“Not the best coffee, though?”
“I think it is.”
“How would you know? You’ve never been outside of California, I guess?” he teased.
She found him annoying all of a sudden, his good looks overtaken by his obnoxious personality. “I’ve been to Washington, thank you very much,” she said acidly.
He gave an easy smirk. “I was joking, you know.”
“We just met, how the shit am I supposed to know you’re joking?”
“Do you always curse?”
“I have a dirty mouth,” she replied, her lips pursing.
Dirty mouth. He almost laughed aloud, wanting to say some crude joke about her dirty mouth. This wasn’t the place for it, he reminded himself. “Really?”
“Not like that!” she immediately said, reddening. “Whatever disgusting things you’re thinkin’ ‘bout.”
“So, tell me about yourself.”
“Are you from HR? Is this a job interview of sorts?” she asked suspiciously.
“No, I’m just curious about you.”
“Why would you be? There are tons of other people here.”
“They don’t interest me at the moment. You interest me. You’re alone and pretending you’re all right about it.”
“And you’re a shrink now?”
He smiled. “I can sometimes act like one. That’s what years of work does to you.”
“I’m no shrink and I’ve been working for years.”
“It must be a job that isn’t for you,” he told her.
She paused. A job that wasn’t for her? She suited in fine, customers liked her, her fellow coworkers liked her, and she made great coffee-based drinks. What else could she do, aside from hold on to that dream of studying nursing? Then maybe, just maybe, she could finally get that degree she’d always wanted.
She shrugged. “I like my job a lot.”
“Can you imagine serving coffee for the rest of your life?”
She could and she nodded. “I guess I could. It has a very nice aroma.”
“That doesn’t sound much like growth. Why don’t you make your own café instead?”
“Maybe that’s why I’m here, so I can fish for a loan or something,” she joked.
He didn’t laugh. That was the first thing she noticed about him. He would smile, he would chuckle, but he never laughed outright. Maybe he was the serious, businessman type. Lynne wasn’t this serious nor were her coworkers.
“Oh my god, are you a loan shark?” she asked, her eyes widening.
His brows rose. “Do I look the part?”
“Well, we can’t ever tell.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not. I’m just your average entrepreneur that works a lot. Like a lot.”