"No time for Vegas, man." A quick nod at the monitor and I started typing again. "I got work to do."
"See, that's what I thought, but then I came in here this morning and you were just staring off into space."
He kept that smile tight and wide when I looked at him, my eyes narrowing. "You checking up on me, man?"
"No," he laughed, throwing a shoulder up in a shrug as though he thought I was simple. Then came a bigger laugh bunched up with an insult. "I pay your assistant to do that."
"I pay my assistant, Duncan. Don't get it twisted." He lifted his hands, a surrender he sure as hell didn't mean and then laughed again, fast, hurried, failing at his lame ass attempt to squash the tension he'd caused. "What do you want?"
"I'm just a little worried." He was circling, Duncan always did that. The predator sniffing around, checking to see if I was full enough, juicy enough to warrant an attack. But Duncan was a poser, a player of the game I was trying to learn. He was better at it than me, we both knew it, but he still fronted like he was only concerned for me, not the buckets of cash my program would make him one day. The laugh was gone, so was the smile and Duncan pulled his eyebrows together, forcing mock concern I knew wasn't real. "It's been a couple of weeks now and you're still working on the same code. And you missed the meeting on Wednesday morning … "
"I can't oversleep?"
He waved, ignoring my question, speaking over me. "And then I pass by here this morning and you're staring off into space, completely zoned out."
"Maybe I was thinking."
The head nod was slow, his eyes cool, as if he wanted to swish around his words in his mouth, like a shot of bourbon that would burn. The buzz was worth it and Duncan knew it. He had me. I had been zoned out, messed up with Willow and the damn crazy dreams that wouldn't back off me.
"Daisy tried buzzing you three times." There was a lot of accusation in his tone, and I stood, meeting his stare with a head tilt that let Duncan know I wasn't going to back down like a punk. Still, he watched me as if my bluster didn't matter, moving his teeth together like he wasn't sure if he should let the words on his tongue fly. "Weird, isn't it? Her calling, you here and still you didn't answer."
"Maybe I was thinking hard."
He didn't buy it, not when I sat back down, tired already of the interrogation. In fact, he actually thought getting angry would raise my hackles maybe, because he let his temper flare, knocking a fist against my desk. "Man, what's going on with you? You … you thinking of fucking me over? Signing up with someone else, because if you are … "
Here we go. This mess again. What an asshole. "Give me a break. No, I'm not going anywhere but even if I was, what of it? We got no contract." Duncan stepped away from my desk, scrubbing his chin as he moved around my office. He looked like a tiger itching to pounce but I wouldn't let it get that far. When I spoke, I made sure it was with less attitude, that my voice was lowered, calm. "Everything's right down the middle until we land an investor."
"I'm not going to let you fuck me over, Nash."
I slumped in my chair, beyond tired of the argument and Duncan's nervous ass. "Duncan, I have no intention of fucking you over. Look, it's like I told you from jump, all this here," I waved around the office, pointing at the Apple iBook that I'd bought on credit, "is 50/50." The iBook came with me, so did the long coffee table made up of recycled palette wood and the sofa that Natalie had picked up at a thrift store and reupholstered herself. Even the file cabinets that looked slick and new were dinged up in the back, display models from Office Depot that the manager let me have for fifty bucks. I wasn't like Duncan. I didn't come to New York sucking on a silver spoon, or expecting I was owed one. Everything I had, I got on my own. It was mine and it came from years of scrimping, years of writing code that made somebody else money.
"You brought in the contractors and your connections, I bring my skill set. And Daisy. We don't owe each other a damn thing until there are investors and a board. Then we'll talk contracts and commitment. You agreed to that, man." He watched me, nodding so slowly it might have been a twitch but I kept at him, hoping like hell this time he'd pull his head out of his ass and see reason. "And if I sleep in, and spend a few minutes zoning out, so the hell what? That only means I need a break."
Duncan popped his knuckles, a nervous, annoying habit he did when he was on edge, maybe to buy some time to try to come up with a valid comeback. There was no damn reason for me to recount stuff he already knew, but I'd discovered over the past six months that this supposedly top shelf finder needed his hand held sometimes. He'd worry about the future without any real reason. Nothing was set and until it was, we could both walk away without a backward glance. It pissed me off that he forgot that. I mean, yeah, his job wasn't as concrete as ones and zeros, but it still was as solid as it ever would be.