Page 13 of Once Upon a Star

“I don’t care. Get out of my office.” She pointed to the door.

“This isn’t your office,” I said and smiled up at her.

She let out a frustrated groan and I couldn’t help it, I laughed. She stopped and glared at me. “Do you think this is funny?”

“Hilarious, really. And sexy.” I leaned back in the chair and looked at her.

“My life, my livelihood, my career, everything that I’ve worked for is not hilarious and it certainly is not sexy.”

“I don’t know. Intelligence and confidence always looked sexy on you. It’s only gotten better as you’ve gotten older.”

“Screw you,”

“Please,” I said.

It was my turn to put my hand up to stop her from hitting me, though I certainly felt like I deserved it. The words had come out before I knew they were there. She shook her head and turned away but not before I saw her blush. She might be annoyed with me but she was enjoying the banter as much as I was. She might not like me but she was still attracted to me. While I enjoyed her fighting with me, I had gone too far.

As much as I hated to admit it, she was making some very valid points. I might want to talk to her. I might have gotten used to getting whatever I wanted but I was going about it the wrong way. I shouldn’t have come to her place of work and demanded to spend time with her.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a moment.

“Wha—What did you say?” Ara looked visibly confused.

“I do know how to say I’m sorry. I can admit I’m wrong when I need to.”

“You can? This might be the first time I’ve ever heard of this. Tell me more.” Ara didn’t look as annoyed but more amused by me. It was still there, just not as prevalent. I could see I was getting to her, which was a first. She leaned back and sat on the edge of the desk and glared at me.

“You know, you drive me crazy,” I said after a moment.

“Are you saying you being an asshole is my fault?” Ara asked.

“Yeah, that didn’t come out right. I miss you. I want to see you. I think you want to see me but you’re too stubborn to admit it.”

“Again, blaming me.” She raised her eyebrows at me.

“I’m not the only one who can be stubborn. I’m not the only one who gets an idea in their head and won’t quit until it happens.”

“Okay. Still waiting for this apology you were so proud of moments ago.” She waved her finger in a circle as if to make me get to the point.

I smiled and nodded. “I might have taken trying to see you a bit too far. What can I say? I was willing to do anything to see you. To get you to talk to me. Can you blame me?”

“This was too far. You know that.” She continued to glare at me.

“Yes. I see that now. But I have blinders on when it comes to you.”

“What were you going to do? Come into the suture room with me? You hate the sight of blood. Come to think of it, I think I should make you follow me around just so I can take video of you fainting. I could make a lot of money selling that. I could probably pay off my college bills.”

“If you really wanted to do that, I would be willing.”

Ara laughed. “You would be willing to make a fool out of yourself so that I could make money off it? I doubt that.”

“If it would make you believe that I was sincere about wanting to talk to you, I would. I would do anything, Ruin my career. Eat mushrooms on my pizza. Whatever it took.”

“Mushrooms on your pizza? Wow. You really do want to talk to me.”

“I thought that was clear.” I stood up and Ara did the same. I ached to take her hands but I knew I couldn’t. “I keep screwing things up when it comes to you. I don’t know why I do, but I want to stop. Tell me what I can do to get you to have a drink with me, dinner, a walk through Central Park. Anything.”

“You are an idiot, you know that,” Ara said and shook her head.