The Dating Plan(20)
“I thought I was doing something good for my country,” Daisy retorted. “What if he never came home again?”
“If you’d really loved Orson you would have been sitting in front of the TV in your pajamas, eating ice cream, feeding Max pakoras, and watching a Marvel movie marathon. Look what happened when Sam and I broke up. I spent a week eating dal and drinking vodka until I passed out in a pool of vomit on the floor of my parents’ restaurant. That’s true love.”
“You’re not selling it very well,” Daisy said dryly.
Finally the car in front of her started to move, and her Mini kicked into gear. “Love takes commitment. You know I have issues.”
“I know you do,” Layla said gently. “Every time I come to your place and see you and your dad kicking around in that big empty house, I feel your pain. But he’s finally moving on. Don’t you want to move on, too? Maybe the perfect apartment is out there, or even the perfect man—someone who makes you happy, who cares for you, and makes you laugh.” She hesitated. “Maybe Roshan is the one.”
Liam had made her laugh, but she suspected Layla wouldn’t want to know that. “My dad thought my mom was the one, and look how that turned out. I’m happy to stay single, but I am going to string out the fake fiancé thing at least until Dad is back from his trip. I haven’t been accosted by any aunties since the conference. It’s been positively peaceful.”
“You’d just better hope no one puts two and two together. If your dad thought you were with Liam after what he did . . .”
“I’d just tell him it wasn’t real. Who would believe Liam and I would ever get together?”
* * *
? ? ?
DAISY was in the zone. At least she was in the zone until someone tapped her on the shoulder and she felt, rather than heard, the rumble of a voice behind her. With an irritated huff, she pulled off her noise-canceling headphones.
“Yes?”
Hunter Cole, CFO—a man so blond and beautiful he had no business being in a company filled with geeks—held out his computer. “My laptop isn’t working. Someone said you were in IT. The screen froze, and I’ve got the spinning wheel . . .”
Daisy’s mouth opened and closed again. She didn’t do well around people like Hunter—confident, beautiful, popular people who were spatially aware and had never once tripped going up stairs, stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, or bashed their head on a cupboard door. With their perfect bodies and toned muscles, they made her feel clumsy and awkward, the ten pakora pounds she could never lose a glaring signal that she was not one of them, if they hadn’t guessed that already from the nonsensical words that came out of her mouth when they were around.
Liam was one of them, but she’d never felt the same way around him, like the clumsiness and the lost words vanished the moment he walked in the door, and all that was left was the Daisy inside who was smart enough to do the puzzles he brought her, funny enough to make him laugh, and interesting enough that he would blow off Sanjay to listen to whatever she had to say.
“Seriously, man?” Josh shot out of his chair in the nearby cubicle. “Asking her to fix your computer is the equivalent of asking a Michelin starred chef to wash the dishes.” He frowned at Hunter, folding his arms across a chest that was only half the size and lacking any of Hunter’s definition. “I thought Finance had its own IT people downstairs. What are you doing up here?”
Hunter gestured behind him at the slow parade of people walking through the door, hands filled with boxes, bags, and laptops. “The move just started.” His deep voice rumbled so low Daisy could feel it in her bones.
“I was told this was where IT would be.” He tipped his head from side to side, making his neck crack, then grabbed his collar, like he was about to rip the shirt off his massive shoulders and throw down with Josh right there on the cubicle floor.
“It’s okay, Josh.” Daisy took the computer, fumbling with it before she got it to the safety of her desk. “I do this for my relatives all the time.” She turned it off and on again and the computer hummed to life. She tapped a few keys and looked up at Hunter. “Looks like it’s working now.”
“Thanks.” Hunter lifted the laptop off her desk—as if he knew she’d probably drop it if she picked it up again—and walked away, his broad shoulders swaying above his tight-as-a-rock ass.
“He didn’t even know to turn his computer off and on.” Josh sneered. He was in a savage mood. “No wonder the company is going under.”
“Be nice,” Daisy scolded. “It’s not his fault.”
“How can I be nice when we’re being invaded? How are we going to . . .” He trailed off as Mia Hart, the marketing director, placed a box in the empty cubicle beside him. Daisy knew Mia, with her expressive green eyes and thick auburn hair, from project meetings and the occasional elevator ride, but they’d never had more than a passing conversation. Josh, however, knew everyone.
“Look what the cat dragged in.” He glared at Mia.
“Sorry, guys.” She shrugged off the insult. “Marketing and Design is moving in beside you, but I brought donuts!”
“You can stay.” Josh took the donut box from the top of her pile. “But only until they’re gone.”