CHAPTER 11
“These are amazing, Lily,” Makima exclaimed, her eyes wide as they roamed over the panels laid out in front of her. “I knew you were the right person for this job when I hired you.”
“Thanks,” I said quietly, flushing a bit. My heart did a little happy dance at the thought of getting such high praise from someone as reputable as her.
Someone who was considered a celebrity in the anime world.
A person I had looked up to for years.
“Lily, this just proves that I was right about you. I actually have something on my mind if you’re interested. I think you’ll be the perfect person for it.”
My interest piqued. Whatever it was, I was already onboard. “Yes, Makima, sure.”
“Good. Before we start, this project is very hush-hush. The studio has asked me to keep this under wraps at the moment. Is that understood?”
I nodded, anticipation coursing its way through my blood. “Yes, of course. You have my word.”
“Great.” A warm smile spread across her face as she turned her laptop toward me. “Do you know Kenji Hashimoto’s light novel, The Demon’s Curse ? ”
“Yes.” Light novels were Japanese books typically written by an author who didn’t illustrate. So the author or a studio hires an artist to illustrate them into manga.
“The studio is in talks to adapt this into an anime, and they have asked me to design the male lead. Look at this.” She pointed at her laptop. “I’ve been working on this for days and can’t seem to nail it down.”
I could see that. The outlines were wonky, and there seemed to be something missing.
“Lily.” Her eyes landed on mine. “I want you to take this on and draw me a design of the character.”
My eyes widened. “Me?”
“Yes, Lily. I’m sure you can get this done. You can halt the other project since you’re already done with the outline frames, and there’s plenty of time till the deadline, and get started on this right away. Here.” She pushed a thick file toward me. “I’ve already printed out the character description, hoping you would do this. You can, can’t you?” Her questioning eyes regarded me.
The information was still reeling inside my head. Bringing the characters to life from the author’s imagination was every artist’s dream in this field. Though it posed quite a challenge, I could never say no to that. “Yes, I can. I would love to,” I said softly.
“Amazing! Take this file and get back to me in a week. The executives from Japan are coming in for an annual meeting in two weeks and I want to present it to them by then. It doesn’t have to be finished but I would like a basic idea of your vision,” she explained, leaning back in her chair. “Oh, and also, if Jenson asks, just tell him you’re still reporting to be about the dating scene for Ayana’s Eyes . He’s always had it in for interns for some reason.”
“I will. Thank you for the opportunity, Makima. You don’t know how grateful I am,” I said, rising from the pink chair. “I’ll make sure this will be one of my best works.”
“You have the talent, Lily. It’s rare to have a hand like yours in the industry. Trust me, you’re gonna go great places if you keep this up.” Her warm brown eyes shined under the low-lit ceiling lights. “Also, you don’t need to email me these. Just print them up in panels so it’ll be easier for the presentation, and you can text me anytime if you need anything else.”
“Of course, good day, Makima,” I said, shutting the frosted door behind me. I couldn’t help the smile spreading across my lips. I felt like a little kid who got their Christmas present a little too early.
A throat cleared, and I stopped in my tracks, my eyes spinning from my Dr. Martens to the narrowed eyes of the man standing in front of me.
“Mr. Jenson,” I said, my earlier smile dissipating into thin air.
His eyes volleyed between me and the door behind me. “Ms. Jameson, a word please if you’ll come with me.” He turned back, not waiting for my answer.
Trepidation swirled my guts into knots. “Yes, sir,” I sputtered through the thick lump in my throat and followed him to the break room. What choice did I have?
“Ms. Jameson.” Heavy seconds passed as I watched his graying hand slide a mug under the coffee machine and press the button. “What did Makima want? ”
I stiffened, tightening my grip around the file as I pressed it to my chest. “Nothing, sir. We were just discussing the project she asked me about the other day.”
He raised a brow. “You are my intern, Ms. Jameson. You should report them to me first.”
I blinked. “I…I. Sorry, sir.”
“Well.” He leaned against the counter. “I don’t have all day. Show them to me.”
“Yes, of course,” I mumbled, my shaky hands opening the folder on the graph pad, showing him the panels I’d already digitized.
He nodded, swiping through them. “The outlines are good, but you can do better.” His eyes landed on the thick file that I held clutched in my hand. “What’s that?”
