The guys were going for a celebratory dinner downtown, and Rina wanted to come with them. It was either that or spending another lonely night back at her cottage, wondering when to expect Finn’s strike or the moment Kayla would decide she was bored again and in search of someone to torment.
Joel wanted her to come along too. When he extended the invite to her, standing by the doorway to her office, he saw the longing on her face and took advantage of it.
“You can put on a disguise,” he offered. “You work in a fashion house so that should be fairly easy to put together. Don’t you think?”
“Still,” Rina sighed. It was still too early to be seen with the group, particularly when they’d just made the first hit. It wasn’t going to take anyone anything to easily have a hunch that she was the mysterious sensation the media talked about after seeing a woman trying hard to disguise her features. She could have dyed her hair a bright pink if it was a pre-thought plan, but it was already pretty late now.
“I want you there,” Joel murmured, then blinked. Realizing how that had sounded, he shook his head. “I mean, it’s a lot with the media team. You know how loud they can get in the middle of the action. I need someone there who can weather the storm.”
“You could ask Anna,” Rina pointed out innocently. Although Anna didn’t know who she was, Rina had seen her quite a handful of times, and each of those times, she’d caught her staring at Joel like a snack bowl. Joel had shrugged it off the first two times Rina had brought his attention to it.
“I don’t want to go with Anna,” Joel said. He looked out her window as if deep in contemplation, then bit his lower lip and looked back to Rina. His face broke into a smile as a bulb lit up in his eyes.
“I have an idea!” Excitement was laced in his tone as he leaned away from the doorframe, a light spring in his steps. “We can order and have dinner here instead. What do you think?”
Rina attempted to think about it for a minute, or rather, acted like she was trying to. With nothing else to do that night, Rina didn’t want to jump at the opportunity with desperation. She made Joel wait while she picked up her phone and scrolled through it, asking him to give her a minute to confirm something.
“Okay,” she said, nodding, a small smile playing on her lips. “We can do that. It sounds fun.”
A few hours later, with the designers gone, the rest of the team were seated on the dimly lit balcony overlooking the trees at the back of the building. One of the editors had rushed out to get some cans of beer, so they waited for him, trading stories about their day just to while away time.
Rina was seated on the floor next to Joel, who was scrolling through his phone. She closed her eyes and took in the scent of the night air, feeling relaxed and a bit sleepy. Now would have been the best time to grab her bag and leave for the cottage, but Joel had ordered in because of her and Rina didn’t want to make his efforts in vain.
She rubbed at her eyes and stifled a yawn, wanting the night to be over already before it even started. She’d had a stressful day because everyone had seemed extra pumped after the news earlier in the day. With only a few minutes break which she spent in her office, while everyone piled out to eat from the food truck Zayn had sent over, Rina had been on her feet all day in the studio. The photographers, for some reason, were aiming for a spot beyond perfection and they hadn’t stopped until they had attained it.
“Do you like it here?” Joel threw her a lazy look, the night making his features look even sharper and distinct. Rina had to admit that Joel had really attractive features, but each time that thought came to her, her mind did its thing in the most annoying fashion. Zayn’s face always came to her mind that hard, perfect, perpetually scowling, powerful, and sexy feature that also had the ability to drive her crazy.
Rina didn’t like that she thought of it that way, hated that with everything Joel or any other man did for her, she tended to unconsciously compare them with Zayn. He would find it amusing if she told him, Rina was certain. And he wouldn’t let it go until he was done milking that fact.
Rina would rather keep it to herself.
“Yeah,” Rina breathed, sinking further onto the ground. “It’s quiet and beautiful. The only disturbance is the sounds of the crickets out, but isn’t that what nature denotes? It creates melodies.”
Joel didn’t blink. His lips parted slightly as he sucked in a breath.
“What?” Rina chuckled awkwardly.
“I…I can’t remember the last time I asked someone if they liked someplace, and they gave me that. It’s usually the causal ‘err, it’s fine.’ I don’t like it.”
Rina burst into laughter. “But they weren’t lying when they said that, were they? It was fine.”
“That’s one of the tells of a boring conversationist,” Joel muttered. “They use generic words to describe situations and make dinner dates boring. I can’t deal.”
Now that he had gotten her to lighten up, Joel thought he could now ask her the question that had been on his mind all day. He cleared his throat softly, causing her to look sideways into his eyes.
“I know you didn’t tell me who the big guy was, and I respect your decision not to tell me. But I think this is harmless.”
“What is?”
“The food truck,” Joel said. “I was thinking about who could have possibly sent it. Finn? And why do you still have his flowers on your desk? I thought you were going to throw them out.”