Even the Score(48)

Butterflies that had been dormant for years jolted awake with those five little words and began bouncing off the walls of my belly like they were hopped up on crack. “You’re going?” I asked, biting the inside of my lip to keep from smiling too big.

He narrowed his eyes, pulling his brows in tight as he tilted his head to the side. “Of course.”

“You don’t have to,” I blurted out without thinking.

Shut up, Danicka. Shut your stupid mouth. Don’t say that.

He shrugged quickly. “I wanna go.”

“Oh my God.” A smile rolled slowly across Ellie’s lips as she looked back and forth between the two of us. “I feel like I’m watching the most adorable conversation on the playground right now. Are you two going steady now?”

“Shut up, Ellie!” I snapped, my face heating with embarrassment. I looked up, expecting Andy to be just as mortified as I was, but instead he had a cocky smile on his face, his eyes glued to me. “Both of you, get out! I have work to do.” I waved my hands, pushing them toward the door. Ellie giggled as she walked past Andy, whose playful gaze was still lingering. Thankfully, he stepped in right behind Ellie and left, closing the door behind him. I picked up a piece of paper off my desk and fanned myself, suddenly hot even though the air conditioning was blowing full blast and my office felt like an igloo.

About thirty seconds later my cell phone chirped, and Ellie’s smiling face popped up on the screen, signaling a text.



E: Seriously. Could you two be any cuter? I want to be in the wedding, k?



I rolled my eyes and turned my phone to silent, determined to actually get some work done even though all I could think about was going out after work. I was a woman trying to kick ass in a man’s world, so other than Sadie, who was busy being a new mom, I didn’t have a lot of girlfriends. Ellie and I had connected the second I stepped through the door at Shaw Management and never looked back. We were polar opposites, but I loved the way she completely picked up on what I was thinking without me even saying a word. She’d been saying for weeks that she could see something between Andy and me. While I shot her down every single time, deep down inside, I hoped she was right. Every time there was a knock on my door, I prayed it was him. Sometimes I left my door open just so I could catch a glimpse of him walking in or out of his office. If he passed by my door to go to the supply room, I suddenly decided I needed more paper, just so I had an excuse to talk to him for a minute. Little did anyone know, I had eight extra packages of paper stored in my empty drawer, which would probably take me years to use.

Sighing, I shook my head of all the crazy, teenage-girl thoughts that were swirling around and threw myself into my work.

A couple of hours later, I was munching on a salad in my office since Ellie had ditched me for lunch with Kevin, when there was a soft knock at my door.

“Come in!” I called out, trying not to spit lettuce all over my desk.

The door creaked as it opened, revealing a smiling Andy, holding a yellow gift bag.

I swallowed and licked the leftover dressing off my lips as I smiled at him. “Hey,” I said cheerfully.

“Hey yourself. Since Ethan and Ellie are both out for lunch, I figured now was a good time.” He took a couple of steps into my office and set the little gift bag down in front of me. “Happy birthday, Danicka.”

My mouth popped open as I stared down at the gift bag in shock. “Wait, you went out and got me a gift today?”

He sat down in the chair across from me and shook his head.

“But I thought that you didn’t know—” I stopped talking and narrowed my eyes at him skeptically.

He pressed his lips together and tried to keep a straight face. “So I wasn’t totally honest about not knowing it was your birthday.”

“You little liar,” I accused with a small grin as I wiped my hands on the napkin and pushed my salad off to the side. “By the way, yellow is my favorite color.”

“I knew that, too.”

His words hung in the air between us, shifting the mood from playful to something . . . more.

“Hm. Interesting,” I said lightheartedly as I peeked into the bag. I couldn’t see much except for white tissue paper, but whatever it was, was heavy. Wrapping my hand around a box, I pulled it out carefully and set it on my desk. I felt Andy’s eyes on me, watching every movement I made as I eagerly unwrapped the tissue.

As the tissue fell and the box was revealed, my mouth fell open. “I can’t believe you did this.” I shook my head, staring at the new camera lens that I’d been wanting for months. Looking up at his proud smile, I swallowed a small lump that had formed in my throat. “How did you know?”