Page 21 of Negotiating Tactics

She stood, but before I could protest, she glared at me and walked to the sink.

“Are you singing the alphabet song?” I asked, staring at her as she washed.

She didn’t answer under she finished and dried her hands. “Of course I was. Don’t you when you wash your hands?”

I laughed. “No.”

“You should start,” she said as she sat across from me.

“I’ll take it under advisement,” I responded.

She harumphed and then picked up her knife and fork and cut a small bite of lamb.

“Are these rare?” she said.

“Medium,” I said.

“I thought they were supposed to be served rare,” Alex said.

“I don’t know if they’re supposed to be, but I need my meat cooked,” I said.

Alex stopped midbite and tilted her head. “Have we found a point of commonality?” she asked.

“The first of many, I hope,” I said before taking another bite of my own lamb.

She started to smile but seemed to remember the better of it and focused on her food.

“You know, this is not going to win you your room back,” she said a few minutes later.

“We’ll see,” I responded, not telling her I didn’t give a fuck which room I was in as long as she was with me.

She huffed, the sound dismissive, which rankled. But I kept my cool, knowing Alex wouldn’t be easy, which would make my eventually victory that much sweeter.

“Why are you in Boston?” she asked.

“Did Birdie tell you to ask me that?” I responded.

She scoffed, then took a sip of the water I had sat next to her plate before she arrived. “I don’t know what you think me and Birdie talk about, but it’s not you.”

“So, you haven’t told her I’m here?” I asked.

She chuckled, the low, throaty sound wrapping around my gut and making my cock jump. “I haven’t thought about you since I left.”

It was my turn to scoff.

“I’m supposed to believe that?” I asked around a bite of asparagus.

“Believe what you want,” she said with a shrug.

“I do, and I don’t believe that,” I countered, then took another bite of my dinner.

“Not that it matters, but why do you think I would be thinking about you? And,” she took another sip of water before she went on, “if I were, why do you think you’re important enough to for me to lie about it?”

I put down my fork and leaned back in the chair. “Why does that two-hundred-word question sound like a trap?”

She snorted. “Birdie says my questions are too long, too. Professional hazard, I guess. But there’s no trap. It’s just a simple inquiry.”

I locked eyes with hers. “I don’t think anything is that simple with you, Alex.”

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