He nodded. Then he whispered, “You okay, Meek?”
I didn’t want to dwell on that night. I hoped he didn’t remember and was just asking how I was. I skirted around his question by shrugging and then adding. “You know, the lighting could be a tad darker for the camera.”
He narrowed his eyes and scanned the area, instantly focused on work again. “Right. Let me get Guillermo over here to discuss it with you.”
I stepped back. “Absolutely not. Don’t tell him I said that.”
Jay smirked. “Little Pebble, you need to take credit at some point.”
I shook my head and waved it off. “I’m going to go get some coffee for you. I have to meet my mother after we wrap for the day. I’ll fly back then.”
“I can come hang with you guys,” Jay offered.
I narrowed my eyes at him, not sure why he would want to. “No. She’s going to give me enough grief when I get there. I don’t need you both trying to irritate me—”
“I’m coming.”
“No.” I shook my head and hiked my book bag up my shoulder trying to stand my ground. “You’re not.”
“Want to bet?”
I poked my tongue into my cheek, trying to not give in. But I remembered the last time we’d played this game. He’d won and I was a sore loser, or rather I always felt the need to prove myself.
“I’m going to win,” I blurted out.
I didn’t.
I freaking lost.
And now we were standing in front of my mother’s business.
The coffee slipped from his fingertips, crashing and spilling all over the cement. He didn’t even glance down to see the damage. He had spotted my mom’s shop and couldn’t look away.
“So, before you say anything, I don’t want anyone at work knowing about this.” I grumbled, taking a step toward King Chang.
“You told me she owned a restaurant, Mikka Chang.”
“No.” I shook my head and dusted some imaginary fuzz off my blazer. Everyone assumed my mother owned a restaurant when I rattled off the canned line that her business did very well in San Francisco’s Chinatown. “I never said that. I just said she runs a business.”
He choked back that guttural laugh the whole world loved and attempted to reply. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly without finding any words.
I curled my lip and scrunched one eye to look at the shop, trying to see what he saw. “Sort of a shock?”
He laughed and I stared at him in all his hysterical glory. Jay Stonewood with a full-blown smile on his face in faded denim and a collared shirt caught more than a few women’s eyes as they passed by.
I shook my head at him. He thought he knew everything about me.
I’d globbed onto him like glue when we’d met a few years back and he’d let me become his PA.
I considered us close friends.
Great colleagues.
But nothing more.
Except for that kiss.
And except in these instances when I could observe him without him knowing, when he got lost in a moment of pure joy. And Jay lost himself all the time in every one of his emotions. It was what made him brilliant in front of the camera and pretty irresistible to the opposite sex.