Page 37 of My Undead Heart
He stands when I approach and it’s awkward for a second as I decide whether I should wave again, or go for a hug or a handshake. We’re not that close, and yet this isn’t an ordinary business meeting so being formal doesn’t feel right either. Matt settles it for me when he reaches for the empty chair. “Please, sit. I ordered a plate with a little of everything. I hope that’s okay?” He sits back down after I do.
“No, that’s fine. I’m not picky. I like it all.” I set my bag along the empty seat to my right.
“Good. Me, too.” His gaze finds mine across the small table and grins. “Thanks again. I’m sorry I called so late last night. This morning I realized how rude that was, interrupting your night.”
“Not at all. You didn’t.” I shake my head and reach over, unzipping my bag to produce my laptop. I’m so damn excited to show him my work. Once I got started last night I couldn’t stop, and I finally had to force myself to put it away and get some sleep at four this morning. Luckily, I could sleep in all day to make up for it.
“Let me show you what I did so far. Nothing’s live yet, and we can change anything you don’t like. I took some liberties with the design and content, too.” Pulling up the new landing page, I flip the screen around to him.
He drags it closer, his fingertips timidly moving over the trackpad. “How do I ... Oh, okay ...” His gaze trains on the computer screen but mine is on his face. Watching and waiting for his reaction. I did my best work, but he’s not a designer so I don’t expect him to geek out. In fact, I’m not really sure what to expect, other than I’m eager to find out what he will say.
His eyes dart across the screen as he clicks and scrolls, taking it all in and not hating it—I hope. When he finally opens his mouth to speak, it’s with total awe. “Wow. When did you even find the time to do this? Mia, this is amazing. Wow.”
“You said that already,” I zing, but inside I’m beaming with pride. I’m a pro at what I do, and it’s nice to be acknowledged. Even better when the customer in question’s eyes light up like a child on Christmas morning.
He slowly turns the laptop and slides it back into my waiting hands. His eyes darken with the ghost of a frown as he chews at the bottom corner of his lip. I pull up the next thing I want to show him, but when I glance back up he’s shaking his head.
“Seriously, Mia. This is way too much. I’m trading you, what? A few hours of self-defense classes. This is thousands of dollars’ worth of work.”
“Stop. It’s fine. You’re working around my insane schedule. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to leave my house yesterday, let alone have a good time. You’ve given me far more than a few hours of training.”
“That’s good to hear, Mia. I’m glad you see it that way. Thank you.”
I shrug it off. “It’s nothing. I had some other ideas, too. Can I run them by you?” I scrounge around in my bag until I retrieve the notebook spattered with all of my random thoughts from last night.
His smile is warm and inviting when I look up.
With an exhale, I tap on my first bullet point. “Okay, how do you feel about a store?”
His smirk widens with a pull of his lips. “They’re good for buying stuff ...”
I roll my eyes. “No, smartass. I’m talking about an online store. Where people can purchase T-shirts, tanks, all that other crap you have up front.”
“Gotcha. I like it. But how will I know when someone orders? I’d be worried I’d screw it up.” He clasps his hands together, leaning forward on the table top with interest. I try really hard not to notice how his arms completely fill the sleeves of his white Henley. God damn, why are strong biceps so sexy. Even covered in fabric they’re enough to make me squeeze my thighs together. His soft chuckle pulls my gaze back to his face, the crinkle in the corners of his eyes telling me he’s fully aware of how much his body’s able to distract.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts and glance back at my notepad. “I can set it up so you’ll get push reminders to your email. Even your phone if you want.”
“Yeah. That’d be awesome. Thank you.”
“Okay, so ...” I move my fingers along the trackpad of my laptop and pull up the screen I want. My phone starts ringing atop the table and I feel bad I forgot to switch it to silent. More so when his brow lifts along with one corner of his mouth.
“You need to get that?”
“No. It’s fine. They can wait.” I shake my head when I see who’s calling. Clicking the ringer off with one hand, I slide my other along the trackpad to pull up the class schedule section. I’m most proud of how dynamic it is. Before it was a plain old PDF file. “So, check this out. If someone clicks on this, they’ll see the entire week, but if they expand it, there’s an option to call or email. We can even add a button here to sign up for a trial class if you want.”
“That’s awesome. Yeah, that’d be great.” He nods.
The buzz of my silent ringer vibrates against the wood of our table. Incessantly. Annoyingly.
“Sorry. That’s so rude.” This time I pick it up to see my mother’s name flash across the screen. I send her to voicemail. Again.
“Not an emergency, I take it?” he asks.
“Not in the slightest.” I shake my head as a text message comes through, her asking me to call her, that she has someone for me to meet.Ugh. “My mother cannot deal with the fact I’m thirty-four, unmarried, and have no potential love interest on the horizon. Oh, the horrors!” I raise my hands and wiggle my fingers before rolling my eyes.
He laughs, the kind that comes straight from his belly and the timbre gives me a little thrill. I have to fight back a smile.
“I’m sure the only reason you don’t have a boyfriend is because you choose not to.” He laughs again, drops his gaze back to the screen, and opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off.
