bring in all the attention you need.”
Desmond scrunches his face. “I want genuine interest only. Besides, Zach’s barely around. You think I have the patience to handle the hordes of women that will show up just to see him? I don’t have that kind of time to waste.”
“I don’t think you have much patience at all, but if it’s the attention you want, then what does it matter? Besides, since when do you complain about being surrounded by hordes of women?” I laugh at the sound of my own question.
Desmond doesn’t appear to be amused. “Like I said, I want genuine attention and interest. Can you imagine if all the students who walked through this door were like you?”
“Hey,” I say defensively. Someone’s in a bad mood.
“Oh, don’t get all sensitive now. You didn’t want to be in my class almost as much as you don’t want to be here right now.”
I stand up, wondering how I almost started to tolerate this man—that’s a mystery in itself. He’s just as awful as he was when I first met him. “Well, we’re both stuck with each other, aren’t we? So do yourself a favor and get over what I want and don’t want. Okay?” I slide past him, nudging him with my elbow as I pass. “Oh, and you’re welcome for cleaning up your desk. Maybe you can actually sit at it now.”
I’m fuming as I walk out into the main kitchen and notice that everyone is gone. I don’t know if they just took a lunch break because there’s still lighting equipment everywhere and the camera is still focused on the empty cooking station in the front row. “Whatever,” I mutter as I walk behind the large island that overlooks the room. I can’t believe I actually thought this could work. Me working with Desmond? Yeah, right. We’ll kill each other before the end of the week.
Desmond walks up behind me and opens the refrigerator. He hands me a bottled water then takes the cap off the one he grabbed for himself. “Thank you for organizing my desk. You didn’t have to do that.”
I shrug. “I won’t touch it again. I didn’t even mean to do it. It just kind of happened.”
His lips tip up at the corner, and he chugs half a bottle of water before setting it down on the island. “Be careful. I might ask you to organize the rest of my office. Heaven knows I need the help.”
“You need lots of that.”
He glares at me again, but this time there’s a gleam in his eyes. “Maybe so. How about we start here? I’ve got another meal to prep before everyone returns from lunch. Will you help me?”
“Sure,” I mutter dryly. “Whatever you need, boss.”
Desmond walks me through the recipes, and we split up, grabbing ingredients and making different parts of the meal. When I don’t understand something, Desmond comes over and walks me through it with a gentleness I never witnessed when I was a student in his classes. He always seemed to get so impatient with me. But he can alter his tune all he wants. It doesn’t change the animosity I have toward him now.
“What are you doing?” he asks, approaching me with a light laugh.
I look down at the green beans I’m shelling and shrug. “Removing the bean things.”
He tosses his head back and laughs harder. “Why?”
My mouth drops. Is he really laughing at me right now? “Because they’re in the pod. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”
He shakes his head and steps behind me, a lot like how he did the other day. “You’ve never eaten a green bean whole?”
I look down at my work and suddenly feel heat spread over my cheeks. “I mean, yeah, but…” I feel totally humiliated. But just like that, all the tension that has built up between us starts to fade away like magic.
He wraps his hand around mine. “Just cut off the ends, like this. Not too much.” He starts cutting off the ends of the green beans while his mouth is coming dangerously close to my ear. “We don’t want to waste any of the good stuff.”
My body is hot all over from the rasp of his tone and the heat of his breath. My heart rate takes off at a mile a minute. Not even the force of my steady breaths can stop it. There’s this intensity between Desmond and me that is so undeniable, so unshakeable. I don’t even question that