Page 22 of Fire of the Fox

“Then it won’t hurt you to miss for a week. I’m sure you’ll be able to easily make up whatever you miss. You strike me as the studious type. I bet you even do other people’s work for them.”

Cocky bastard, thinking he knows everything. I bit the inside of my cheek and ignored his spot-on comment.

“Anyway,” he started, taking me in with those vivid eyes. “We’ll have a lot of work to do since we’ll obviously need to look like we’ve been together for a while. My plan is for us to spend every single day together from now through the trip, so let’s try to get along. For now, we’ll start with this.”

He pulled out a folder with a packet of paper and handed it to me. Inside, I found a list of questions with answers beneath each of them.

He leaned forward as he explained, “That’s a packet about me. It has everything you need to know from the smallest things like my favorite color to something like my greatest fear. I found the list of questions online and thought it was as good of a start as any.”

I feigned shock, covering my gaping mouth with my hand. “Oh? Rune’s actually afraid of something?”

He flashed me an unamused look. “Everyone is afraid of something. Fear is inescapable and can bring even the strongest of men and women crashing to their knees.”

I nodded, mumbling my agreement, as I flipped through the packet. He really had included little things like his favorite color, food, music, and things to do. It got into deeper insights too, such as his biggest regret and his greatest wish.

I glanced at everything in the packet before setting it back down in front of me and studying him across the table while he sipped his coffee.

When he swallowed, he cleared his throat and said, “Well, I guess I’ll go now. You can take the rest of the day to memorize everything on there.”

“W-what? I did not drive all the way here just for you to disappoint me, hand me a packet, then send me on my way.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Well, what’s the point in continuing if you aren’t familiarized with me and vice versa? You can focus on memorizing that list and answering the same questions about yourself for me.”

He started to stand, but I wasn’t letting him leave.

Glaring at him, I shot to my feet. My palms slammed onto the table, and I leaned forward until I was in his face. “Your favorite color is blue. Food: fish. Music: classical. Thing to do: read. Worst fear: losing what you cherish most. Life’s wish: to find something worth living for.”

I spat every answer to every question at him without missing a single one.

His eyes widened as he took me in, and his mouth hung slightly open in shock.

When I finished, I added, “And other things that your little packet fails to mention are that you’re an arrogant, condescending bastard who likes toying with people with no regard for their feelings.”

With that, I sat back down proudly in my chair, fuming with quieted rage. As much as I wanted to storm off, the shock on his face was enough to make me want to see more. Plus, the money still called to me. A few people walking by shot us concerned looks, but I ignored their stares. I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my venomous eyes at Rune. My skin was practically on fire with anger simmering beneath the surface.

His eyes were still the size of saucers as he finally stuttered, “H-how did you memorize all of that when you barely even glanced at it?”

“This is why we should actually talk instead of reading stupid packets off the internet. Maybe you would’ve learned from normal conversation that I have a photographic memory. All I needed to do was glance at your ludicrous questionnaire to know everything it said.”

The dumbfounded look left his face, quickly replaced by fascination. “Impressive. Well, I guess it won’t take as long as I thought it would for you to learn stuff about me. I wish I had that handy-dandy skill.”

I didn’t even try to contain my eye roll. What a freaking jerk. I couldn’t believe I’d thought he was a cinnamon roll.

If he was a cinnamon roll, he’d be one I let burn in the oven until it turned into black, crispy ash.

Dealing with him was turning into more and more of a pain with each passing moment, and I wasn’t sure if upholding my end of the deal was worth putting up with him.

The metal box stared up at me.

Italy.

Luca Romano.

My dream.

I groaned inwardly. It was just two months, and really, what was two months in comparison to living the rest of my life as a painter. Anything would be worth living that dream. Even putting up with an asshole like Rune. I had to do this. I had to deal with him.

Rune plucked the box from the table and returned it to his bag as he got to his feet. “The next thing I had planned was bringing photos of my family for you to learn their faces and names, but I don’t have them with me since I thought you’d need all day to study that packet. We can continue tomorrow.”

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