Page 37 of Maid in America

She chuckled. “No wife either. Kinda just… married to my work, I guess.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a software developer.”

“Cool. Like, video games and stuff?” he asked, moving down the counter. He lifted up a cookie jar and started wiping it down with a damp cloth.

“No, nothing fun like that. Mostly boring stuff. Well, at least, to others.”

“Workin’ on anything right now?”

“I’m troubleshooting one we just built, actually. I developed a program for a few laboratories that intelligently analyzes and accurately integrates peaks in gas chromatography. Then, it creates a report for the customer. Between the tweaking and patching, trying to get things fixed before launch, I haven’t had much of a social life.”

“Holy shit, so… you’re really intelligent.”

Her face beamed with pride despite her shy smile.This was a woman who lived to work.

“I don’t know about allthat...” She tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear.

“Sounds like you’re a heck of a lot smarter’n me.”

She stole a glance at his shiny ass before averting her eyes.

He stared at her out of the corner of his eye and mischievously grinned. “You don’t have to sneak-a-peek. You paid for this show. Gawk freely.”

“Feels… weird.” She laughed. “Feels rude to stare.”

“Odin is here to give Freya a show.” He set the cookie jar down, wiped more of the counter, and then started hosing the microwave down with antibacterial spray.

There was a long pause before Maya spoke again, weak and unsure. “Can I ask a weird question?”

“I have nothing but time. Fire away, Freya.”

“Am I… attractive?”

The question caught him off-guard. Barrett turned to face her, furry boots clacking on the tile floor, afternoon sun glinting off shorts so tight she could almost see his religion. He held the microwave’s turntable in his hands, wiping it with a rag. “Excuse me?”

“I mean… just… like, objectively, from a male point of view? I’m… I’m not trying to come onto you. I just figured… with you here… dressed like that… I figured we were past formalities, and I could just ask you honestly.”

“I think you’re beautiful,” he said genuinely. Then he laughed. “But, I don’t know how much weight that holds. If you ask around, people will tell you I find a lot of women attractive.”

“A bit of a womanizer, huh?”

“Womanizer sounds mean and, like, calculated. I prefer to think of myself more as a dabbler, of sorts.”

“Aplayer.”

“Alover.”

“A real Romeo.”

“Hey,” he laughed, “don’t you slut shame me! Just because I’m a Norse God doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”

“Sorry that I asked. I know that was… inappropriate.”

“If you weren’t a client, trust me, I’d have hit on you by now.”

“You’re just saying that.”

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