Page 30 of The Law of Attraction
“I know.”
“Now I’m sad I didn’t get myself some of those.” He offered her the remaining nub of kolache.
“You can finish it,” she said. “There’s probably somewhere near the motel we can get them. They’re sort of a staple around here.”
“Cool.” He popped the last bite in his mouth, and she handed him a napkin to wipe the sausage grease off his fingers. “Thanks.” He threw a quick, self-conscious smile at her. “And thanks for sharing.”
“You’re welcome,” she said as she dug her knitting back out of her bag. “Thank you for driving.”
She wasn’t sure why she’d been so annoyed about him driving earlier. She didn’t enjoy highway driving, especially at night, and this way she’d be able to get more knitting done—at least until it got too dark to see. So why had it bothered her?
It was getting harder to remember that she wasn’t supposed to like him. In fact, it was starting to feel like maybe she did like him despite everything. Even when she was butting heads with him over stupid things, she sort of…enjoyed it? He seemed genuinely interested in her opinions, even when he didn’t agree with them.
The more time they spent together, the less abrasive his bluntness seemed, and the more she realized that behind it lay a sweetness he seemed reluctant to let anyone see.
He was like her mirror opposite in that way. She had always made a show of pretending to be sweet around the people she worked with to hide the fact she was actually sarcastic and sharp-tongued underneath. But Adam hid all his sweetness behind a prickly exterior that seemed designed to keep people at arm’s length.
She wondered why he felt the need to do that. What was he trying to protect himself from? Why wouldn’t he want to be liked?
“Hey, listen,” he said, shifting in the driver’s seat a little.
“Yeah?” Her fingers stilled on her knitting needles as she looked over at him.
“About earlier, on the plane…”
She bit down on her lip, uncertain which part of earlier on the plane he was referring to. The part when they’d held hands? When his thumb had caressed her knuckles long after the plane had stopped tossing them around? That part?
“I think I offended you, when I suggested you should be more assertive.”
Oh. That part of earlier on the plane. The part where she’d gotten so upset she’d had to flee to the bathroom.
She lowered her eyes to her knitting again and tried to make her voice sound light and casual. “I wasn’t offended.” More like outraged, resentful, and mortally wounded, but admitting that would be opening the door to talking about it some more, which was the absolute last thing she wanted.
“You seemed offended.”
“Well I wasn’t,” she replied flatly, hoping he’d get the message and drop it. She thought they’d put this subject behind them. Why did he have to go and bring it up again? And just when she was starting to feel more comfortable around him.
“You sound offended again now.”
Yeah, okay, his bluntness was definitely still a pain in her ass. But honesty had worked to get through to him last time, so maybe if she told him how she actually felt he’d be satisfied enough to leave the subject alone.
“Because I don’t want to talk about this,” she said. “No one likes to be criticized or have their past mistakes thrown in their face.”
“I’m just trying to help.”
“No, you’re spitting in my face and telling me it’s moisturizer.”
When he glanced at her, he looked surprised. “That is really not what I was doing. Feedback helps you improve. It’s not personal.”
“It feels personal.”
“But it’s not,” he insisted, as if feelings were irrelevant. Like she was getting emotional about nothing and ought to be able to just get over it.
“I can’t change how I feel,” she snapped. “But I guess you’d have to have feelings in the first place to understand that.”
He ignored the insult—or maybe he didn’t even consider it an insult. Maybe he was impervious to the concept of insults, because to him it was all just feedback and honesty. “I don’t mind when people give me constructive criticism,” he said. “It helps me learn and improve myself.”
“Okay, then how’s this for constructive criticism: your bluntness is off-putting, your failure to listen when people attempt to set boundaries is rude, and your over-literal obsession with honesty is frankly kind of weird.”
