Page 104 of So That Happened

I groan and scrub my face with my hand. “Ugh. I forgot about laser tag.”

Yet another one of SITL’s new HR initiatives to convince Wiseman we’re “fun.”

“Vanessa says it’s mandatory. No excuses.”

“I’ll be there,” I promise wearily. But my heart betrays me as a little thrill zips through me. Because not only do I secretly love laser tag… but the thought of running around a dark room with Annie?

It’s not so bad. Not at all.

32

ANNIE

“Who came up with the idea forlaser tag?” I ask Vanessa and Barb from the backseat of the car. Vanessa lives by the office and I’m still public transit dependent, so we’re both bumming a ride with Barb to tonight’s team bonding extravaganza. “My money’s on Luke.”

“Got it in one. I wanted to do an escape room, but Liam refused to be locked in a room with all of us for an hour.” Vanessa sniffs. “Which is kinda rude, isn’t it?”

A week or two ago, my vote would have been one-hundred percent yes. Now, I simply chuckle and roll my eyes. I’m actually excited for laser tag. I’ve never played before, but I’m not really focused so much on the game as I am on the fact that this will be the first time I’ve seen Liam outside of the office since we almost kissed the other night.

Vanessa peers at me in the rearview mirror. “What?”

“It’s just so Liam, isn’t it?”

“Liam!” Barb exclaims. “You two must be getting close, all cozied up in that office together. I’ve been working for Stay Inside the Lines for almost a year, and I still can’t manage to think of Mr. Donovan as ‘Liam’. He looks like he came out of the womb as Mr. Donovan.”

This makes me cackle with laughter.

“I think he’s got a soft side,” I say innocently, like it’s the first time I’m considering it. “Under all that bristliness, I bet he’s sweet. Like a lychee. Ever had a lychee?”

I loved lychees growing up. Those odd-looking, exotic fruits that only occasionally appeared at the grocery store. The ones with the rough, spiky outsides and deliciously juicy, smooth insides.

“No,” Vanessa says a tad coldly.

“I think Liam’s a lychee,” I say. “Or, like, a sheep in wolf’s clothing. At first glance, he looks like a predator, but really, he’s just… fluffy.”

“Fluffy,” Vanessa repeats.

“Like a lamb.”

When you first meet Liam, he’s all sharp teeth and snarling mouth. But if you look a bit closer… there’s the fluffiest lamb you ever saw. And all I want to do is coax that lamb to come out and frolic with me. That’s what lambs do, right? (And just to be clear, by “frolic” I mean “kiss.”)

“I think you’ve been sniffing paint,” Vanessa says with a smile and a flick of her hair. “He likes you, you know. Said in a meeting this week that you were the best thing to happen to this company in a long time.”

“He said that?” I squeak. I was definitely not in that meeting.

“Maybe you actually have a chance with him,” she says lightly, then flips down the sun visor and begins to apply lipgloss.

I can’t work out Vanessa sometimes—whether she sees me as a peer or a rival. Whether she’s aware that my heart speeds up at the sight of Liam.

“But I have to warn you,” she continues. “I don’t think he’s a lychee or a sheep or whatever. I think Mr. Donovan’s a brick. Hard on the outside, hard on the inside. And sometimes, when you’re really mad, you want to throw him through a window.”

“That’s dark, Ness.”

“Blood-chilling,” Barb adds.

Vanessa sighs, looks at her hands. “I don’t know if you know, but I kind of had a little… crush on Liam.”

I feign surprise. “No!”