Page 54 of A Conflict of Interest

“Well, if you’re happy, I’m happy,” she laughed. “We’ll just have to make up for it later.”

Maybe I was just petulant andwantedher to say something, because I leaned in closer and I smiled and I said, “If you have something in mind later, I’ll eat whatever you like.”

I saw a flicker in her expression, but she masked it perfectly, smiling. “Yeah? Going to prep another charcuterie board? You do spoil me.”

“An extra-large one. Even if I’m still full. I’m going to make sureyou’restuffed full too.” Okay, now I was getting out of hand. But Veronica just smiled.

“I’m sure I can take it,” she said. “I’ve got a pretty big appetite.”

Oh—was that—was that her flirting back? The thought offlirting backmade me realize I was flirting in the first place—with Veronica Preston—trying to get her to make crude sexual comments about me. Was I the one who just wanted her when she didn’t want me? Or… no, I think I just wanted her all thetime. I bit my lip with a little giggle, some color in my cheeks. “You do great,” I said. “I mean, we’ve had plenty of examples to back that up…”

“A million sweet potato fries and a charcuterie board big enough to feed a nation, just yesterday, for example.”

I felt myself blush more, looking out the window, as I said, “Just for… some examples.”

“What, are you thinking of another incident?” she said with her tone genuine enough that it took the wind out of my sails all at once.

Not flirting back. She, uh—she was being literal. Whoops. That was desperately embarrassing. Time to save the situation. “I might be,” I said, putting on a laugh. “How do you put away, like, sixteen thousand wings in one night and it’s not the first thing to mind on the subject?”

“Oh yeah…” She laughed, eyes sparkling. “I’d kind of forgotten about that. Ah, I’d do it again.”

“We should,” I said. “I’ll have to be there to make sure you take every last one. And the sauce, too! No skimping on the extra-spicy sauce. I expect every drop cleaned up.” What the hell was I saying? Past Veronica would have run with this until she got me off under the table right here in the café. Present Veronica smiled like it was a perfectly normal conversation, although there was a second’s delay too long before she spoke. God,Iwas being the creepy, objectifying one now. What was I doing?

“I’ll expect you to keep up, you know,” she said, and I laughed awkwardly.

“Okay, you don’t have to call my bluff,” I said, retreating into myself prickling with embarrassment. She was making it abundantly clear she wasn’t interested in me like that. I just couldn’t figure it out… was she not actually interested in me in general? Did she just want me around as a friend? Or did shespecifically want me as a sexless relationship? I’d have done it if it meant I could be with Veronica, but… that was what she wanted? What she preferred? It felt more plausible to think I’d done something weird and killed her attraction to me in general and that maybe she just wanted to be my friend…

Whatever.I wasn’t thinking about it. I wasn’t overthinking anything. I was just enjoying the moment. Being around Veronica was nice. That was all that mattered.

We were just as relentless as we had been yesterday, because we went after breakfast to the Christmas market in the city center, and Veronica bundled up in about seven hundred layers of winterwear to walk with me between stalls, patiently listening to me squeal about how this thing was thecutestever or actuallythatthing was. We got mulled cider and strolled around buying knickknacks, and I even managed to take her for a long walk in the snow-dressed park after, which was the hugest concession from Veronica Preston, where any temperature below freezing was an extinction-level crisis event. We walked with our arms linked and my heart soaring off somewhere into the stratosphere, our boots crunching through the thin layer of snow on the ground, and we talked about all the little nothings that made up everything, and we stopped into her apartment after, just since it was closer, where I cozied up on her couch and we shared her spiced hot chocolate again, which was quickly becoming my favorite thing in the world.

And when I whipped out the book again—a second-chance story of two former girlfriends who found themselves thrown back together by work, one I’d picked up dreamily and been self-conscious about what Veronica might say about it, but she’d been sweet and had just been enthusiastic to voice, of all people, the upbeat sunshine girl—she lit up and dove without hesitation into a reading from the second girl’s POV. The other lead didn’t have any lines this chapter, which meant obviously thatwe had to go onto the next chapter too, and we finally got to have another confrontation between leads, our voices breaking down into chaotic shouts and squawking until I had tears in my eyes from laughter, and somewhere in the back of my mind underneath it all, I just thought that nobody had ever been as happy as I was right now.

We settled back into her work before long, and I got to actually feel like a part of something that mattered, nodding along and giving recommendations, answering questions where she had them, and watching fascinated as her system played out, just a little starstruck at howgoodshe was at this and also all those other random little things she knew how to do.

If she wanted me, she’d be a hell of a catch… I just couldn’t work out if shedidwant me or if she just wanted the thrill of the chase again.Againagain again. And when the evidence was pointing towards that she really did… it was as scary as it was exciting.

We passed the day like that, just like the last one, barely spending a minute apart from each other, and the next day wasn’t too different, except for the fact that these swelling feelings in my chest were only getting bigger and bigger, and harder and harder to ignore, so when we were at her apartment that night, I wasn’t keen on going anywhere, sticking around until almost midnight. Veronica wasn’t keen on rushing me out the door either, so I somehow found it in me to work up the courage and ask, right as she was shutting her laptop from an extended session of watching the trashy TV I liked while cozied up on the couch together,

“I don’t want to go drive in the snow… would it be the biggest imposition in the world ever if I just stayed here tonight?”

She grinned at me. “Oh, I think I know where this is going.”

Oh, god, she saw right through me. I froze up. “Um. Yeah?” I said, my voice a few tones or maybe six octaves too high.

“You want another hot chocolate to get nice and cozy here.”

Oh, thank god. My shoulders slumped and I let out a long wheeze of air that was probably weird to do about hot chocolate, and I nodded helplessly. “Um—that sounds great. It’s kinda my favorite.”

“I know. You’re all cute and Christmassy like that.” She smiled, and my heart missed a beat when she gave my hand a squeeze, standing up, and it missed about sixty more beats when she bent down over me, close to the top of my head, and—she didn’t kiss me like I was expecting, just pausing there, almost like she was freezing up a little, and after a second, she said, “Have you been using a different hair product? It smells nice.”

Okay, nothing intimate. Just smelling me. Well, that sounded intimate. But just… casually smelling me. “No… nothing. I’m not even using any scented products, my hair freaks out if I do.”

“Huh. Actually, it smells a little like the candle shop did, so maybe it’s just been lingering in your hair all day. Concentrated Christmas spirit.”

I could work with that. I’d have preferred if it was Veronica kissing me, though… but I could work with that.

She straightened and went to the kitchen, starting the pot of hot chocolate, and I sat there waiting very relaxedly and normally, and by that I mean having a total freakout about the fact that I was going to stay here at Veronica’s apartment overnight and… and just… all of it. I didn’t know what it meant, except that I was going to die in the process of finding out.

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