Page 38 of A Conflict of Interest

I got changed, having a brief panic at the wardrobe about what to wear—casualimplied that Kelcey being here was no big deal, butformalmade it feel like I was trying to turn this into a date, and something more creative made it feel like I wasn’t taking this seriously—and I settled in the end for a button-down and red chinos that managed to sit at the intersection of the three before I stopped in the mirror on my way to the front door, sucking in a sharp breath.

“Okay, Vern,” I said. “You can do this. Don’t say anything weird trying to convince her to stay. You can’t have anything more from her than what she offers. Be cool, be… respectful.”

“Do you always hype yourself up in the mirror?”

I jumped, whirling on where Kelcey stood at the door, her hands folded at her waist, leaning back against it, and I almost passed out.

“Did—did you hear all of that?” I said, and she smiled wider, ducking her head a little.

“It was cute.”

“Oh, god. Um—hi. Thanks for the laptop. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll get started on that hot chocolate. Do you just want regular?”

She lit up, eyes sparkling.God,she was so beautiful it ached. I’d missed that look she would give me. She bounced on the balls of her feet a little, that gesture that was soKelcey,and I was a sap, because I was going to start crying. She was dressed so prettily today, with a cable-knit sweater I knew she loved pulling out for the winter, a bow pinned into her cool blonde hair, just so perfectly Kelcey in all the ways I remembered. I frantically took in every detail of her like it was the last look I’d ever get at her—the deep arch of her Cupid’s bow, the dots of freckles at the back of her jawline, the mole under her ear that was almost heart-shaped. The way her long eyelashes always sat just the littlest bit more curled on her left eye than on her right, but how when shesmiled, it was her right cheek that dimpled a little bit while her left cheek barely did. Maybe I wasn’t allowed to keep any of the pictures, but I could paint her by memory.

“Um…” She giggled a little. “What other kinds are you offering?”

“The other day I made a spiced one and it was next-level. I could do peppermint hot chocolate. I had one with eggnog the other day and it was actually not bad.”

“Let’s do the spiced one.” She ducked her head. “Um… Veronica?”

Oh, god. My name in her voice. I saw stars for a second. “Yeah?”

“I’m mad at you, you know.”

I winced. “I know. You, er… you have every right to be. And then some.”

“Stop it,” she said, but she didn’t… sound mad. “You’re supposed to be unreasonable and make me madder at you.”

I looked away. “Well… I’m trying to turn a new leaf. Maybe be a little bit less unreasonable… at times. At least enough to acknowledge when I was in the wrong.”

She gave me a meaningful look, eyes brimming with a hundred emotions, and I was going to die if I looked at Kelcey Huntington like that, so I met her gaze for as long as I could before I went into the kitchen and started on the hot chocolate, focusing on it above all else—distracting myself with heating the milk, adding a cinnamon stick and cardamom cloves, star anise, a few pieces of ginger, infusing it for a while. It was a calming ritual that I needed when the inside of my head was aimless screaming, and it kept me busy for long enough to survive the next ten minutes until I sat down at the table with Kelcey, setting a mug down in front of her and one in my spot. Still the same seats we’d use at this table a million times back when we were…

“Me too,” she said, and I blinked.

“About the seats?”

She laughed. “I don’t know what conversation you were having in your head just now.”

God, I was nervous. “You too what?”

She looked down. “I’m also trying to, uh… turn a new leaf. I want to be… better. I’m tired of feeling like I’m useless all the time and that people only keep me around because of pity or because someone else does something for me.”

“Kelcey—”

“And apparently once you thought I’d been fired, you went storming off to find Anna and Lucy and demand they give me my job back.”

Oh, Jesus. I paled. “They told you? Which one—”

“Lucy.”

“Lucy.Oh my god, Itoldher not to—” I raked my hands back through my hair, and she gave me a soft look.

“Veronica… why?” She shifted in her seat, cupping the hot chocolate in her hands. “I wanted to meet you… I was actually at the café trying to work up the nerve to text you and ask you to meet me there because I wanted to ask you a… question.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “So I didn’t need to go give you space?”

“Even if it had been a coincidence, it’s a public space… you don’t need to immolate yourself and flee the scene if you see me.”

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