Page 22 of Why Not Both?

The corporate client arrives and I get them settled. When everything is done and I’m no longer needed anywhere, I return to my office and spend the rest of the afternoon thinking of ways to invite Lis to be my friend. It’s not exactly what I want from her, but at this point, I’ll take what I can get.

Chapter 9

Lis

“Daisy.”

I’m startled out of my work to find Spencer leaning on my door frame with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Excuse me?”

He straightens and walks toward my desk. “Shut up. I’m making deductions. It’s very exciting.” He flashes me a grin and then sits. “You have a tattoo of two flowers on your arm.”

I look down as though I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about.

“I thought one was a lily but today I did a search for Amaryllis. Vic mentioned it’s a flower. When I realized that’s what’s actually on your arm, I started wondering why you would get a tattoo of an amaryllis and a daisy. Then I remembered you said your sister’s name, shortened, is Daze. After that, it was all very simple.”

I bite my lips to keep from smiling.

“And why exactly did you do all this deducting?”

He shrugs. “I was curious. Anyway, about that favour.”

“What favour?”

He stared at me for a long moment. “From the game. You owe me one favour for guessing The Mummy correctly. I owe you one for guessing Firefly. You also have twenty-four hours to guess that quote I said a few minutes ago.”

I blinked at him a few times. “I didn’t—I thought—”

“You thought just because we’re not going to date means you don’t have to pay up?” He smirks at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“What are you doing, Spencer? I thought we agreed.”

He turns serious. “We did. But I figured, just because I can’t date you doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. We work together. We’re going to see a lot of each other. Vic, Derek, and Adalie are my best friends. I’d like to include you in that number. We had a lot of fun together Sunday morning. Let’s just do more of that and, unfortunately, less of Saturday night.”

My heart feels at once happy that I don’t have to let him go, and sad that I can’t have him the way I want. But I’ve made my decision—a decision rooted in logic and past experience—so I push the sadness aside. It was my choice, and I’m not going to change my mind.

“All right. Let’s hear this favour.”

He grins, the glint coming back to his eyes as though he’d just put it on pause.

“You’re off tomorrow, right?”

I nod. I have the next two days off before I work all weekend.

“Me, too,” he says. “I was planning to go for a hike at Lighthouse Park with Derek, but he’s bailed on me. He wants to hang out with some woman or something. Come with me? Keep me company on the hike?”

“I thought you said you hate running.”

He shudders. “I do. But hiking and running are not the same thing. You could bring your little friend.”

“Cerberus?”

He leans forward, placing both hands on my desk. “Your dog’s name is Cerberus? Isn’t he kinda small?”

“He’s a corgi, so yes. And yes, his name is Cerberus.”

He laughs. “I love it. Corgis have pretty short legs. Can he do a hike? Lighthouse is a pretty easy one.”

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