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“I’m too busy to deal with a relationship,” I explained, trying to brush off their words. It wasn’t even that I was too busy—I didn’t want one. There had only been one person I was ever into, and that ended in a fire of embarrassment and humiliation.

Fai placed his bowl on the coffee table and turned his whole attention to me. “We’re not saying you need a relationship, but you’re young. There is so much life to live, Goldie, and I worry you’re wasting it away on work. I say this because I love you like you’re my own, and I want to make sure you’re happy.”

I couldn’t be angry with him. He was just concerned. “Why bring this up now?”

“You’ve been extra pissy at work,” Oliver explained, and a startled laugh spilled from my lips at his words.

“Pissy?” I chuckled.

He nodded. “I know Lex gets on your nerves, but it’s been worse lately.”

I rolled my eyes. “Lexington has been especially annoying as of late. He deserves it.”

Oliver raised a hand in surrender, his fork held in the air. “I’m not disagreeing with you. It’s just been… well, worse. And now you’ve agreed to mentor him, and I just worry about you, okay?”

“You’re mentoring him?” Fai asked me with a raised brow.

“Unfortunately. Jackie convinced me.”

“Good,” he muttered. “It’s time you put your feud with Lex to the side.”

I shot him a glare. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“If you told me why you disliked him so much, maybe I would be,” Fai challenged with a smirk. I shot him the bird, and he barked out a laugh, picking his bowl back up and diving into his food.

“Why do you have such disdain for him?” Oliver interjected curiously.

I raised a brow at him. “Is that why you’re here? These ulterior motives Fai mentioned—are you here on behalf of your brother to force him onto my good side?”

Oliver shook his head, amused. “No, I’m just curious, is all.”

“If it makes you both feel better, I’ve already decided to turn over a new leaf. All past grudges are being put to the side, and I’m going to help him with this new article,” I explained. “We should all be proud of me.”

Oliver laughed lightly, and Fai watched me curiously but didn’t say anything. I had a feeling he could see through my words and knew my grudge very much lived on.

“Good,” Oliver mused. “Now that we’ve decided that… back to you dating. You should do it.”

I groaned. “No.”

“Come on!” he complained. “For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been into one person. And that was years ago. What even happened with that?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing. He invited me on a kind of date, kissed me, and all but forgot about me. I’m not interested in dealing with that again.”

Oliver sighed. “Well, he sucks, but you should at least get out there.”

I rolled my eyes, taking a big bite of my food to give me time to think about how I could shut him down. Dating would mean opening up to someone, and I didn’t do that. The one time I considered it, the guy ghosted me and slept with someone else the night of what I thought would be our first date. I was in no mood to relive that.

“Let her be,” Fai interjected, and I shot him a thankful look. He turned to me. “Promise me you will at least consider stepping away from work a bit more.”

I nodded, still chewing. It was the least I could do. I would consider the hell out of it. As for actually doing it… well, work was my life. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. My work had given me my family, my friends, my purpose.

Goldie

It felt rare to see an actual analog clock these days, and most of the ones I did see were broken or simple decor pieces. The one I had been staring at was neither, but an actual timepiece tracking the time that had passed. I watched the seconds tick by on the clock—one after another, rounding the face over and over and over again.

Lexington was late… again. Twenty minutes this time.

Our first meeting to go over the case we were working on together was supposed to be today. I had been on time. In fact, I was fifteen minutes early to the coffee shop.