Page 35 of The Interns

She happily accepted the offering and spun around in her chair while he settled in and opened the bottle of iced tea he’d grabbed for himself.

“So what’s new on your side of the office?” she asked.

He took a minute to gather his thoughts, leaning back in his chair and taking a swig of tea, then his face lit up. “Did you know that plumbing comes from the word plumbum?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, calling his bluff. “That’s not a word.”

“Yeah, it is. I can’t believe you don’t know this.”

“You’re messing with me.”

He feigned offense with a hand to his chest. “I would never do that.”

He would, and did often, but luckily she kind of liked it. “Plumbum? Plum bum,” she said deliberately. “Bum? Plumbing? This is a butt joke, come on.”

His chest heaved with laughter. “Wow, you really went there, Hendricks?”

“You made me go there!”

“I definitely did not.” He sighed and wiped his eyes. “I seriously can’t believe you don’t know this.”

She held up a warning finger. “Watch it.”

“No, it’s just that you know everything.”

She wished. It was flattering, but entirely untrue.

“It’s Latin,” he explained. “It means lead.”

She stared at him, unsure of what to believe. He looked serious, and it sounded vaguely like E pluribus unum which was the only Latin she could think of on the spot, but, as she had learned, teasing her was one of his favorite pastimes. It killed her not to know something, though, so she spun around to her computer and typed plumbum in the browser, bracing herself for the possibility of coming up with a barrage of bum shots and having to explain that to whomever was monitoring her internet usage at work.

What she saw, however, were rather unsexy images of dull silver matter. Lead. “Hmm, I suppose you’re right.” She spun back around in her chair and shrugged. “I mean, I took French in high school, so…”

“Then what’s lead in French?” he shot right back, not allowing her one moment of peace.

“I don’t know!”

“But you’re supposed to know everything, Hendricks!”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not. You’re just so smart, I’m honestly surprised when I find something you don’t know.”

He had dropped all pretense, all teasing. He was being completely genuine as she knew him to be, and it made her cheeks warm to learn that he not only recognized her intelligence but seemed to appreciate it.

“Please.” This summer had humbled her in so many ways. “There’s a lot I don’t know.”

He tossed up his hands, as if to agree to disagree. “So what’s new on your side of the office?”

“I just sent files to Hill for the third time. He keeps claiming he hasn’t received them yet. Also, Al sent me a list of cases to read up on, so I’m going to look them up and download them.”

“Can you send them to me, too, so I can read up tonight?”

She nodded in response, each movement of her head slowing until it had come to a stop along with their conversation. She was doing that thing again where she began to imagine Reed at home, this time reviewing files in bed, propped against a pillow and his headboard, bare chested with the blanket at his waist, doing that little thing where he chewed at his bottom lip while he read, making a little huh noise every time he found something of interest.

She couldn’t remember when she started doing this, but she already had a collection of pleasant images in her mind that were inspired by their small talk. Doing laundry (shirtless in jeans), going for a run (shirtless in gym shorts), mowing the lawn (shirtless and sweaty in gym shorts after a morning run). There was definitely a theme and it made her feel a little creepy honestly. If she knew that some guy in her office was thinking of her in the same way, she’d want to lay him out with a swift punch to the face…unless it was the man sitting across from her. Either way, it was enough to jar her out of the reverie she had no business having.

“Yeah, sure.”

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