before I realized that meant that I hadn’t run into a wall, but a person and I was walking alone. At night.

“What the fuck are you doing?” His voice stopped me before I could panic.

I frowned, looked around, and decided he must have just turned around the corner I was coming up to. He was wearing a pair of black shorts and a tight black T-shirt. His hair looked a little darker with the sweat from what I am assuming was his evening run.

“Hey Theo,” I said sheepishly as I took a step back, but he didn’t drop his arms from me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He asked again in a low growl.

“Out of all the people in this city, I run into you, literally.” He didn’t say anything but raised an eyebrow. “I was walking.” He shot me an unimpressed look. “Sorry, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going. And honestly, with all that muscle I thought you were a wall.” He didn’t crack a smile at my compliment.

“I meant why are you walking with your head down?” I opened my mouth to respond but he continued. “Wait, no. I meant to ask why the hell you’re wandering around with your head down, at night, alone?”