He shook his head. “I don’t like fishing.”

I scratched at my chin then threw another glance at the interns from Draco. A couple of guys had joined them and were chatting them up, beer bottles in hand. April did not appear to be engaging with them but was staring intently at her cell phone.

Across from me, William harrumphed. “You aren’t here to talk to women plural either. You’ve been staring at those Draco interns since they came in. Especially April Weiss.”

I jerked my head back to William. “Listen, do you want to learn what I do or not?”

He said nothing, returning a heated glare at me, his eyes dropping almost immediately.

“Have you tried just, you know, asking her out?”

William kept his eyes on the tabletop. “I don’t know what words I should use. That’s why I was asking you. And after I ask her, if she says yes, I have no idea how to talk to her.”

“Talk to her like she’s your friend, or a member of your family. It might be less scary if you ask her to go out in a group—like, for instance, find something you like to do with friends and see if she wants to go along.”

He appeared to be fixated on every word while staring at the tabletop.

“But while we’re here, we can practice on these ladies…” I took another sip of my drink and slid off my chair. “Watch and learn, kid.”

“We are nearly the same age. I am three weeks older than you. I’m not a kid. I’m not even relatively a kid compared to you.”

I waved him off. “Relax, William, jeez. That blonde who’s been staring at you? I’m going to go get her number for you.”

Before he could protest, I made my way over to her table where she sat with her friend. As soon as she saw me approach, she said something to her friend and they both turned to smile at me.

“Hello, ladies, how are you tonight?”

“Hello there.” The blonde and her friend both looked me up and down with a smile. They were prettier from a few tables away than they were up close, but they seemed nice enough.

The brunette next to her perked up, giving me a wide smile, and leaned forward, providing me with a nice view of her ample cleavage. “Hi! I’m Skyler. This is Avery.”

“I’m Jordan, and my friend over there, the shy guy, is William. Would you like to join us for a drink?”

The ladies exchanged glances and the blonde nodded enthusiastically, her eyes fixed on William, who had pulled out a pocket-sized sketchpad and was writing or drawing something. At a bar. We’d have to have a chat about that.

The ladies joined us and I ordered another round of drinks, then proceeded to spend the next half hour in the most stilted, awkward conversation ever while attempting to get William to open up—he never did.

He kept his head down, answered questions in monosyllables and continued to sketch. This was going to be a long night. I found myself constantly checking the other side of the bar where men were on that table of nubile young interns like a fat kid on a Twinkie.

My blood pressure shot up every time one of them talked to her. Fuckers. If looks could kill, they would all be dead.

She spotted me not long after the women came to join us at my table for drinks. It was fairly amusing to watch her do a double take when she’d glanced over, recognized me and looked back, her eyes narrowing.

Not long after that, she started sending me her own looks of death. She did not appear happy to see me here. Tough shit. What was she going to do, order me to leave?

As the minutes passed, I became less and less aware of the people at my table and more and more fixated on the goings-on over at intern-central. The two women eventually finished their drinks and drifted away, but William’s dirty looks were not lost on me. He continued to draw and I ordered another Coke, vowing to myself that I wasn’t going home until she left the bar alone. If it took the closing of the bar to do that, then so be it.

Chapter 9

April

My eyes flicked again to the Beast, who was doing his best to mad dog me from across the room. What was he trying to prove by being here, anyway? I shot him another set of invisible daggers across the room. He was sitting at a table with two women and a good-looking, dark-haired guy who looked really familiar for some reason. After puzzling it out for a moment, I remembered that I’d seen him at Draco. A fellow employee.

“So what do you think of my plan?” Cari was muttering to me on this end of the table, completely ignoring the two guys talking to Ingrid and Sheila at the other end.

“What plan again?”

“You know… about a certain devilishly handsome CEO we both know.”