Mara stayed calm, pulling the juice box Carl had packed for her out of her brown paper bag. “Uh-huh. Definitely news,” she agreed, forcing her eyes up even while Harry’s hand drew tantalizing circles on her back.
Leah was the first to stick out her hand in Harry’s direction. Her pixie cut left a swatch of her sandy blond hair hanging over her left eye, but her smile was friendly. “Hi, Harry. I know you, but I don’t think you know me. I’m Leah from the lab. Nice to finally meet you.”
Harry took her hand and shook it, grinning at her. “We had a run-in just the other day at lunch, right? I tripped, as usual, and you and Astrid were there.” He turned to Mara. “Leah helped clean up the coffee I spilled all over everyone and everything.”
Leah chuckled. “That was me.”
“Thanks for that,” Harry said on a smile. “I’m half klutz.”
“Anytime,” Leah offered, beaming at him and Mara.
Jiaying, petite and plump, held her hand out, too. “I’m Jiaying, or Ying, if you’d rather, from production, and I think we see each other from time to time when I drop off requests to you. You know, for more money,” she said on a lilting chuckle.
“Pleasure,” Harry said, his gaze stopping on Astrid who was ripping apart a beef shish kebab.
“And this is Astrid, Harry,” Mara said as Leah nudged her to get her attention. “Astrid, this is Harry. Remember, we crashed into him in the lunch line a couple of days ago?”
Her eyes, narrowed and shiny, acknowledged Harry before returning to the chunk of pepper on her plate. “I know all about Harry.”
Perfect. Astrid was angry. She didn’t like newcomers, and she was doing her best to make that incredibly clear.
But Harry wasn’t having it. He leaned forward, sticking his hand under Astrid’s bent-out-of-shape nose. “Pleasure, Astrid. You work in production, too, right?”
Mara fought a dreamy sigh while Ying and Leah rolled their eyes at Astrid. “She does,” Leah answered for her. “With Ying. Astrid’s the socially maladjusted crankypants in our little group.”
Harry smiled, lopsided and adorable. “Every group needs one. We can’t have too much happy. We need balance in the universe.”
Ying giggled, nodding her approval of Harry’s sentiment with a warm, wide smile.
“So tell us everything,” Leah demanded with a wink and a smile, sinking her teeth into a shiny apple.
“Everything!” Ying chimed in, popping open her bag of chips.
Mara hedged, sipping at her milk, her grin sly. “Everything,” she teased.
Leah and Jiaying giggled, but Astrid, not so much. Mara knew exactly what Astrid was thinking. Harry was yet another person taking up time Mara should be spending with her. It was a good thing Harry wasn’t really her boyfriend. Soon this would all be over and everything would go back to the way Astrid liked it.
Except, she’d be in jail. Which would probably please possessive, smothering Astrid to no end. All she’d have to do to find Mara was pop in on visiting days at werewolf jail.
Mara caught herself. Yes, Astrid drove her nuts sometimes, and she didn’t love to share Mara’s attention. But Astrid was also a good friend. Not the kind of friend you did girls’ night with—or shopped with. But one who’d text you links to recipes for chicken soup when you were home sick with the flu. Or offer to hack another employee’s phone and wipe out their contacts list when you groused about them over lunch.
Her mean thoughts left her ashamed of herself. So Mara reached across the table, tapping Astrid’s arm. “Wanna do coffee together later on our afternoon break? I’ve got the most awesome article to show you on ALMA. You know, the telescope we were talking about the other day?”
“The one in Chile?” Harry asked.
Mara’s eyes widened at her pretend boyfriend before she grinned. God. He was so . . . perfectly perfect. “You know about it?”
“You bet. Just read about it in Popular Science, I think—”
“I have other plans for my break with another friend,” Astrid belted out, jumping up from the table, her chair scraping against the floor so hard it made the floor beneath Mara’s feet tremble. “But you won’t miss me. You have Harry,” she spat, grabbing her leftovers and stalking out of the cafeteria—but not before she all but hurled her lunch tray at the top of the trash bin.
Silence prevailed, in all its awkwardness. She’d hurt Astrid. Totally not her intention. But what if Harry were her real boyfriend? Wasn’t it okay for her to expect support from her friend? Wasn’t it okay to fall in love?