Page 100 of Keep Your Friends Close and Your… Work Enemy Closer?

"No. Please. I'm not a fucking heathen. But I just assumed we'd order something from a restaurant."

I blinked at him. "Don't make me repeat the assume thing."

"I would never. Well, you do your catering thing, but I do happen to know some of Venus' favorite foods."

"You do?"

"Yes. It was all in the exhaustive report you made me do. Remember?"

"Oh, right." Whirling back to my computer, I looked up his report, quickly finding the list. "Wonderful. This is super helpful. I'll be sure to pass this on to thecaterers."

Max laughed, and I had to admit it was actually quite refreshing to have the truth be out now, to not have to pretend anymore, to be even more myself.

"I also know her favorite color," he boasted.

"Which is...?"

"Purple."

"Okay. So what do we do with that?"

"Why purple everything. Purple flowers. Purple plates. Purple napkins. A neon purple sign on the side of the building that says, 'Welcome, Venus!'"

I couldn't help laughing, not able to take my eyes off him. Damn him. How could he always make me laugh so easily? No one I'd ever met before was capable of doing that. Only him.

"All right. I think it's time to wrap things up for the night," I said, needing some space away from him.

"Oh? Am I getting hard to resist again?"

"What? No. Not at all."

"So I wasn't helpful tonight?"

"No. You were. And I appreciate that. I really do."

"But..."

"But this doesn't change anything, you know, you're still my mortal work enemy."

He busted out laughing. "I'm yourmortal work enemy?"

"Yes, absolutely you are."

"Then why did you want me to stay and help you tonight?"

"You know that old phrase. Keep your friends close and your... work enemy closer."

He flashed me that easy grin of his. "So you're still pissed at me for being Max Sterling, huh? You know we're kind of even, babe. We both did the same exact thing to each other. We both lied about who we really were. So why are you still mad at me for it?"

"It wasn'texactlythe same. You didn't despise the real me, like I despised Max Sterling. And knowing the depth of my loathing, you still went forward with deceiving me."

"I still don't really understand why you hate me so much, or hopefully hated, as in past tense. All that venom just because I ignored you a little? There has to be more to the story than that."

How could he so easily perceive that? The way he saw right through me and my defenses was downright unnerving.

"Aha," he said, pouncing on my awkward pause. "I knew there was more to it. So what was it I did that was so awful that you've secretly been praying for my demise? Did I take the last canapé at a cocktail party right as you were reaching for it?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "No."

---