Chapter Thirty-One Annoying & Annoyed
"I'm pretty sure that when an office has a closed door and the lights off, it means the owner is out and you should wait before making yourself at home." Evie walked in, her good mood evaporating, and set her purse on the end of the desk before turning to face him, her arms crossing automatically.
"Do you often just leave in the middle of the morning?" he countered, twisting side to side in her chair as he smiled at her.
"I took an early lunch." She poked his shoulder, encouraging him to get up out of her chair.
"Which isn't any of your business. What can I do for you now?” While the other contractors went to her or Tommy, depending on who was free when they wanted to make a request, Aaron had taken to going to her exclusively.
"I have a mission coming up, and I need access to a room with a thumbprint scanner. Any ideas?" He stood up and walked around the desk to sit in the other chair, allowing Evie to sit down and pull the sketch tablet toward her so she could start inputting design ideas.
"Several." She stared into space for a moment, running through various scenarios based on her knowledge of biometric locks. "When’s the mission?"
"I think I'll be ready to go in three weeks."
She opened her calendar and entered the dates, along with reminders for when she needed to hand the design to the team for a mock-up. "Okay, leave it with me. Just remember it'll be a prototype."
"What else is new?" he shrugged, settling deeper into the chair instead of leaving. "So, why an early lunch?"
"I was meeting someone." She murmured the answer as she pulled up her design software and began entering specifications, hoping he'd take the hint and go.
Aaron had been trying hard to befriend her for the last three months, but Paula’s obvious dislike made it difficult for Evie to warm to him. She knew it wasn’t entirely fair, but the few times she’d been receptive, she’d later overheard Paula and Aaron arguing about his talking to her.
"Like a date?" He pressed, and Evie sighed and ran her hands through her hair in frustration, wishing he would take the hint and leave.
"Sure." She looked up at him, frowning. "Look, the mascot is trying to design the equipment you need. Is there something else, or are you just trying to slow the process down?"
Aaron shifted uncomfortably, a hint of remorse on his benignly handsome face. "Not going to let that one go, are you?"
"Probably not." Evie focused back on the screen. In truth, she had let it go as soon as her initial irritation faded, but she liked bringing it up again whenever he got on her nerves.
He frowned, opened his mouth like he was about to argue, then changed his mind and leaned forward with a charming smile. "I'll get you to like me yet."
"You need to be universally loved, don't you?" She narrowed her eyes, genuinely curious why he was so determined to be her friend when it clearly irritated his wife.
"It bothers me that you're the only one who seems immune to my charming personality." He caught sight of his reflection in the cabinet doors and smoothed a few strands of hair back into place.
"Charming personality aside," she rolled her eyes and tapped her stylus on the desk, "whenever you spend time in my office, your wife yells at you and gets even pricklier with me. I'm starting to think you're a masochist who enjoys making her mad."
"Paula likes you," Aaron protested. "She just prefers to keep her work and personal life separate."
"Then why does she yell at you?" Evie arched her eyebrows, noting he hadn’t denied the masochist comment. "And since I'm not trying to be friends with either of you, why does she get more, I don’t know, sharp with me?"
"She says I should leave you alone. Not everyone needs to like me.
" He admitted this sheepishly. "As for why she's a little…
abrasive with you, you kinda look like my high school girlfriend, and there may have been very few days between me leaving Katie and getting with Paula.
" The last part was mumbled very quickly.
"How few?" Evie grinned, curious despite herself and honestly baffled that Paula saw her as any kind of rival. From everything Evie had observed, Aaron only had eyes for his wife.
"Like a week." She watched, amused, as the tips of Aaron’s ears turned red. "However, in my defence, Katie and I were together for nostalgia by the end, and when I met Paula, I fell really hard. I broke up with Katie immediately and started pursuing Paula."
"That's sweet, I guess." Evie went back to her design, not surprised by the admission. He seemed like the type who didn’t handle being alone very well. "Must have sucked for Katie, though."
