Page 32 of See You at the Sunset

Everything about this was a bad idea.

“I mean it, Jia.” Henry pointed his finger at her. “Stay away from Matthew Singleton. He’s exactly the type of person that would try to take advantage of someone like you.”

“Someone like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Someone soft. Kind. Easily taken advantage of. Easily eliminated by the signature of a stranger and the whim of a high-powered executive. “You’re in over your head,” he said.

But maybe it was Henry who was the one in over his.

He soaked in one last look before turning and walking away back to the bar, leaving her behind.

“I can take care of myself,” she said after him as he walked away.

God, he wished that were true. And he was angry at himself for caring either way.

Henry signaled the bartender and asked for his check. He’d come for a drink to try to get away and was leaving more entrenched in this weird desert life than ever before.

He walked past Jia and Matthew’s table on his way out. He tried to keep his gaze on the door. He didn’t want to see that snake’s swarmy face and Jia’s big, innocent eyes buying into all the shit being spewed at her.

He would ask himself a hundred times on the short drive home why he even cared. But for now, he bit down, clenching his jaw, willing himself to keep walking.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jia’s head turn, watching him as he passed. He caved and looked. He was met with a small smile and almost imperceptible nod.

He nodded back and kept walking.

“Do you know him?”

Henry heard the question asked between the two behind him.

“I do. He’s a friend,” she said in response.

The words caught Henry off guard. A one-night stand, yes. A work foe, most certainly. But a friend? Henry didn’t have friends. He didn’t want friends. Yet there was something about those words coming from Jia that made him wonder if maybe he actually did.

An unfamiliar feeling arose in his chest like he was being taken over by aliens. He braced for the tight piercing of a panic attack. What he experienced instead was a warmth bubbling up inside him. And he wasn’t sure which would end up hurting more.

13

“So did you have a nice time?”

Jia had a spoonful of Cheerios halfway to her mouth when her grandmother walked into the kitchen. She’d gotten home well past Mimi’s bedtime and had quietly snuck in and put herself to bed shortly thereafter. But Jia couldn’t sleep. She’d been playing the date over and over in her mind. Not so much the date itself but the run-in with Henry. The heat in his warning to stay away from Matthew. The heat from his body as he’d made his wishes known.

The look on Henry’s face when he’d walked past her and out the door.

Was he mad at her? She couldn’t think of one thing she’d done to possibly make him upset. But he was clearly irritated last night. He wasn’t jealous, was he? No, it couldn’t be that. And it bothered her. Jia really didn’t like it when someone took issue with her. Maybe she could reach out and make it right.

She shook her head.

No.

Jia was a grown woman and could decide who to spend time with. What was with that warning? And shouldn’t she be the one who was irritated with him? He’d fired her, and now he was here as a reminder that she was a failure at life. She got here first. She should be the one that was mad. She didn’t even get the chance to march out of the restaurant with a sour look onherface.

“Jia? Honey?”

Jia looked up from her Cheerios and saw her grandmother staring back at her.

“Oh, sorry, Grandma. I was spacing out,” Jia said.

“So how was the date?” she asked again.