Page 25 of Fight

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked. “Sorry, it’s loud in here,” he offered up as an excuse.

“Oh I just said ‘how are you?’ I saw you at work a few times this week. Did you have a good week?” She looked at him hopefully.

Before he could answer, she laughed and let out a sigh. “This is weird, isn’t it? I’m really trying with this friend thing. If it helps, I don’t feel like biting your head off or sulking right now.”

Jake couldn’t say he didn’t feel like biting something; he was going for a little more subtlety than that. He laughed, too, and rubbed his hands up and down his face. “We’ll find a happy medium here. But I’m good,” he finally said. “Work was good. How was your first week?”

She shrugged dismissively. “It was okay. I survived.”

There was a pause as he got caught up looking at her some more. He'd never been so close to her as he was crammed into this table. Looking at her face he saw light freckles on her cheeks and nose that he’d never noticed before. In addition to her red lipstick, she'd done something to her eyes where she'd drawn lines so they came to point on the ends. It gave her already sexy eyes an alluring look that mesmerized him.

The pause should have been awkward but she seemed to be doing the same thing to him as she looked at him searchingly, her breath quickening.

The rest of the bar faded to a dull murmur and the others at their table laughed loudly at something as music thumped dully in the background. Jake couldn’t hear any of it, hypnotized as he was. It should have been awkward staring at someone while she stared at you back without saying anything. Therewasan underlying tension, but it was a comfortable feeling of words unsaid, of mutual understanding.

“You look great.” Jake broke the spell and moved close to her ear so she could hear him over the conversation at the table. “I mean, you look really pretty tonight.”

Jake’s subconscious slapped him in the back of the head. He'd had smoother moves when he was a kid. What the hell was the matter with him? Just sitting next to her felt like heat and adrenaline were running through his bloodstream. Nothing he did or said seemed to be coming out like it was supposed to.

“Thanks. You do, too. I mean, you look great—handsome, not pretty.” She laughed and flung her hand in the air nervously.

He looked down at the blue t-shirt he wore. The seam of the shirt had several small holes in it.He'd had this shirt since at least college. He pointed to the holey seam and raised his eyebrows at her wordlessly.

She let out a bubbly giggle. “It’s okay, you can pull it off. It brings out the blue in your eyes.”

Her blue eyes locked with his again, a few more seconds and Jake felt like he may have leaned forward to kiss her in front of Duke, God, and everyone. Luckily, they were interrupted by Ian with the first set of drinks. Lena tore her gaze away from Jake as Ian put a wine glass in front of her.

“Pinot Grigio,” he explained. “It was as close as I could get to Rosé.”

“It’s perfect,” she said reassuringly. “You’re the best, Ian. Thanks.”

Ian smiled at her in his friendly way before making his way back to the bar to get the rest of the drinks.

Before Jake could say something else cheesy or stare at her some more, they were interrupted by someone sitting down on the bench across from them, next to Duke.

“Hey, Lena. How’s it going?” It was that joker, Daniel. Again. Why did he keep interrupting his conversations with her? And why was he here? He already had a beer in his hand, which he set down in front of him as he looked at Lena expectantly.

“Hey, Daniel,” Lena greeted him with a smile and a welcoming tone in her voice. She didn’t seem surprised at all to see him. “I’m glad you could make it. Thanks for coming.”

Lena invited him? Did that mean there was something going on between them?

She looked over at Jake and motioned toward him, “You remember Jake, right?”

“Yeah. Hey, man.” Daniel moved his arm out toward Jake in a…fist bump?Well, this is a first.Jake nodded his head at Daniel as he returned the fist bump.

Lena propped herself up a bit speaking louder for the sake of the rest of the table. “And this is Annie, Ian, and Morgan. Also Sadie and Duke, who I just met. Guys, this is Daniel. I met him on my plane ride out here. He just moved here, too.” The rest of the table looked up, smiling and greeting him.

Daniel waved at everyone with a smile. “It’s good to see you again, Lena.” He looked at her face in a focused, serious way, leaning his body forward over the table.

“Yeah. You, too.” Lena looked nervously between Jake and Daniel. “It’s probably great to see Jake again, too, huh? He knows a lot about Conrad, so he is a good guy to get to know.”

“Sure. Good to see you, dude,” Daniel replied skeptically. Jake took a sip of his beer and gave a tight lipped smile and nod. He didn’t want to engage with this idiot.

“So, Lena, how’s your new job going?” Daniel asked.

“It’s fine,” she said a little too brightly. “It’s good. I’m very grateful to have a job.”

Jake sensed uncertainty in Lena’s voice. He’d noticed it a bit earlier when he’d asked her about her work week. Hopefully Cynthia wasn’t giving her too hard of a time.

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