“Don’t encourage her,” Jane says. “We want her back.”
“I’ll be back.” This I say with more confidence than I feel.
I take my time ambling to Hugo’s office; I even stop at the vending machines to get an orange soda, which is the most moustache-giving soda in the machine. The closer I get to his office, the angrier I feel.
“He’s waiting.” Brenda nods darkly at the private hallway that leads to Hugo’s lair of fearsomeness.
“Thanks.”
I breeze down the little hall and saunter through the doorway in what I hope is a defiant attitude. “What now?”
He looks sterner than usual. “Shut the door.”
“That won’t be necessary, Mr. Roboto.”
He rises from his chair and walks over. Flames lick over my skin as he passes.
He closes the door with his foot. It’s a sharp, sudden sound. “Wow, are you programmed for karate?”
His voice is low and rumbly. “The financial health of thousands if not millions of people rests in my hands, and you think it’s funny to call me Mr. Roboto?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
“You will not call me Roboto again. Understand?”
I cock my head like I might be processing that. “Defineunderstand.”
“We need to talk.”
“About what? How you ruined my job prospects in my chosen field? Your emo detection program is running at full strength, Roboto.”
“You’ll make that the last time you call me that.”
“Or what?”
He sucks in a ragged breath.
It shouldn’t be hot, but it really, really is.
Really, really hot.
I tilt my head. “You gonna give me a horrible research project?”
His voice, when it comes, is hoarse. “No.”
I take a sip of soda in a way that’ll leave a moustache, knowing it’ll bedevil him. He was always quick to point out when I had a grape soda moustache.
The top of my lip feels cool with unlicked soda, the face version of untied shoes.
His gaze is glued to my mouth. A muscle in his jaw fires.
I smile. “Will that be all?”
His pulse visibly bangs in his throat. “No.”
“What? You’ve got more to say? More insults?”
His gaze seems to sharpen, harden. His look of raw need hits deep inside me, and it’s more than the soda.