I swallowed. “Umm, nothing, Mr. Jenson. It’s just my personal stuff.”
His lips stretched into a thin line like he was annoyed. “What did Makima say about these?”
“She told me they were fine, sir, and to go ahead with them.”
“Fine, next time, make sure you come to me first. You sure there isn’t anything else that you aren’t telling me, Ms. Jameson?” His eyes pinned me to the spot.
“Nothing else at all, Mr. Jenson,” I mustered firmly.
“Okay. Go ahead with your work,” he said, returning to his coffee.
I scurried out of the room, huffing out a breath as the distance between the break room and me increased. Fuck, I hated talking to him .
“The look on your face tells me you had a run-in with he who shall not be named,” Riana chirped, twirling her glitter pen between her teeth.
“Yep,” I said as I packed my things into the satchel.
“You’ve been leaving early these days.” She grinned. “Is your mystery man here to pick you up?”
“What mystery man?” I muttered like I had no idea what she was talking about.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, keep everything to yourself.”
She stood, donning her cream-plaid jacket, and matched my steps as we made our way to the elevator.
“He’s just my brother’s friend,” I said, pressing the button to the parking level.
She nodded, lost in thought before her eyes widened, and she shrieked, circling my wrist. “Wait, your actual brother’s best friend. Is it who I think it is!?”
Riana came to know that Emmie was my brother, and it was very public knowledge who my ass of a brother’s best friend was. But I wasn’t bothered that she knew because, unlike the people in college, she genuinely wanted to be my friend, and she also didn’t divulge the said information to the rest of the team.
“Yes,” I admitted. “But quiet down.” I was thankful that no one was in the elevator with us.
“Lily, please, please, please can I meet him? Pretty please, just one picture, and then I’ll leave.” She looked at me with hopeful eyes.
I exhaled. “Fine, one picture, but remember, no one can know,” I told her as we walked across the parking lot to reach the far end where I knew he would be waiting, like clockwork. It’d been well over a week since Michael started to be my own personal chauffeur. And I wasn’t complaining because I would do just about anything to see the sight in front of me.
Dressed in a dark hoodie pulled low over his chiseled face with his long strands falling over his piercing green eyes, he leaned against his sexy violet car.
Following my every move.
Waiting for me.
My skin prickled under his eyes.
Something about the way this man was waiting for me every day made my heart hurt but in a good way. A very, very good way.
In a way that I shouldn’t be allowed to feel.
Things between Michael and me could be edging toward the lines of the ‘F’ word, but it didn’t make any sense. Being friends with Michael was something I’d never imagined to happen again. Though we still didn’t see eye to eye and bantered like a cat and mouse, we were amicable for the most part. But it wasn’t deep. It was shallow and surface-level because it took a lot more than acts of kindness to mend a broken heart and impaired trust.
So how did the years of harbored hate die down so easily, so quickly? It makes me think that I never really hated him. Maybe I only thought I did.
“OMG! I’m so excited,” Riana muttered under her breath. “Please, don’t ever tell him but he’s my favorite from the band, and I think he’s the hottest. Also, do I look okay? Please don’t tell me I have lipstick on my face. ”
“Riana, you look amazing, come on.” Acting as if the comment she made about him being the hottest member of the band didn’t affect me at all.
“Michael, my friend wanted to meet you. Riana, this is Mikey.”
“Hey, Riana.” He slipped his hoodie down while a wide grin spread across his face. “Nice to meet you. Lily didn’t say anything about working with a pretty woman like you.”
There he goes with his shameless flirting. I knew it wasn’t real, but I loathed it.
“Hmm.” Riana gaped, a flush of pink injecting her cheeks. “Nice to meet you, Mikey. I’m a huge fan.”
“Come on, I don’t bite.” Mikey held out his hand while Riana stood there starstruck.
“Uh, yes.” She smiled shyly, shaking his hand.
I narrowed my gaze at that fucker who seemed to be enjoying my reaction more than meeting his fan.
Riana hugged me goodbye after taking her trophy pictures. She still looked at him like he was from outer space or something, and the flush was still burning on the tip of her nose as if she’d been bitten by a biting cold wind.
“Give it to me.” He didn’t wait for an answer as he slid the heavy bag from my hands like he did each day and opened the car door.
