Page 34 of Hard to Forgive

I couldn’t help watching him though. The rarely seen smile transformed his face. He had a dimple in one cheek. I had nevernoticed that, in all of the years I’d known him. The dimple disappeared when he turned and saw me looking at him.

I felt like I’d stolen something.

“Leave him alone,” Isabel advised again. “He clearly doesn’t like you. I don’t think he actually likes anyone, but he isn’t grumping around. Don’t ruin it.”

I sighed, but looked away. Isabel was probably right. I was probably making things worse by staring at him from across the room. The smile he’d been wearing wasn’t for me. I started telling Isabel about my night at the club instead. The story of an older guy trying and failing to pick me up took us to the time when Yvette called for the huddle.

As always, I stood with Isabel.

For the first time, Jonas stood with Declan and Logan. I tried not to pay attention to him. Instead, I put all of my focus on Yvette. She clapped her hands twice to get everyone’s attention.

“We’ve been making good progress. I’ve looked over the work everyone did these past two weeks, and I’m ready to make assignments for the next few weeks. I’m basing these off of your strengths and the conversations we’ve had recently about your goals.” She looked around the group. “Isabel, I want you working with Logan and Declan on the major framework for the back end. I’ll be sending all three of you a summary of what the client approved and notes that I put together of what I’d like to see.”

Isabel frowned. She didn’t like getting separated from me any more than I did her.

Yvette didn’t seem to notice the upset in the group. She just powered on. “Larry, AJ, I want the two of you working on database set up.”

I did the mental math in my head. Larry and AJ were working together. Isabel was with Declan and Logan. That left only two people. I fought the urge to look at Jonas, to see the exact moment he realized who his partner would be.

“Finally, Jonas and Silas, you both presented great ideas for the UI. I’ve got the final feedback from the clients, and I want the two of you in charge of it.” Yvette didn’t wait to see how anyone reacted to their assignments. “I should have emails with specifics out within the next fifteen minutes. Go get some coffee and a snack from the break room. It’s going to be a long day.”

If she only knew.

I tried to make eye contact with Jonas, but he looked away too quickly. Storm clouds darkened his eyes, and I sighed. “This is going to be a long two weeks,” I muttered to Isabel.

She patted me on the shoulder sympathetically. “Well, look on the bright side,” she chirped, “he can’t avoid you anymore.”

That was almost a bright side. It wasn’t as if he could dodge spending any time with me when we were assigned a task together. Maybe he could even get over what happened in high school.

Somehow, I doubted it.

“Let’s go get coffee before I have to go to my doom,” I muttered.

Isabel laughed and linked her arm through mine. We grabbed coffee in the break room before heading back into our area. AJ and Larry had already pulled their chairs together and were talking. I overheard bits of their conversation as they passed: discussions of work division and different methods to set up the database without using too much space.

Declan and Logan were, of course, already together. There was a third seat pulled up to their desks already. Just waiting for Isabel. Declan smiled brightly at her and waved. Isabel gave me a quick hug, grabbed her laptop, and went over to her team.

That just left me and Jonas.

Jonas was back at the desk he’d claimed on the first day. His laptop was open, but he wasn’t doing anything with it. Instead, he was typing viciously on his phone. I wondered who he wasslandering me to, because I was egotistical enough to think that whatever he was typing had to do with me.

I grabbed my laptop and sauntered over, pulling up an empty chair and sitting down like it was the most natural thing in the world. The moment I sat down, he angled his phone away from me.

Like I would try to read his text messages. No matter what he thought, we were not in high school anymore. Reading over someone’s shoulder was high school behavior. He didn’t acknowledge me at all other than that. I sighed and began setting up my laptop in silence.

It was going to be a long few weeks.

Isabel was right, though. He couldn’t avoid me forever.

When Yvette clapped her hands and announced that the emails were sent, he put his phone face down next to his computer and deftly navigated to his corporate emails. He opened the attachment.

“Should we read it together?” I suggested.

“Do you need help sounding out the big words?” he retorted.

I held my tongue. I was not going to get into a bickering match with this man. We were at work. We had to work together, and fighting on our first day as partners would not make that easy.Like this was ever going to be easy, I thought bitterly. Jonas wouldn’t let it be.

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “No, I just thought it might be easier if we went over the requirements together so we make sure we both have the same core understanding.”

---