Page 40 of A Conflict of Interest

“Kelcey Huntington, you could get a stone wall to like you. You’re always keyed into what a person wants and feels, and you have this radiant energy about you that makes people want to cooperate with you. You’re impossible to be mad at, impossible ever to find fault in, because you’re just… good. And you see the good in other people, too. You’re notonly good for something because of your family,you’re… your family’s only special because it has you. There’s a hundred people with rich families in the medical field around Anna, and if that was all I cared about, I’d have gone to talk to any of them instead over this last year. It’s not a family with money that got me to realize I can—and do—love a woman. It’s the way you smile like you know the world needs light and you’re going to be the source of it.”

She looked up at me through wide eyes, tears wavering in the corners, staring at me for a long time, before she laughed, thin and wispy. “Veronica… shut up,” she said, but it didn’t sound like her heart was really in it. “You cannot possibly go… saying things like that to me…”

“I told you I want you to hear them. And that if fortune favors me, I’d even like you to believe them. Might even go so far as to say you’re a lot smarter and capable than you give yourself credit for, but then you might push back. Even though I know you well enough to know you push back on a compliment when you want more of them.”

“Stop that,” she laughed, covering up a blush with one hand. “I’m pushing back because you’re lying!” she said, but not without a smile that was so sweet I think I was actually about two seconds from crying. “I just got put on a project scrubbing some already-scrubbed data to keep me out of the office! Pushed out by the company president himself!”

I smiled wider. “Meaning the only person who really went to send you away is the one who never saw your work for himself.”

She buried her face in her hands. “God, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve heard in my life. Framing it like that… you’re just trying to sweet-talk me.”

“I’m actually massively holding back because I don’t think you want me talking about how I want to break down the doors into the office and battle royale my way through the place until I get you reinstated.”

She laughed, big and bright and unrestrained, even with the wobble of tears somewhere underneath it. I really liked hearing her laugh. Maybe a little obsessed with it, actually. “Okay, so maybe don’t do that. It might be a little excessive.”

“I think you’re perfect the way you are, and I don’t know how to say that myself because I’m emotionally stunted, so instead, I’m going to go feral against anyone who makes you think otherwise.”

She smiled sadly, looking down at where she ran a finger around the edge of her mug. Watching her move a finger along the rim like that… I couldnotthink terrible things like that abouther. That would be horrible and objectifying and disrespectful. I dug a fingernail into my palm to distract myself. “You’d have to go feral against me… I know I’m not, um—perfect. And I want to do better. I want to be better… and I have plenty of time to figure it out, taken off the project and everything. I guess… maybe that’s what inspired me to go and actually talk to you directly and figure out my feelings.”

I swallowed. “I… I think everyone in this world has room for improvement and ways they’d like to be better. Just because you know how you want to do better doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.”

She laughed. “I don’t even recognize you, Vee. All philosophical all of a sudden.”

“Ah.” Normally I hated when people called me Vee. But it had been cute from Kelcey, so I’d let her have it, and now it was something only Kelcey called me, so hearing her say it… “I guess I’ve just also been having a lot of the same thoughts. I’ve been a real philosopher lately.”

“I hear you went philosophizing about that nutcracker at the café.”

I laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck. “Ah… um… and how would you know that?”

“I hear you went on a date there,” she said with a playful smile my way, and I withered, looking away.

“I, uh… tried to. It didn’t go super well. Guess I’m not rocking the charm front lately.”

She tented her hands under her chin, smiling wickedly. “Mostly because you just spent the whole time talking about me and then went a bought a nutcracker off them because I wanted it…”

“Ah… so… so they really, uh, told you everything,” I mumbled, my face prickling. Maybe I could have done a divingtrick from the window. If I was lucky, there would be some nice hard rocks to break my fall. And my neck.

“Thank you… for the nutcracker. He’s very cute.”

“I-I swear I wasn’t trying to buy you off with gifts—”

“I know. You sent it before I found out.”

I hung my head with a sigh of relief before I gave her a small smile. “Trying to tell me you’re clueless and can’t handle serious matters of communications when you’re clearly picking up on details like that.”

She tipped back the rest of her hot chocolate, setting it down gently before she stood up, giving me a smile with laughter bubbling up behind it. “I cannot believe you just said that,” she laughed. “That was such a perfect thing to say. I officially hate you for it.”

“Oh. Just for that?”

“And for how good that hot chocolate was. I’ll never be able to have regular hot chocolate again. Thanks for ruining me, jerk.”

Oh my god, I was in love with her. I wanted to lie down on the floor and die. That would probably freak her out. “Should I just, like… make a whole big batch of it and send it to your apartment in a big thermos?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t say no. But I think next time, maybe we should meet at a… neutral ground. Like I was planning to this time, mind you! Just without you baptizing yourself in hot milk.”

Next time?Next time?There was anext time?Oh, Jesus. “Nowhere with a big Christmas tree or anything, I hope.”

“A big one. Right next to where we sit. Huge, with a heavy tree topper. Just to make sure you’re on your best behavior.”

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