Page 72 of Strictly the Worst

Because everything about him feels electric. Like he’s lighting me up after being dark for so long.

He ignored you for days, I remind myself. And that’s all I need to get calm again.

I won’t go through this again. I won’t let myself be second best. I’m way too old to be playing games, even if they do make my blood heat up. I square my shoulders and check my makeup, adding a little more lipstick. Then I wipe it off because I don’t want him to think I put it on for him.

He isn’t in my office when I get back. He’s sitting on the corner of Gina’s desk, and they’re both laughing at something.

“Go on in,” I say to Linc, nodding at my office door. “I’ll be in there in a minute.”

He winks at Gina and she grins back.

“Et tu, Brutus,” I mutter to her.

“Do you mean Judas?” she asks, still smiling as though I just said the funniest quip ever. And she knows exactly what I mean.

“No. I mean the one who stabbed Julius Caesar in the back.”

She tips her head to look at me, still smiling.

“It doesn’t matter. Can I borrow a wipe please? Actually, make that two.” Because I’ll wipe down anything Linc touches when he leaves. I don’t know where he’s been. Meow, I am testy today.

Gina whips out two little packets and passes them to me. “Thank you,” I tell her, then I walk into my office, taking a deep breath.

“Salinger,” I murmur, carrying my laptop over to my desk. I may as well clean it while he talks to me. It’ll give me something to do with my hands. But before I can put it down, he’s taking it from me.

“I wouldn’t do that…” I say and then I trail off. If he wants germs from the bathroom all over him, then have at it.

He opens it up and looks at the screen. “Hmm.”

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“Just checking to see if it’s working. I wasn’t sure if you had a problem with all your devices or just your phone.”

“Haha.” I take it from him. “And by the way, that was sitting on the counter in the ladies’ bathroom a minute ago. You may want to wash your hands.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “My face was between your thighs last week and I didn’t wash that either.”

My eyes widen. “Lincoln.” I glance at the door. It’s shut, thank god, but I wouldn’t put it past my team to be listening with a glass held up to the door.

“So I’m Lincoln now,” he says. “Not Salinger. Not Linc.”

“Can we stop this?” I ask him, feeling pained. “You’re the one who walked away and didn’t call me. So don’t be an ass about it.”

“I called you all weekend.”

“After a week of nothing,” I point out.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I should have called you earlier. But I’m trying to make up for it. And you didn’t call me either,” he says and I roll my eyes.

“I’ve been busy,” I tell him. He raises a brow to let me know he isn’t buying it. “Okay,” I continue. “I just don’t think there’s anything left for us to say to each other.”

“What the hell does that mean?” He’s leaning on my desk. Something else I’m going to have to clean. “Didn’t we have the best time in Exuma? And now you’re like this.” He waves his hands at me. “What’s wrong with you?”

“You haven’t exactly been lonely since you left the island,” I counter. “I saw the photograph.”

He frowns. “What photograph?”

“The one of you and your friend in Paris.”

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