Soon, we were swerving off toward home.
It was a bizarre thing to say, but here we were.
Michael and I were going home together.
We spent so much time together recently that he was always at my place. I saw him more in these past few weeks than I’d seen him in the past eight years .
I didn’t know how I felt about that.
I thumbed through my phone to find some inspo photos for my characters, but it was mainly to distract myself from his consuming presence.
Not even a second passed when a large hand took hold of my phone, hiding the spilling light, and lowered it, efficiently switching it off. “Stop,” he mumbled, flashing me a pointed look. “You just finished work. Put that down. Here.” He handed me a go-to mug filled with matcha, the exact way I liked it. I knew this because it was a daily event. “Drink this.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, attempting to suppress the feelings trying to burst out through my body. He was being nice, too fucking nice . “How was your day?”
He shrugged. “Fine.”
“Great answer.” I rolled my eyes.
“It was fine. What else do you want me to say? Marvelous? Tremendous? Spectacular?” he chirped, shaking his head.
“Your jokes are lame, Michael,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.
“What? Everyone loves my jokes.” A pout stretched across his lips.
“You know what?” I turned toward him, my eyes sliding over the slant of his nose to the grip of his fingers over the steering wheel. “What do you actually do anyway? You’re always either with the boys or at a party or hanging off some girl, but then you disappear from time to time. Like most of the time.” I frowned, remembering how even when the band was going in full swing in the past years, Michael would always vanish. And I knew for a fact that it wasn’t with any girls because he loved to parade them in front of me. It was his way of telling me that he didn’t want me. That I didn’t have a place by his side.
It used to hurt when I was hopelessly in love with him as a teenager, thinking the boy who was once my best friend would come back to me eventually, but that was far from the truth.
He never did.
“Secret.” He laughed, winking.
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” I deadpan.
“Now I can’t let you in on all my secrets can I, little mouse?” he asked as we both entered the elevator after exiting the car. “Being secretive is a part of my whole charm package!”
“I thought it was being a dumb rock star,” I mumbled.
His eyes widened, and he clutched his heart as if my words dug a hole through it. “How can you say that, Liliana Jones Jameson? You hurt my feelings.”
“You know your dramatic shit doesn’t really work on me.”
He clamped his arm around me, pulling me to his side as we walked through the corridor. I ignored the hammer in my heart and the flutter in my skin from the scorch of his touch. He did this a lot too, touched me like we were the best of friends, like it was natural, only it was anything but. The hard-drawn line between us was starting to smudge slowly. I wasn’t sure when it happened. It just did.
“Come on, baby. You know if you really have to know, you can say pretty please.”
The hammer in my heart only heightened when he called me baby, but I swallowed it down. “Though I’m curious, I’m not that curious.”
His laughter echoed through the empty corridor until a door blasted open .
Our heads snapped toward Matty standing outside his apartment clutching Sierra’s hand. As soon as they saw us, they stopped short.
Michael didn’t pull away from me. He only brought me closer to his side, so close that the tips of my crown brushed his jaw.
Trickles of silence passed before Matty raised a brow, his eyes glinting with amusement. “Fuck, this is a sight I’d never imagined I’d see in this lifetime. Does Emmie know about this?” His pointer finger volleyed between the two of us.
I could feel Michael’s body stiffening at that comment. Mikey knew what Emmie asked him to do and what he was actually doing was two different things. It was almost like he dipped his toe in forbidden waters he knew he shouldn’t touch, but the call of the temptation was a little too loud.
“Funny, he actually does. But does Katy know about this?” Michael quipped back.
The amusement on Matty’s face dropped.
I internally sighed as the two men stared down at each other like men do before a cage fight.
Sierra’s gaze bounced back and forth, her warm hazels wide and the pink standing out against her flawless skin.
We exchanged a smile, and her eyes softened as we shook our heads at the blatant display of male idiocy.
“There is nothing for Katy to know,” Matty finally said. “And we were just on our way out, so if you’ll excuse us, we’ll leave you both alone.” He gestured for Sierra to walk ahead.
She let out a visible sigh and scurried off toward the elevator. Matty followed but not before gathering me in a quick hug. “ Take care, Li. I’ll see you later. Hope you know what you’re doing,” he whispered the last part just for me to hear.
