Thirty minutes later, and Hallie had locked herself in the ladies’ room, torn between drowning in embarrassment and jumping out of a fifty-story window to finally put an end to her misery. Make hens meet? Did you really, truly, honestly make such a joke, Hallie Athanas?

And the unequivocal answer to that was –

Yes, she had, and it was all Siri’s fault!

Hallie glared down at the iPhone she held in her hands. “I hate you, Siri.”

“I’m doing my best,” Little Miss Cheeky answered promptly, and Hallie had to resist the urge against throwing her iPhone into the trash. Fail me one last time, she thought darkly, and it will be ‘bye-bye, Siri, hello, Alexa!’

“Hallie? Are you alright?”

Andreus’ voice from the other side of the door almost made Hallie jump, and after clearing her throat, she said, “I’ll be out in a bit.”

She started pacing restlessly as she tried to get her brain cells to start working and her hormones to stop functioning. The thirty minutes she had spent in forced close quarters with Andreus had been quite the eye-opener, and not in a good way.

Those two painfully long, unbearably hard years that she had forced herself to stay away in hopes of getting over Andreus?

It hadn’t done her a bit of good.

She still found Andreus the Sexiest Man Alive, and if she didn’t do something about it soon, it would just be the past –

“Hallie?”

“Coming!” She gave Siri one last evil look before dropping her phone back into her purse and stepping out of the ladies’ room.

Andreus’ gaze immediately narrowed at Hallie’s face, and the first thing he noted was the feverish color of her cheeks. Guilt, he thought right away, and he knew her far too well to be wrong about it. Hallie felt guilty about something – but over what?

“Sorry about that. I just had to speak with Si---r.” Hallie managed to catch herself in time. No way was she going to let Andreus know he had her so rattled she had been reduced into turning Siri into an on-call therapist.

Andreus raised a questioning brow. “Sir?” He expected her to say it was a teacher or some other superior of hers at school or work, but instead it turned out to be neither.

“It’s, umm, a nickname for a friend?”

Andreus’ mood immediately turned black. “You call your friend ‘sir’?” What the fuck was that about?

“It’s just a private joke,” Hallie mumbled. Oh God, she was such a lousy liar.

She was looking guiltier by the minute, Andreus observed broodingly, and right now he had a good idea why. It probably had something to do with that asshole she called ‘sir’. He had noticed the way she had kept fiddling with her phone. Maybe she had told the asshole about Andreus picking her up at the airport instead of Yuri, and the asshole had given her a hard time about it.

“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” he pressed aggressively.

Hallie could feel her face turning redder. “I’m okay, honest.”

“But that’s the thing,” Andreus countered silkily. “You’re not being honest, so why don’t we cut to the chase and you tell me what’s wrong?”

Chikushou! Hallie knew she had to tell Andreus something – anything, really, as long as it wasn’t the truth. Sitting so close to him inside his truck had been torture, and when he had just become too hot it had become too much, she had turned on him like a rabid zombie and practically screamed for him to take her to the nearest ladies’ room.

Pronto, she even recalled herself demanding shrilly, and the memory made her wince.

As such, could she really blame Andreus for doubting her now?

The way she had made a mad dash out of his truck as soon as he had parked, Andreus could only think one of two things: either she was suffering from diarrhea – or dementia.

And of course, the choice would have to be…

“You’re right, I’m lying.”

Andreus knew he should be pleased with the admission, but he wasn’t. “What is it then?” he asked coldly.

“I ate something spoiled during my flight,” Hallie mumbled. “So it had me…you know.”

Andreus nearly gaped. Was she saying what he thought she was saying?

“It was very spoiled,” she said weakly, “and I didn’t want to, umm, ruin your car.”

Since he couldn’t imagine sweet innocent Hallie lying about such a thing, he could only surmise it was true, and Andreus mentally cursed himself for having forced her to admit such a thing. “I’m sorry, baby doll.”

Hallie didn’t know what to say. On one hand, it was absolute bliss to hear him call her that again, but on the other hand – it was also equally obvious he believed her, and he felt sorry for her because of her lie.

