Twisted Hate: An Enemies with Benefits Romance
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Twisted Hate by Ana Huang
One. Two. Three. I forced oxygen into my lungs with each count.
A few feet away, the fridge hummed, oblivious to the battle playing out in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the clock ticked its way toward the half hour, reminding me I should be long gone by now. Shower. Bed. Blissful sleep. They called my name, yet here I was, face to face with Jules, unwilling to wave the white flag in our silent war. Even at this close proximity, I couldn’t spot a single flaw in her creamy skin. I could, however, count the individual lashes framing her hazel eyes and spot the teeny tiny mole above her upper lip. The fact I noticed those things pissed me off even more. “I thought you were all about corporate law. Big bucks. Prestige.” Each syllable came out cold and sharp enough to sting. “The clinic may not be as fancy as Silver & Klein, but we do important work here. It’s not a playground for you to mess around in until you leave for the ‘big leagues.’” It was a low blow. I knew it even as I said it. Jules probably needed a job to tide her over until she passed the bar exam, and there was nothing wrong with that. But my frustration—over my father, over Alex, over the empty, gnawing feeling in my chest that had plagued me for more nights than I cared to admit —turned me into someone I didn’t recognize and didn’t particularly like. Normally, I could pretend I was the same carefree guy I’d been in school, but for some reason, my mask never lasted long with Jules. Perhaps it was because I didn’t care whether she saw the worst of me. There was a certain liberation in not giving a shit about what other people thought. “How like you to assume the worst of me.” If my voice was cold, Jules’s was an inferno, incinerating the sharp edges of my irritation until only the ashes of shame remained. “What, you think I’m going to swan in here every week, push a few papers around, and pretend to work just because I’m a temp? Newsflash, asshole, when I commit to doing something, I do it well. I don’t care if it’s a big law firm, a nonprofit, or a fucking lemonade stand at the end of a dead- end road. You’re not better than me just because you’re a doctor, and I’m not the devil just because I want a high-paying career. So you can take your sanctimonious attitude and shove it up your ass, Josh Chen, because I’m over it.” Silence blanketed the room, broken only by Jules’s ragged breaths. Her earlier cool had evaporated, replaced with flushed cheeks and blazing eyes, but for once, I didn’t take pleasure in riling her up. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but I was too stunned to formulate an appropriate response. Jules and I had exchanged more barbs than I could count over the years. She always gave as good as she got, but what happened just now…if I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn she was actually hurt. A hot poker of guilt stabbed at my chest. I straightened and rubbed a hand over my face, wondering when the hell my life had gotten so complicated. I missed the days when Jules and I insulted each other with zero guilt or remorse, when my sister wasn’t in love with my ex-best friend, and when my best friend had still been my friend. I missed the days when I was me. Now here I was, about to do something old Josh would’ve rather cut off his arm than do. “I shouldn’t have said that,” I finally conceded. “It was a low blow, and I…” A muscle worked in my jaw. Dammit. “I’m sorry.” I spit out the words. It was the first time I’d ever apologized to Jules, and I wanted to get it over as quickly as possible. Just because I did the right thing didn’t mean I had to like it. I braced myself for Jules’s gloating, but none came. Instead, she just stared at me like I hadn’t spoken. I forged ahead. “However, the clinic is important to me, and I don’t want our…differences to get in the way of our work. So I propose a truce.” Proposing a truce might as well be surrendering, but I refused to let our animosity poison my time at the clinic. Everywhere else, fine. But not here. Her brow wrinkled. “A truce.” “Only when we’re in the clinic.” I wasn’t naive enough to think we could uphold any semblance of peace outside a work environment. “No insults, no snarky comments. We keep it professional. Deal?” I held out my hand. Jules eyed it like it was a coiled-up cobra waiting to strike. “Unless, of course, you don’t think you can do it.” Satisfaction trickled through me when her lips thinned. I’d touched on a competitive nerve, as I knew I would. She didn’t take her eyes off mine as she grasped my hand and squeezed. Hard. Jesus. For someone so small, she was fucking strong. “Deal,” she said with a smile. I smiled back through gritted teeth and squeezed even harder, relishing the way her nostrils flared at the pressure. “Excellent.” Forget what I said about being bored. This was going to be an interesting few months. 9 JULES I F SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME A MONTH AGO THAT I WOULD WILLINGLY AGREE TO a truce with Josh Chen, I would’ve laughed in their face and asked what they were smoking. Josh and I were as capable of acting civil toward each other as a tiger was of changing its stripes. But, as much as I hated to admit it, his reasoning made sense. I took pride in my work, and the last thing I wanted was for my personal feelings to affect the workplace. Plus, I’d been so caught off guard by his apology my brain spazzed. I hadn’t been able to think straight, much less wade through what the consequences of a ceasefire with Josh Chen might look like. Surprisingly, they haven’t been terrible…though that might be because I haven’t seen Josh since the truce. According to Barbs, he only came in on his days off or when he wasn’t wiped from a shift. I had no issue with that. The less I had to see him, the better. Part of me was still embarrassed by how I’d lost my cool when he accused me of not taking my job seriously. We’d hurled much worse insults at each other over the years, yet that one thing had made me snap. It wasn’t the first time I’d been judged—for my looks and my family, the career I chose and the clothes I wore, the way I laughed too loudly when I was supposed to be demure and asserted myself too boldly when I was supposed to be invisible. I was used to shaking off criticism, but the sneers and side eyes accumulated over time, and I’d gotten to the point where I was just tired. Tired of working twice as hard as everyone else to be taken seriously and fighting even harder to prove my worth. I shook my head and tried to refocus on the documents before me. I didn’t have time for a pity party. I needed to finish fact checking a case today, and the clinic closed in three hours. I’d gotten through half the papers when the door swung open and Josh waltzed in, carrying a small box from Crumble & Bake. “Oh look, if it isn’t—” My favorite devil’s spawn. I bit off the rest of my words when Josh raised a challenging brow. “My best friend’s brother.” It would take some adjusting before I curbed my knee-jerk instinct to insult him the second I saw his face. “Astute observation.” He set the box on the table and took the seat next to me. A whiff of his cologne floated over, mingling with the sweet scent wafting from the box. “Let me guess. You’ve annoyed the rest of the staff so much they banished you to the kitchen?” “If you had a modicum of observational skill, you’d notice there isn’t a desk for me yet.” I forced myself not to stare at the pastries. Don’t give in to Download 1.63 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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