"Nah." Aaron waved dismissively. "Like I said, by that point we were together because we hadn’t been with anyone else, not because we were still deeply in love.
She met her future husband at a party a few weeks later.
They live back in Odessa and have six kids.
I'm the godfather for two of them." His whole expression softened. "Can't wait for that myself."
"Kids?" Evie glanced up, surprised. She could see Aaron as a dad, but unless Paula was very different at home, she didn’t seem like the motherly type.
"Yeah. I want a baseball team." He chuckled, still looking wistful. "Paula agreed to four but wants to wait until our fifth anniversary before we start trying."
"Right." Evie nodded slowly. "A baseball team seems excessive, but to each their own." She had to admit she was curious about his and Paula’s relationship. On the surface, it didn’t seem all that healthy, but she supposed they could be very different in private. "How did you two meet?"
"At a costume party Katie couldn't attend.
" He leaned forward, snagged a pencil from the cup on her desk, and pulled a notepad toward him.
“She had a test or an assignment due the next day, something like that.” He shook his head and began scribbling absently.
“Anyway, I went as the Tenth Doctor, and Paula was Rose Tyler. They're characters from -"
"Doctor Who. Yes, I know." Evie nodded. She loved Doctor Who and was sad Matt Smith had announced he was stepping down from the role. “I’m more of an Eleventh Doctor fan, but David Tennant was great.”
"You watch?" Aaron grinned, delighted they had found something in common. “Who’s your favourite companion?”
"River Song," Evie answered immediately. "Her whole storyline is the best, and she doesn’t need the Doctor to save her. But that has nothing to do with how you and Paula met."
"Right." Aaron nodded. “So, yeah. Since our costumes matched, Paula and I spent the whole night together. I broke up with Katie the next day, started chasing Paula, and we eloped two years ago. We’ve even chosen our kids’ names.
Jack, David, Matthew, and Rory for boys, and Rose, Clara, River, and Amelia for girls. "
"Sticking with the Doctor Who theme, I see." Evie chuckled. “No Martha or Donna, though.”
"It’s what brought us together." He sat back with a faintly smug expression, and she immediately knew it was because she’d let herself get drawn into the conversation.
“And neither of us liked Martha as a companion or Donna as a name. Although, personally, I think Donna was Tennant’s best companion, hands down. ”
“Donna was Tennant’s best companion. I hated how they ended her storyline, though.” Evie admitted, not liking that she was agreeing with him. Time to end the conversation. “I’m aware you’re trying to manipulate me into liking you, by the way.”
“Is it working?”
“You’re somehow less annoying and more annoying.” She turned her tablet toward him. “Since you’re still here, tell me if you think this will work.”
“It’s a small, wearable silicone sleeve that creates a generic scanner activation pattern the thumbprint reader mistakes for ‘valid contact, but unreadable.’ When it can’t verify the print, it resets to its fallback cycle.
That gives you a three-second window to get the door open.
” She explained this when he gave her a look of confusion.
“So I’m basically annoying the door until it gives up?”
“Basically.” Evie let out a small laugh. “You’re good at annoying people until they give up. A door should be no problem.”
“I have to admit,” Aaron shook his head slowly as he sat back, “you’re not just a pretty face and Sloane’s pet. You’ve proven yourself to be useful.”
“And now you’re back to the regular amount of annoying.” Instantly irritated again, Evie pulled the tablet toward herself and pointed at the door. “Goodbye, Aaron. The tech department will contact you when they make the prototype.”
“What?” Aaron blinked as he stood up. “Oh, come on. I didn’t mean it, I was joking! You called me annoying!”
“Bye, Aaron,” Evie repeated, not looking up from the tablet. “I’m sure we both have better things to do than argue about which is worse, calling someone annoying or calling someone a pet.”
Sighing and muttering something about double standards, Aaron left the office. Evie waited until he turned the corner, then allowed herself to smile. She’d actually enjoyed that conversation, not that she’d ever admit it.