Was that…a good thing?

That he thought she had almost lost control of her bowels in his truck?

When he saw Hallie looking like she was about to cry, Andreus mistook this for embarrassment, and wanting to distract her from her condition, he asked abruptly, “Have you noticed where we are by any chance?” Ignoring the way she gloomily shook her head, Andreus said, “You’re in for quite a surprise then.”

And she was.

The answer came to Hallie as soon as they emerged out of the hallway, and she found herself in a spacious room, made larger by its ceiling-to-floor windows, filled with whitewashed open shelves.

Oh my God!

She turned to him then, blinking back tears. “This is really it, isn’t it?” she whispered. “Ephemera?”

“It is.”

Andreus watched Hallie flit about her soon-to-be-opened shop like a bird just recently freed from its cage, and frustration seared his chest like a viciously raw wound. She had changed, he thought grimly, and in so many damn ways that for once in his life he found himself unsure of her.

Gone were the lace and the frills, all the feminine little touches that had endlessly fascinated him. It was either silk bands or ribbons with her, cute dresses or skirts, kitten heels or ballet flats. But now, the Hallie who stood with her back to him was almost androgynous, with her loose, sleeveless jumpsuit and basic white sneakers.

Stylish still, but it just wasn't the Hallie he remembered, and right or not – but he hated it.

Several minutes had passed before Hallie realized that in her excitement of finally seeing her first brick-and-mortar business in person, she had ended up completely forgetting Andreus’ presence. Turning around with a sheepish smile, she was about to apologize when she saw the hardened look on his face.

Her excitement faded. “You’re angry.”

“I’m not.”

He was lying, but why? She tried to think of something that could’ve made him mad, and only one plausible reason occurred to her. “Is it because Yuri asked you to pick me up at the airport?”

Andreus frowned at the unexpected direction her words had taken. “Don’t be stupid---”

But Hallie kept on talking. “It’s Kalli’s first pregnancy, and you know how overprotective Yuri can be.”

“I said it’s not that---”

“Besides, if you had just said you were busy, I could’ve simply gotten myself an Uber---”

This time, Andreus didn’t even bother arguing.

Hallie noticed the way Andreus was simply gazing at her, and she immediately shut up. It was Andreus being kind, him telling her without words that she was being stupid. Corpus Christi was the closest city to Claymore – and at a good thirty minutes away, no Uber driver would’ve cared to pick her up, especially knowing there was little chance he could find a return passenger to pay for his drive back to the city.

So yes, it had been a stupid thing to say, and if it had been anyone other than Hallie who had made the suggestion, she had no doubt Andreus would have bitten that person’s head off.

And there lay the problem, she thought morosely.

He always made her feel special.

Always.

And that was why she had such a hard time stopping herself from loving him.

Andreus was puzzled when Hallie suddenly jumped a good three feet back like she had just discovered he had rabies. “What?”

She didn’t answer right away, her mind in chaos, and her feelings even more so. What to do now? What could she do to make sure the past didn’t happen again? What was left to do except…

Except…

She saw Andreus start towards her and quickly shook her head. “No!”

Andreus scowled. “What’s your problem?” Why was she suddenly acting like she would break out in rashes if he came nearer?

You are, Hallie thought despairingly, torn between laughter and tears. How could he not know that? How could someone so ruthlessly cunning be so brilliantly, painfully, adorably dense at the same time?

“Hallie---”

“Ssh!” Andreus was stunned to have Hallie actually shush him like a five year old, and he would have throttled her for it if not for the frantic look that flickered on her face.

“I’m not…I’m not done thinking.”

Andreus made an effort to rein in his temper as Hallie actually started pacing and wringing her hands in front of him.

Could she do it, Hallie questioned herself. After all, it was the only alternative left to her. The Lord knew how hard she had tried to make this man fall in love with her, just as the Lord would have witnessed how much she had struggled to forget him – and failed.

Andreus raised a brow when Hallie finally stopped pacing and whirled around to face him. “Made up your mind then?”

