Page 8 of Inked Craving

“That makes me a happy guy. I’ll be right out with the bowls.”

He walked off, talking to another table on his way, and Benjamin leaned back into the chair. “Whenever we can bring Beckett, Clay, and/or Archer here, we usually end up taking all of their tuna or something. We kind of wipe out the place.”

“It’s good food, and I can’t help it. I’m a growing boy.”

Benjamin rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say. How’s work going?”

I took a sip of my water, then leaned back in my chair. “It’s going well. I’m working on a paper.”

Benjamin winced. “Your favorite thing.”

“It’s par for the course. Just something I need to do. It’s not my favorite thing.”

“I would think not.”

“It’s fine, though. I’m getting through it, and then I can head back into the lab. We just need to work on this patent.” I went over my project as Benjamin asked questions, the man’s mind brilliant. Then we went back to speaking about Montgomery Builders and their issues for the day.

“It was a main break, then?” I asked as we dug into our soup.

“Yes, some permit or something that didn’t go through correctly added on complications. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’m not in the mood. We were almost done with this place.”

“Is it going to set you back for long?”

Benjamin shook his head. “No, we’re making do. I just really needed water to finish planting this tree since it already had a shock to its system. Having water for the whole neighborhood shut off for as long as it was, is annoying as fuck.”

“I’d lend you a hand, but we all know that I have a black thumb.”

“Very much so, but you are good with the hard labor.”

I fluttered my eyelashes. “It is my workout. I have to look pretty.”

Benjamin rolled his eyes, and we thanked our waiter as he placed two massive platters of sushi in front of us. I mixed wasabi into my soy sauce, rubbed my hands together, and dug in.

I was full to the brim by the end of lunch, knowing that I would have to work out hard later and probably just eat a salad for dinner. I didn’t care. The fact that we could find kick-ass and high-end sushi in Fort Collins, Colorado, was a recent turn of events, and I wasn’t going to complain.

I went back to work, stayed far too late as usual, and didn’t make it home until after dark. My head hurt, but in a good way. I might say I didn’t like writing papers or dealing with that part of my job, but I liked working my brain. I also might be decent at manual labor, like Benjamin said, but I preferred the lab, preferred stretching my mind to its capabilities to learn.

I hadn’t always had a chance to focus on my studies or who I could be. Not when I was two days out of high school when I became an orphan. Losing both parents so young and barely having the means to take care of myself meant that college wasn’t easy. Only I had promised my mom I would go, and that I would try my best. That I’d live my life to the fullest. And since she had been dying in front of me, I hadn’t had the heart to say no.

I frowned, wondering why those memories came to the forefront so easily, but I pushed them away and got into my workout gear. I figured a run on the treadmill and then either finishing that movie I had started two nights ago or maybe even reading a paper for work would be something to get me through the evening.

I snorted at that, telling myself I was indeed a workaholic, but I didn’t have much else. Most of my friends were all getting married and moving on. They didn’t have as much time to go out, which I understood. I worked far too many hours and tended not to have a social life other than the dates I went on. It wasn’t like I had a family. Mom had died of cancer when I was eighteen, and my dad... I’d lost him when I was fourteen. But maybe I had lost him years before that. I must have, since he’d done what he did.

A shudder ran through me, and once again, I pushed myself hard on the treadmill, focusing on the paper in my hand rather than the memories I couldn’t shake.

I ran for only thirty minutes before my doorbell rang. I frowned and turned off the machine, wiping sweat from my brow as I went to the front entryway. I was chugging water as I opened the door and blinked at the woman in front of me.

“Leia. What are you doing here?”

She smiled at me and pushed her way inside, startling me. I was so taken aback that she was even here since we had only been on a couple of dates, that I didn’t stop her when she moved past me.

“I missed seeing you. We had to cut our date short for that woman. And I thought I would see if you’d like to pick things up where we left off.”

Considering that things had left off with us not even completing our date, I didn’t think her coming to my home unannounced was the answer. However, I wasn’t a jerk, so I wouldn’t say that.

“You’re all sweaty. I like it.” She ran her finger down my shoulder, then my arm.

I moved back, out of reach of her touch. “I was working out, and I have some other things to do. I wasn’t expecting you, Leia.”

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