Page 43 of A Ticking Time Boss

I burst out laughing and have to put my pizza slice down. Carter’s mouth quirks into a half-smile, eyes glittering. He likes to make me laugh. The knowledge makes my chest warm.

“It wasn’t anyone in particular,” I say.

He raises an eyebrow. “Audrey.”

“It really wasn’t.” I run a hand through my curls. A flush creeps up my neck. “I wasn’t exactly… popular in high school. And in college I spent all my time studying or at the school paper. I was the editor for one term, you know.”

“The newspaper was best that term, too?”

I shrug, but I’d loved being at the helm. Judging from the look in his eyes, he knows it too. Funny how I never have to hide my ambition around him. “It ran like clockwork,” I say. “But I also worked extra at the school’s pretzel shop.”

“The pretzel shop?”

I clear my throat. “Would you like your pretzel bites with a dipping sauce? We have cheddar cheese, curry and barbecue, or for a sweet touch, caramel, maple or chocolate.”

Carter chuckles. “You still remember it?”

“I’ll remember it until the day I die,” I say. “God, I’ve eaten enough of them to last me a lifetime.”

“Did you put yourself through college?”

I look back down at my pizza. “Partly, yeah.”

And if it wasn’t my father’s greatest shame. I’d only mentioned my student loans a few times at home, before the pained look in his eyes became too much. I hated seeing him beat himself up.

“That’s impressive,” Carter says. “But all that left little time for dating?”

I chew the inside of my cheek. “I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

His hands slowly lower to the plate, pizza slice forgotten. “Never?”

“No. Nothing… confirmed. I haven’t really been on dates, either. Before this past year.”

Carter looks at me for a long, silent moment. Is he judging? I know the conclusions people draw. The ones that aren’t true, not really, but sting nonetheless.

“That’s a fucking disgrace, Audrey.”

“You called me Audrey,” I whisper.

“I’m embarrassed on behalf of my sex,” he says. “How the hell did none of the college boys scoop you up? Someone on the paper?”

I rub a hand over the back of my neck. “Well, my one college fling was with someone from the paper.”

“Ah. Here it is, the big scandal. Come on. How awful was he, and what was his social security number? I can have a SEAL team give you justice in four hours. Ten, if he’s abroad.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “No, no, it was nothing like that. It was good. It was just not traditional. We never went out together. I never had to do that awkward first date dance where you’re both pretending to be someone else.”

“There’s an easy solution for that,” he says. “Stop pretending.”

I roll my eyes. “What, just be myself right off the bat?”

“Yes. You were yourself with me, from the first moment we met, and I’m still here.”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to impress you.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And yet you have. Perhaps you don’t have to pretend, kid.”

I give him a teasing smile. “If I stop pretending, you have to, too.”

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