Page 32 of My Lucky Charm

Something inside me snags. Why am I making this so hard for her? She obviously wants to help. “I can, uh, do pasta though,” I say. “Maybe with some grilled chicken?”

Her eyes go wide, excited. “Yeah! Totally. I’m on it. I’ll be back in like, an hour. Ish.” She pulls out her phone. “Might be longer because I’ll need an Uber.”

“You didn’t drive?”

“I took the train,” she says. “Then an Uber. I thought it would be easier, but obviously not. I should’ve thought of that, too. I’ll get better, I promise.”

Before I think, I say, “I have a car.”

“You do? Is it fancy? Like a rich, fancy car?” Her smile could power the lights in this entire facility. I pretend not to notice.

I shake my head. “It’s just a car.”

She squints at me. “And you’re going to let me drive it?”

I shrug. “Are you going to crash it?”

“No.”

“Then why do I care if you drive it?”

A pause. “You don’t . . . care if I drive it. Because I’m your assistant.”

I frown. “Yeah.”

“And I’m a responsible adult who has her license.”

“I would hope so.”

She raises her eyebrows. “It’s like our first bonding moment.”

“It’s not.”

She hitches her bag over her shoulder. “Says you.”

I don’t understand this woman. Or the fact that this whole display makes her more attractive. It shouldn’t. She’s kind of a weirdo.

Good grief. In a different world I could see us being friends. I think I kind of like her.

And I don’t like anybody.

“Also, everyone else is gone,” she says.

“So?”

“So, why are you still practicing?”

“You don’t get to be the best by leaving when everyone else leaves,” I say.

“And you’re the best,” she says, a trace of a question in her voice.

I look away. She really has no idea who I am.

“Where is your car parked and how do I get the keys?” she asks.

“In the parking lot out back, and I’ll have to get them from my locker,” I tell her. “Unless you want to go into the locker room and get them yourself.”

She holds up her lanyard. “Only place I can’t get into,” she says.

---