Page 61 of Defended By Love

“Yes?” I say, bracing myself.

“There is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.” He trails off suggestively.

As much as I wish he were talking about sex, I know that’s not it. Which means, it’s something awful. It’s like how excited he was for me to have breakfast with his mom. Although, to be fair, I guess that turned out not completely awful. Not that I’ll tell him that.

“And what’s that?”

“Would it be wrong for me to assume that you’ve never watched most scifi movies?” he asks with a grin on his face.

Oh god.

“Are you sure you don’t want to fool around?”

He shakes his head with a maniacal grin on his face. “Buckle in because we’re about to go to a galaxy far, far away.”

I sigh, remembering when I got crushed by a building. Those were the days.

Chapter 28

As the dropping elevator feeling that makes me feel like the soles of my feet are up around my armpits fades, so does the eye strain from watching over 6 hours of movies and my urge to pee. Weird.

I mean, I knew that pre-existing conditions got erased when the loop re-started, hence me not having a case of being dead, but for some reason the pee thing really throws me. Where did that pee go?

I think on this until the shattering of a window interrupts my thoughts.

“How good were those movies?” he practically yells. He does a half-flick with his hand and all the shattered glass zooms across the room and into a pile. He’s getting better with his control.

“They were good.” I go to take a step towards the file room, but then I pause. While I’m technically no longer fired, I have zero inclination to work.

“That’s all you have to say about them? They were fine?”

I shrug and start walking towards Dominic’s office. “Maybe I would’ve said more, but you were stopping the movie every five minutes to add additional commentary.”

“Ah—I just really wanted you to like them,” he says, grinning like a kid on Christmas.

“And you thought stopping the movies constantly was the way to get me engaged?”

Grant laughs. “Usually I stop it more. I only toned it down because a part of me thought that you were serious when you said you’d punch me in the nose if I kept pausing the movie.”

I was serious. It’s good that he’s finally getting it.

On a whim, I grab the list of office team bonding ideas off Beth’s desk as I pass. Even though I got a one-on-one explanation of her ‘shorts’ idea yesterday/today, I’m not sure I get it. Still, good on her for trying.

“Here’s one thing with the movies. So, the little green guy is all like ‘There is another one’ and he means the sister, right?”

“Right.”

“But then, nothing ever comes of that.” I walk into Dominic’s office. Back in elementary school, I had fantasies of sneaking into the teachers’ lounge, just to see what it was like. Get to walk around when no one was around and act like I belonged. This is what I imagine it would feel like. It feels powerful.

Fuck that noise.

I knock his stupid picture frame of him shaking hands with Prime Minister Brenner off his desk and it shatters. Good.

Grant watches me and nods along like this is all perfectly normal.

“I wouldn’t say nothing comes of it. They’re siblings and—”

I wave him off. “But nothing ever comes of it for her. They’re like, ah if the boy doesn’t work out, we can always train the girl. Then he does work out, sort of, so they just don’t bother training her. Or even offering to train her. That’s some sexist bullshit right there.”

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