Neanderthal Seeks Human(35)

His question then statement and the manner with which both were posed made my bun feel too tight and my neck hot. I glanced at him through my lashes, not sure where this was going. Even after our various albeit limited encounters, everything about Quinn made me hypersensitive and self-conscious.

Undoubtedly, if I were expected to retort with something coquettish and droll then I was going to fail. I didn’t know how to engage in flirtatious banter. My mind wandered to conversations with Elizabeth, where she’d continued to insist that Quinn was interested in me and I continued to find the assertion ridiculous; and, therefore, faced with such a man speaking to me in such a way I was wholly unprepared. All previous attempts, mostly regulated to college, had been disastrous and painfully uncomfortable as they were either ill-timed or the topics I chose were ill-conceived.

As an example: the pheromone excretions of termites.

Now, standing awkwardly, avoiding eye contact, trying to postpone my response, I didn’t even know if flirtatious banter was what Quinn wanted expected or wanted. Men in general unsettled me; this one in particular turned me into a brouhaha of chaos simply by glancing in my direction.

Finally, ignoring looming feelings of trepidation I decided to answer with candid earnestness. There was nothing wrong with honesty and, I decided, he could read as much or as little into the statement as he liked.

Not quite able to meet his eyes I responded, “Yes, I mean it. Feel free to join me anytime.” I was surprised by how soft my voice sounded.

A slow, hesitant grin spread over his features and I had difficulty drawing breath. It was a sexy grin. A very sexy grin. His eyes dropped to my mouth and he licked his lips. I felt a little woozy.

“Good. I’ll do that.” Still smiling his small smile, Quinn reached over and grabbed his jacket from the booth, “I’ll walk you back.”



~*~



Quinn carried Betty’s lunch as we walked the short distance back to the Fairbanks Building. I was in the middle of explaining to Quinn about a potential improvement to the billing structure of Guard Security as we approached the security desk. Dan, the security guard with neck tattoos who’d escorted me on my non-interview first day, nodded at Quinn.

Then Dan winked at me.

I smiled and waved warmly in return and finished explaining the impetus for the cost analysis I was working on to Quinn, “…the best thing about the proposal is that the software is free.” I glanced over at Quinn to gauge his reaction to this great news but, to my disappointment, he was frowning at me. We stopped in front of the elevator and I turned to face him, “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

Quinn’s expression was rigid and he looked past me to the lobby; he motioned toward the security desk with his chin, “How do you know Dan?”

“Who?” I glanced over my shoulder to follow Quinn’s gaze and found Dan still looking at us, at me, and I gave him a closed mouth smile then turned back to Quinn, “Oh, Dan the security man. Just from the building.”

“You two talk much?” Quinn still wasn’t looking at me and, for that, I was glad. He looked like a hawk about to devour a mouse and, standing this close, his eyes were a fiery cerulean.

I shook my head, “Not really. Just every once in a while when I arrive in the morning or go get lunch. On my second day he helped me bring up my box of paraphernalia. Why? Should I-” I hesitated, frowning, “Is there something I should know? Is he a bad guy?”

Quinn moved his attention back to me sending warmth from my nose to my toes, his expression softened and he seemed to debate what to say next. Finally he sighed, “You read too many comics.”

“What?” I thought about denying the accusation but instead said, “How can you tell?”

The elevator opened and he held the door; he continued as he followed me in, “‘Bad guy.’ ‘Good guy.’ Most guys fall somewhere in between.”

I lifted an eyebrow at his assertion. “I don’t think that’s really true. I think you can say someone is good or bad- based on their actions.”

This was a subject I spent a lot of time considering. Both my sisters were criminals. My mother was a serial cheater and had abandoned her family. I liked labels; I liked putting people and things into categories. It helped me calibrate my expectations of people and relationships. Without labeling my sisters as ‘bad people’ I became an enabler of their behavior, like my father. I didn’t plan on spending my life as a doormat or living in the waiting room of perpetual disappointment hoping that they would change.

“So, does one bad action make a person ‘bad’?” Quinn placed his palm against the five-point fingerprint screen; he then punched in the code to call the elevator.