Rip watched me carefully for a minute before getting up to his black sock-covered feet with a nod.
“Holler if you need anything,” I said to him, still smiling, because why not? Maybe a lot of things sucked, but he was here, doing what he didn’t have to.
He hadn’t brought up the favor in a while, but I wasn’t holding my breath that he’d forgotten how he felt about it. Maybe he still thought he owed me something, but I hoped he knew he didn’t. For once, I didn’t want to remind him.
He shot me a long look, even flicking his gaze down to my socks before turning and heading in the direction of my room. Sitting there, I took a deep breath, smacked my cheeks a little with my fingers, and got up. It didn’t take long to find his keys and then do the same to the T-shirt in his backseat. Then, I followed in the same direction Rip had gone, heading toward my bedroom to pick out some clothes from the pile I’d set on the bed yesterday. We had thrown away so much stuff the night before, I honestly wasn’t sure what I had left. I hadn’t wanted to look too closely or think about it too much.
But things could always be worse.
I looked at the door connecting to my bathroom and imagined, for just one little second, the naked man on the other side. Then I sighed.
*
On my lunch break hours later, I headed up the stairs to the second floor of CCC to find two of the guys exiting the break room with funny expressions on their faces.
“Awkward,” the taller one of the two muttered.
“I wouldn’t go in there,” the shorter one said in a whisper.
I frowned.
“They’re fighting,” the taller one explained, still whispering.
Well, it had only been a matter of time.
The other one raised his eyebrows as they passed by me, disappearing down the stairs, as I kept going forward. I had planned on grabbing one of the frozen meals I bought and left in the freezer for emergencies since I still hadn’t gotten around to making my own lunch, and Rip hadn’t gone home, so I couldn’t expect something to magically appear.
I didn’t even need to take a step inside the break room before I heard the arguing.
“That’s fucking bullshit.”
“It really isn’t.”
“No, it really is. You had no right to make that decision without me.”
“I had every right to make that decision without you. You didn’t need to jump the gun—”
“They needed an answer and I gave them one. I tried calling you over and over again, but you didn’t answer.”
“I was busy.”
There was a pause. “So I saw from you taking the day off without saying anything.”
Oh no. It was my fault?
“I get here before everyone else and stay here later than everyone else. If I need to take the day off, it shouldn’t be an issue.” There was a pause and then, “I’m not a kid and you’re not my fucking boss. You don’t get to tell me when I can take time off and when I can’t.”
Mr. Cooper didn’t reply immediately, and I stood there, right outside the break room door, listening and wondering if I should interrupt them or not. Them arguing drove me crazy. It really did.
“I’m not trying—”
“Yeah, you fucking were.”
“Cut me some slack. We’re in this together. I don’t want you getting into trouble.”
“You think I’m doing something to get into trouble?”
“I don’t know, Ripley. I don’t know! You don’t tell me anything!”
“I need to?”
“Why are you trying to—”
Okay. All right. With a sigh, I kept walking, but instead of ducking into the break room, I made it to the office door and knocked before I could stop myself. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do exactly, but I knew I wanted them to stop and it was up to me since the rest of these chickens never did.
Sure enough, a millisecond after knocking, the voices cut out altogether.
“Mr. Cooper, it’s Luna. Have you seen Rip?” I called out, rolling my eyes at myself for being such a bad liar.
“Sure, Luna, come in,” Mr. Cooper called out after a second.
I wondered what faces they were making at each other. Or at me for being an inconvenience. But I was doing them both a favor. They just didn’t know it.
I didn’t wait for them to change their mind, I turned the knob and peeked my head inside, making sure to put a surprised expression on my face when I spotted Rip immediately. He was standing right by the door, those massive arms crossed over his chest. I gave him a smile that wasn’t totally bright—I was too tired for that—but it was good enough to pass.
I still hadn’t told anyone at work what had happened, and if Mr. Cooper thought it was strange that I hadn’t come into work yesterday, he hadn’t bothered calling to check. I figured right then, that Rip had told him something about me separately, but hadn’t said where he would be for some reason. I was going to tell him obviously, but the day was going rough enough. I didn’t want to cry about it again so soon.
“I was looking for you to see if you wanted to go to lunch,” I said quickly, aiming my gaze right at Rip. “I owe you for yesterday.”
I didn’t miss the confused look that Mr. Cooper sent Ripley, then me.
I also didn’t miss the way Rip’s body tightened at my question.
He was going to say no, I knew it, and I was going to be fine with it. The only reason why I’d even said anything was to break this up.
“So?” I asked, giving him another smile that was as big as he was going to get, trying to tell him with my eyes that it was fine for him to say no.
But he didn’t do that.
“All right.” He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his sides. “But you’re not paying.”
I pressed my lips together and blinked. Okay, then. All right. “Then I wouldn’t be paying you back for helping me, would I, boss?” I asked him sweetly.
Mr. Cooper’s head swung from me to Rip and back again, and I felt bad for leaving him in the dark.
I’d tell him as soon as I had a chance.
“You don’t need to pay me back for shit.” He took a step forward. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”
I kept that annoying sweet smile on my face, watching him get closer to me. “But really, you should let me pay.”
“Really, I shouldn’t,” he replied sarcastically, brushing his shoulder against mine as he passed by me.
Now he was joking? Okay. All right.
Breathing in through my nose, I swung my gaze over to Mr. Cooper, not sure if I was going to do the right thing or… not. But I knew that if anyone deserved my loyalty, it was Mr. Cooper. It was bad enough I hadn’t told him the other things.
“Would you like to go eat with us?” I asked him, purposely turning my back to his business partner so I wouldn’t see his face if he was making one.
But of course he was.
The question must have surprised Mr. Cooper because he stood there for a moment. I didn’t miss the way he slid his gaze to Rip for maybe a second before going back to me. He plastered on a smile that wasn’t totally fake as he said, “Thank you, Luna, but I already had lunch.”
Had he wanted to go though?
When we had gone to eat on Ashton’s first day, the two of them had gotten along all right. Part of me thought they had been on their best behaviors in front of the new guy. They hadn’t talked directly to each other once, or even made eye contact, but it had gone okay. I’d watched them like a hawk the whole time, expecting something to happen, but nothing had.
Nothing had in a while.
“Next time then?” I asked, giving him a smile that felt more honest than the rest of them before. I really needed to tell him the truth.
Mr. Cooper nodded, his expression pretty freaking curious but… okay. Bright, but okay.
I glanced back at Rip finally, keeping that expression on my face so that hopefully he wouldn’t think I was trying to pull a fast one on him even though I had been. “Ready?”
His eyes bounced on mine, something in them that I wasn’t familiar with, but he nodded eventually.