Page 42 of I Love to Hate You
“Heshouldn't even be asking me questions right now, becauseheis dumb andhecan’t communicate when given the opportunity to explain himself.Heis an ass.Hesucks.Heshould shut up, andheshould quit this internship now thatheknows I’m here.Heshould go be annoying and ugly somewhere else. Oh, and one last thing …he.”
“Wow,” Chad says with bulging eyes.
I glance at him with death in my gaze and he presses his lips together as he looks away.
“So, you're just gonna be childish the whole time?” Kendrick asks me.
I scoff. “You’re childish, and I don't want to talk about this now or ever. I’m here to work, not be distracted by you and your bullshit.”
“Then stop staring at me every time I look up.”
“Ain’t nobody staring at you."
“You kind of were staring,” Chad chimes in.
Samantha is the first to suck her teeth and glare at him. “Mind your business, Chad.”
“Yeah, mind your business, Chad,” I snap at him before turning my attention back to Kendrick. “I’m not staring at you. In fact, I’ve been trying to avoid your stupid face all day. I can’t believe you had the audacity to walk in here. I’m honestly shocked this is happening.”
Kendrick wipes his brow as he scoffs. “The audacity to walk in here? I didn’t know you were going to be here. I got my degree the same day you did, and I’ve been on the job hunt the same way I’m sure you have. I was just as surprised to see you sitting there as you were to watch me walk in, and I was hoping to avoid any public drama like this. I know things didn’t end the way either of us would’ve wanted, but we don’t have to let that leak into what we have going on now. We both got to this point, and I doubt either of us will be willing to give it up just because the other is here. We’re obviously going to have to suck it up and find success together.”
Everyone in the room turns to look at me, and I hate it because Kendrick is clearly trying to be the bigger person. I want to argue and cuss him out, but here he is trying to make himself look good in front of everyone. He’s doing the right thing again, and I would love to kick him in the balls for it because it makes me look bad. Now I have to get on his level or risk being the angry one, and I would really prefer not to wear that dumb ass label.
I let out a deep breath and try to strangle Kendrick with my gaze, but it doesn’t work so I use my words instead.
“We’re not finding successtogether,” I begin as cold as mid-winter in Alaska. “I’mgoing to be successful here. Whatyoudo is your own business. As much as your presence annoys me, I won’t allow it to ruin the chance I’ve created for myself with this internship. I’ll keep it professional, but before I do, I just want to remind you that we both know why we’re at this point. We know what you did and how you behaved and seeing you here won’t make me forget that. I know who you really are, Kendrick.”
He clears his throat, his eyes dancing across the floor as if remembering something in great detail, and I swear I see emotion flash across his face, but he wipes it away too fast to be sure.
“Yeah, I remember a lot of details about the last couple of times we spoke,” he says, keeping his eyes trained on the floor before cutting them up to me. “There’s so much about that time that I’ll never forget. All I can say is that you’re a beautiful woman, Maya, but you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. You don’t know what I’ve been through, and that’s okay because I don’t want to talk about it. So, it’s cool if you want to keep it professional, but that would require not talking shit—not calling me an ass, or ugly, or annoying, or referring to me as if I’m not in the room. I’m not sure you’re capable of that.”
“What do you know about what I’m capable of?” I say, spitting the words at him.
“A lot, and you know what I’m capable of too, so don’t play dumb,” he replies, keeping his gaze fixated on me in a way that makes my throat close up.
A moment of silence passes like there has been a death in the family before Samantha clears her throat. “I feel like I just watched a fantastic soap opera play out right in front of me.”
The four other interns all laugh together. I try to fight it, but when Kendrick smirks, I giggle a little too, and it eviscerates the tension in the air, finally making it breathable again.
“You guys fight like a married couple,” Derek Cho comments, before getting up and checking the fridge for things that are still not there.
“Yeah, but like a toxic married couple who are on the verge of divorce but still drawn to each other because the sex is so good,” Erica says, finally joining in the conversation as she pours coffee into a white mug with the initials BLM on it.
Kendrick and I glance at each other, but neither of us comment.
“Now that all of that has happened,” Samantha says, “I’m really looking forward to this internship. I’ve got a feeling there are going to be fireworks everywhere.”
“I hope you’re right,” Chad says, just as the door to the break room opens and Denver sticks his head in.
“Ready to get back to it, you guys?” he asks with a smile.
All six of us nod as everyone stands up at the same time. I rush to make a quick cup of coffee, as does Kendrick, who looks at me out of the corner of his eye as he reaches for a mug from the cabinet. We make eye contact that lasts much too long as everyone follows Denver out of the room and the door closes behind them, leaving us all alone in front of the coffee maker.
Neither of us says anything, but the quiet in the room is as loud as a train. In a span of a few seconds, memories of the night we hooked up in his car hit me like a punch to the chest, stealing my breath and weakening my knees. Kendrick looks me in the eyes before letting his gaze fall down to my mouth and back up again, and it makes me shiver. Why does he have to look so good when all I want is to hate him?
“Don’t look at me like that,” he says, lifting his mug of coffee.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I reply with raised brows.
