Page 38 of Beyond the Hate

I scowl at the machine. “Nothing. This machine hates me.”

“An inanimate object hates you?”

“Yep.” I nod. “It’s possessed by the devil.”

She giggles and I glare at her. She holds up her hands as she backs away. “Sorry. I’m just a little surprised by Eli Raider claiming a coffee machine is possessed by the devil.”

I grab a towel and pat my suit jacket to dry it. “I’m going to have to dry clean this suit.”

“If you wore jeans and a t-shirt, you wouldn’t have to worry about the dry cleaner.”

I frown. “Do you not approve of suits?” She complains about my clothes a lot.

“Suits are fine. But we live on an island. Even the mayor wears shorts and flip-flops.”

“Because Lana is a nut.”

“True but she’s not wrong in her choice of attire for an island environment. The expected high temperature for today is eighty.”

I toss the towel on the counter since drying myself is a waste of my time. I need to change my outfit. It’s a good thing I keep a spare suit in my office. “The heat doesn’t bother me much since I don’t get outside often.”

“I self identify as a workaholic and I get outside.”

“When?” I push her. There’s no way she has time to go outside.

“I go for a walk at lunch every day.”

Now I understand why I can never find her when it’s time to eat. I thought she was hiding from me.

“It lowers my blood pressure, gets the heart pumping, relieves stress, and helps to prevent weight gain amongst other benefits.”

I rake my gaze over her body. “You don’t have to worry about gaining weight.”

“Everyone has to worry about gaining weight at a certain age.”

I chuckle. “You’re thirty. Not sixty.”

She slides her glasses up her nose. “Nearly thirty-one.”

I bark out a laugh. “I misspoke. You’re obviously an old lady.”

She nudges me to move. “Get out of the way. I need to fix this machine.”

“I’ll fix it.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You’re going to fix the machine you believe is possessed by the devil?”

“Better me than you to be cursed to spend an eternal life in hell with the Prince of Darkness.”

“Lucky for me, I don’t believe in the devil.”

She winks and my heart flutters. She’s laughing and joking with me. Maybe she doesn’t hate me anymore. Maybe I should ask why she hated me before.

“I’m serious, Mr. Billionaire. Out of my way. I’ve got this.”

And maybe I shouldn’t push my luck. At least, not yet.

I’m slowly insinuating myself into Paisley’s life. Day by day. Coffee by coffee. Joke by joke. She’s getting used to me. It won’t be long before she’ll forget all about my money and her previous hatred of me.

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