I nodded, mustering a smile, as if his words didn’t affect me, but they did. I knew that edging on the fort that I’ve built around me when it comes to Michael was like balancing on a paddle in a swamp of crocodile waters.
And Michael knew it too.
That this was temporary and fleeting.
I couldn’t deny the kiss that shook me to my core.
But it was a mistake by his own admission.
The moment Emmie comes back, Mikey would carry on with his arcane life, ignoring my existence as if I were dead to him. And I would fade away my last days in solitude like I always did.
We both knew that, well, not the part where I die, but the part where we would separate.
Michael and I were like the Atlantic and Pacific, existing peacefully side by side yet never the one to intertwine.
Then it would be chaos.
“What did he say?” Michael questioned, keying in my door code. No clue how the fuck he knew that, but rather than feeling it was an invasion of my privacy, I felt safe.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, heading straight to the couch and crashing hard. I wiggled my toes inside my boots or tried at least. There was no room. My shoes seemed to be getting more constricting these days.
I sighed, bending lower to undo my lace, but familiar long fingers stopped me.
“I’ll do it,” Mikey muttered, unlacing my shoes in a matter of seconds. My eyes dragged across his beautiful face; his hoodie was no longer hiding him or his hair, which was tucked behind his ears. My tongue traced my lips of its own accord as my eyes landed on his alluring lips, still feeling the remnants of his kiss. I felt a dull ache tighten my lower belly as my mind went back to that night—his hot breath on my skin, his harsh touch on my hips, and the warmth that bloomed in my heart.
It was exhilarating.
“What are you thinking, little mouse?”
I startled, my eyes snapping from my fantasizing about his lips to land straight on his gleaming greens. “What?” I muttered just a groan slipped past my parted lips when he retrieved my shoes from my sore feet.
“The fuck,” he cursed, slipping away my chunky socks. “Why the fuck are your feet swollen like this? Are they always like this?” He frowned.
“Sometimes. I was standing a bit too much today.” I shrugged, feigning nonchalance.
But the frown on his face just didn’t fade away. He lowered himself next to me, bringing my feet to his lap. The motion was so sudden that I landed flat back on the couch and it knocked my lungs from oxygen. “Did you really have to do that?” I huffed through my increased breathing. I pulled in a deep, calming breath to slow down the rate.
Thankfully, Mikey was so concerned about my feet that he didn’t notice it. The bright light from the phone illuminated the sharp lines of his face. “It does say people who are anemic do get swollen feet. Are you not getting any better? Let’s go see Dr. Karlfield tomorrow. ”
“That’s not necessary, Mikey. I’m fine. I just need to rest them. I’ve already spoken to him about this, and he said it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep, stop worrying.”
“Fine, but you’re staying off your feet the entire weekend.”
“What?” My eyes rounded. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just swollen feet, not a fractured one.”
His jaw twitched. “You don’t want me calling your brother and telling him that you’re hardly taking care of yourself, do you? I’m sure your parents will be here on the next flight to take good care of their only daughter, and you can also say goodbye to your precious internship. Actually, I think that’s a good idea. I’ll be relieved of my duties that way.”
I knew he was joking, but I couldn’t halt the hurt that speared my chest. “Are you blackmailing me, Mikey? I didn’t realize that taking care of me was such a chore to you,” I whispered. “I’ll call Emmie and ask him to arrange someone for me. I’m sure he has the money. You can leave. I don’t want to be a burden to anyone. I know I’m the last person you wanna be with. You barely tolerate my presence…” And before I could even finish my sentence, he was on me, flushed from head to toe.
My nipples pebbled, and my core dripped at his proximity.
His nose almost fanned over mine. The pulse that thudded in my heart crept in like a slow drum to my ears. What the fuck was he doing?
“The only burden I ever want to be loaded on my shoulders is you . So, no, little mouse, you’re not a burden to me. I just want you to be okay.” He finished with a kiss on my nose before gliding himself off me.
I watched as he busied himself in the kitchen as if that never happened.
It took me a moment to understand what had just transpired. My brain just fumbled, forgetting why the talk started in the first place.
Fuck, what was he doing to me?
Softening my heart for Michael was a very bad idea.
I can’t let him in, not again.
Not for him to stomp all over it like he did years ago.