I cut him off before he can say anything else. “No. I don’t need any help.”
“Then don’t work there. Find something else to do if you aren’t in trouble.”
“James… with all due respect, you can’t tell me what to do with my life.”
“I don’t want you working there,” he says quickly and with more insistence. “I don’t… want you working there.”
My lips part as his gaze clings to mine. I recognize his words for what they are. He doesn’t want me working there.
Suddenly, we feel like those people who saw each other at the bar two years ago. We feel like those people who kissed and crossed a line. As far as I’m concerned, however, there’s no part of our relationship that gives him any kind of rights to say that to me.
I don’t think I could possibly express how hurt I was when he told me we couldn’t cross that line again. While my answer was that I understood, my heart didn’t. It was just a kiss, but something about it meant more to me.
“Paige,” he says and reaches for my hand, but I pull away before he can touch me.
“No. You lost any kind of right to say such a thing to me two years ago.” Pain fills his eyes as the words leave my lips, and I wonder if he might have felt anything for me. The fact that I stumbled into him in the most unlikely of places makes me doubt it though.
Look at him, he’s gorgeous. He’s always been the talk of the class, whether I had a class with him or not. Last night showed I don’t know him, and no matter what I feel, we should keep it that way.
“We’re supposed to be talking about my thesis,” I remind him, and he flips open his notebook.
I ready my pen to write, and the fury returns to his eyes.
Fury I ignore. The two things I was worried about most this week both went to hell. My first night of work and this meeting with him.
At this point, I no longer care what happens to my pride.
I still need to do what I have to do, so it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks.
I can’t lose my mother, and I can’t lose my dreams.