Page 39 of Partners In Evil
“With Raven,” Damien says. I can’t help it – I wince when I hear her name.
“She’s busy, and so am I,” Finn says. “Everything okay on your end?”
“Yeah. Catch you later?”
“Sure.”
I hear their footsteps fade away and relax. I hate that my heart leapt into my throat when I heard Finn’s voice. I hate that a part of me wanted to open the door and ask him just what the hell he’s doing. Because no matter how much I believe that I shouldn’t care about someone that doesn’t care about me, putting that into practice is so incredibly difficult.
And exhausting. I feel like I’ve gone through a million emotional crises since this day began. I open the deposition that I need to finish reviewing and resolve not to get up again until I’ve read the entire thing or Finn has left for the day, whichever comes first.
That works for a couple of hours. But then I realize that I both need to pee and refill my water bottle. I stride into the hall, determined not to check for Finn first, and of course see him as soon as I turn the corner.
“Emma!” he says. “I need to talk to you.”
“Sorry, busy,” I say, speed walking past him. He follows.
“It’ll just take a minute.”
“Nope, no time.” I turn down another hallway but he keeps pace. “Seriously, Finn, I don’t want to talk.”
“Please,” he pleads.
I stop outside the ladies’ room. “No. And don’t even think about trying to follow me in.” I push my way through the door, satisfied at the stunned expression I glimpsed on his face.
But when I come back out, he’s waiting. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you get?” I ask in frustration. “It’s only one syllable. Two little letters! It shouldn’t be that difficult for you to understand its meaning.”
“Please,” Finn says again. “Let me talk to you.”
I just shake my head, ducking down another hallway and weaving my way through a maze of cubicles. But he’s faster, waiting for me at the other side of the room.
I head into an empty conference room, which connects to another one. When I walk into that room, though, Damien is in the middle of a presentation.
“Emma?” he asks, confused.
“Sorry!” I blurt out. I see Finn waiting outside of the room, his arms crossed over his chest. How the hell did he get here so fast?
Oh, right, he’s a demon. They’re faster than humans. Never has that felt less fair than it does right now.
I quickly leave the conference room and walk to the kitchen so quickly, I’m almost running. But of course Finn is there when I enter. At least this room is empty.
“Okay, fine!” I cry in exasperation. “You win.”
“I just want to talk.”
“What’s there to talk about? You’re back with Raven, I get it. I even understand why you picked her, Finn. I hope you’ll be very happy together.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I do and do not mean.”
“Emma, I know what you think, but that’s not what happened. I didn’t pick her, not like that.”
“So you’re not back together?”
“Well…” he hesitates. “It’s complicated.”
I see the newspaper on the counter and pick it up. I flip to the style section and slam the picture against his chest. “This picture would beg to differ, Finn.”