“Yes, I did, thank you.”

“And?”

In response to his question, Hallie seemed to turn into a mime and silently started acting like a casino dealer.

“Err…” Were they suddenly playing Charades now?

Seeing his confusion, she explained, “I’m symbolically laying my cards on the table.”

Andreus coughed several times. “I see.”

“It was something Si…r suggested, as a prelude to an important announcement.”

This time, Andreus wasn’t at all amused. Of course it had to be that damn Sir Asshole again. “What’s the important announcement then?” he asked coldly. And by God, if it was going to be about that asshole once more –

“I’m still in love with you.”

What the fuck?

Hallie smiled weakly at the way Andreus’ head swung sharply towards her. “I tried to fall out of love thousands of miles away, but it didn’t do me any good. So…I think the only way left is to let nature run its course.”

This time, Andreus didn’t even bother to hide his incredulity. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

“And for this to work,” she continued doggedly as if she hadn’t heard him talk, “I’ll need your full cooperation.”

“Again – What. The. Fuck.”

Hallie made a face. “Can’t you think of anything else to say?”

“When you keep saying things that I can only answer with what the fuck?” He bared his teeth in a grim smile. “No.”

“I didn’t even get to tell you how you’re supposed to cooperate,” she chided.

“I don’t have to,” Andreus retorted. “All I know is that---”

“It means I’ll just do whatever I want, and you’re free to hurt me, ignore me, or – I don’t know – give in to me?” Hallie punctuated her suggestion with a flirtatious batting of eyelashes, but this only had Andreus looking at her like she was crazy.

“I was just trying to be funny,” she mumbled.

“You weren’t,” he said shortly. “What the fuck---” He saw Hallie wince at his language, but he ignored this, like he always did. “---do you mean you’ll just do whatever you want?”

Instead of answering, she found herself turning her back on him.

It was suddenly so hard to breathe.

Lord, it was so hard –

“Hallie?”

She drifted to the shelf where all the Hobonichi covers were on display, trying to distract herself from the tightness of her chest as she let her fingers brush against its varying textures.

Rediscovering her love for paper-based planning and journaling was one of the best things that happened to her while she was in Tokyo, and she was hoping to share it through Ephemera by bringing in all her favorite Japanese brands.

Hobonichi, Kakimori, Traveler’s Company.

She found herself reciting the Japanese brands in her mind as she sensed him coming close.

Daiso, Seria, Can Do.

She switched to the names of 100-yen-store chains as his large, strong hands settled on her shoulders, and she bit her lip hard as the heat of his touch spread through her body.

Mind Wave, Bande –

But when he forced her to turn around, she knew it was pointless to delay the inevitable.

“I’m tired of keeping my feelings a secret. I’m tired of doing things your way. I’m just tired.”

Andreus couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“So from now on, I’ll act like your girlfriend if I want to.”

“What the hell?”

“And I’ll try to seduce you if I want to---”

“Are you on drugs?”

“And like I said, you can say or do anything you want except---” Out of the blue, the enormity of this last thing she was about to ask finally sank in her mind, and her voice wobbled into an unexpected stop.

Andreus frowned. “What?”

She looked at him then, and he sucked in his breath. A smile was doing her best to curve on her lips, but even then he knew. Even with her blue eyes so painfully dry, he still knew.

“You c-can do anything you want,” she said tremulously. “Say a-anything. Except j-just one thing…”

She was crying inside.

“Please stop making me feel so special?”

And the brighter her smile, the harder her invisible tears fell.

“Because whenever you do, it just makes me hope…”

So damn hard, he could almost hear her crying.

“And don’t you think it’s time…I stopped?”

Blue eyes met his then, and when he saw that this time her smile was more dazzling than the sun – it hurt. It hurt so damn bad because he knew it could only mean one thing –

“What do you say?” she asked, so, so sunnily…

Her heart had to be breaking behind her smile.

Andreus forced his lips to stretch into a smile of his own. “You got yourself a deal, baby doll.”