Page 10 of Last Night Was Fun

“Sorry,” he said at the bite in her voice. “Just trying to keep things friendly.”

She snorted. “We are not friends.”

He ate another rice cake. He folded his arms over his broad chest and gave her a rather unfriendly stare. “I said friend-ly, not friends. There’s a difference.”

Emmy finished her cookies and folded her own arms. “You’re right, there is. We’re colleagues and tolerate each other at best.”

“Well, now we’re more than colleagues.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. We’re competitors.” He narrowed his gaze and lowered his voice. He moved a fraction closer to her and brought his disarming scent with him. “And I don’t lose, Jameson.”

Emmy glared at him, holding her ground. He was trying tointimidate her, and she would not let him have the satisfaction. Nor would she let on she thought he’d already won the promotion.

In that moment, she decided she was going to fight tooth and nail. Hell or high water, reputation be damned, she was going to do whatever it took to beat him.

She stepped closer and lowered her own voice to a menacing growl. She was a solid nine inches shorter than him, but with the way he flinched, she knew she’d made her point. “Well, that makes two of us, Olson, so this should be interesting then, shouldn’t it.”

A grin curled his lip. “Indeed, it should be.” He found one more rice cake in his bag and crunched it in her face.

She scoffed with a roll of her eyes and stepped around him. She walked back into the hall, ready to return to her desk, when she got a text.

Her mother had responded.

Fantastic news!She added a little confetti emoji.

Emmy smiled at it and saw her most recent message from Axe Murderer below it.

The Flamingo Lips like The Flaming Lips, get it?

Last night, she’d used theHa Hareaction at his latest bird-band pun instead of texting back because he’d sent it at nearly 11p.m., and she knew they’d have texted all night if she didn’t end it and go to sleep.

Now, before she could allow herself to overthink if sending him a message about her good news was too much when they hardly knew each other, she wrote one and hit send.

This week is off to a good start! Good things happening at work!

He almost immediately responded.

Congrats! Me too!

Really? That’s awesome! Congrats!

He hit the heart reaction, and Emmy’s heart took a swan dive to her toes and back.

Did he justloveher message?

It didn’t mean anything, she hurried to convince herself as her face heated. The heart reaction was a step above the thumbs-up forlike, and good news on the job front was worth a heart. Maybe he was simply excited. She couldn’t blame him. She was excited too. And he was probably busy and needed to get back to work, much like how she’d ended their conversation the night before so she could sleep. It wasn’t anything to read into.

But she knew, even as she tried to convince herself differently, that the little heart would be bouncing around her brain all day.

Chapter4

Axe Murderer:Favorite movie?

Oof. Too many to list.

What? Everyone has a favorite.