slipped into the stairwell before he could get the words out. He frowned and shook his head. “What the hell, man?”
“What’s that?” the dark-haired woman in front of him asked, looking up from her phone. Emily Vu. Vlogger-blogger. Intense vibe. He’d made his mental notes, determined to learn as many names and personalities as he could.
“Sorry,” he said, putting a lid on her coffee and setting it on the counter. “I just… I think I must’ve done something to annoy the woman who works at the end of the hall upstairs.” He cocked his head toward the stairwell. “She was heading this way and then bailed when she saw me working the counter. Maybe she doesn’t trust me with her coffee or something.”
Emily’s brows lifted, and she looked toward the stairwell. “Last office…the woman with the curly blond hair?”
“Yeah, you know her?”
Emily tucked her phone into the pocket of her suit jacket before taking her coffee. “Not really. I mean, I’ve passed her in the hall, but she keeps to herself. I think she’s a writer, maybe. Something that doesn’t require the video or podcasting rooms.”
“I wish I knew what I did to offend her or whatever.” He poured a cup of coffee for himself, replaying their earlier interaction in his head, trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. “Maybe she really loved the person who had this job before me, and now she’s mad that she’s gone.”
Emily choked a little on her coffee and then smirked at him. “I promise that’s definitely not it. No one loved Jackee.” She grabbed a napkin to dab her lips. “Jackee made sure of it. Maybe she’s just having a bad day and you were in the line of fire.”
“Maybe,” he said, unconvinced.
Maybe he just had that effect on women these days. They saw him and ran in the opposite direction.
Emily’s gaze flicked to the clock above the coffee bar. “Well, I have to get back to my desk. My coffee time slot is almost up, and I’m time-mapping this week. I have to stick to it to see if it works.” She lifted her drink as if toasting him. “Welcome to the WA, Jasper. Don’t let any of the techies talk you into investing in their app. And friends don’t ask friends to join their Patreon.”
He smirked and touched his paper coffee cup to hers. “Thanks for the tips. That bad, huh?”
“Nah, don’t worry. You’ll find most people here are pretty friendly, especially when you’re giving them coffee. Don’t stress about the outliers.” She shrugged. “Some people work on their own because they’re self-starters. Others only do it because they can’t manage to work with anyone else.”
“Right. Which one are you?”
“Probably both,” she said with a chagrined smile.
“And self-aware, too,” he teased.
“I have my moments.” Emily checked her smart watch and nodded as if she were marking the period at the end of her sentence, then headed off toward the stairs with a purposeful stride, her heels clicking against the polished concrete floor.
Jasper grabbed a rag to wipe down the counter and tried to shake off the feeling that the mystery woman had given him when she’d looked at him with such disdain, but he couldn’t get it off his mind. His sister, Gretchen, teased him that he had this need for everyone to like him—an actor’s cross to bear. Or maybe just his foster-kid self-preservation instinct. So maybe that was all this was. He’d wanted to make the woman laugh this morning. She’d had this lost look in her eyes that said she needed a little boost. He’d only been trying to make friends at this new job.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. He might have been attempting to flirt just a little. Those big green eyes and that mass of blond curls had made him think of the girl on that show Gretchen had watched obsessively when he’d first moved in with the Deares family—Felicity. He hadn’t joined in watching the show back then or on Gretchen’s annual binges since, but he’d always thought the lead actress was hot.
So fine, whatever. Mystery woman was easy to look at. But the flirting Jasper had done had been of the harmless variety. The last thing he needed right now was to get involved with someone he’d see every day. Or anyone at all, really. After what he’d gone through with Kenzie, he didn’t feel up for any kind of dating—casual or otherwise. He’d mostly been trying to break the ice