an allergic reaction, but that is exactly what you did, when I’ve been looking at myself lately and finding only a depleted wretch looking back at me.”
She opened her mouth to deliver another disparaging blow, before she closed it, her eyes narrowing contemplatively over his face.
“Now I’m looking for it. I guess, yeah, I see it. But it sort of...roughens your slickness and gives you a simulation of humanity that makes you look better than your former overly polished perfection. Figures, huh? Instead of looking like crap, you manage to make wretched and depleted work for you.”
He abandoned any pretense of looking through the files and turned to her, arms folded over his chest. “Okay. I get it. You despise the hell out of me. Are you going to tell me what I ever did to deserve your wrath, Kanza?”
When she heard her name on his lips, something blipped in her eyes. It was gone again before he could latch on to it, and she reverted back to full-blast disdain mode. “Give the poor, depleted Pirate an energy bar. He’s exerted himself digging through his hard drive’s trash and recognized me. And even after he did, he still asks. What? You think your transgressions should have been dropped from the record by time?”
“Which transgressions are we talking about here?”
“Yeah, with multitudes to pick from, you can’t even figure out which ones I’m referring to.”
“Though I’m finding your bashing delightful, even therapeutic, my curiosity levels are edging into the danger zone. How about you put me out of my misery and enlighten me as to what exactly I’m paying the price for now?”
Her lips twisted disbelievingly. “You’ve really forgotten, haven’t you?” At his unrepentant yet impatient nod, she rolled her eyes and turned back to the files, muttering under her breath. “You can go rack your brains with a rake for the answer for all I care. I’m not helping you scratch that itch.”
“Since there’s no way I’ve forgotten anything I did to you that could cause such an everlasting grudge...” He paused, frowned then exclaimed, “Don’t tell me this is about Maysoon!”
“And he remembers. In a way that adds more insult to injury. You’re a species of one, aren’t you, Aram Nazaryan?”
Before he could say anything, she strode away, clearly not intending to let him pursue the subject. He could push his luck but doubted she’d oblige him.
But at least he now knew where this animosity was coming from. While he hadn’t factored in that this would be her stance regarding the fiasco between him and Maysoon, it seemed she had accumulated an unhealthy dose of prejudice against him from the time he’d been briefly engaged to her half sister. And she’d added an impressive amount of further bias ever since.
She slammed another filing cabinet shut. “This damn file isn’t here.” She suddenly turned on him. “But you are. What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”
So it had finally sunk in, the improbability of his stumbling in on her here in his sister’s office.
Having already decided to throw her off, he said, “I was hoping Johara would be working late.”
She frowned. “So you don’t know that she and Shaheen are throwing a party tonight?”
“They are?” This had to be his best acting moment ever.
She bought it, as evidenced by her return to mockery. “You forgot that, too? Is anything of any importance to you?”
He approached her again with the same caution he would approach a hostile feline. “Why do you assume it’s me who forgot and not them who neglected to invite me?”
“Because I’d never believe either Johara or Shaheen would neglect anyone, even you.”
When he was a few feet away, he looked down at her, amusement again rising unbidden. “But it’s fully believable that I got their invitation and tossed it in the bin unread?”
She shrugged. “Sure. Why not? I’d believe you got a dozen phone calls, too, or even face-to-face invitations and just disregarded them.”
“Then I come here to visit my sister because I’m disregarding her?”
“Maybe you need something from her and came to ask for it, even though you won’t consider going to her party.”
He let out a short, delighted laugh. “You’ll go the extra light-year to think the worst of me, won’t you?”
“Don’t give me any credit. It’s you who makes it exceptionally easy to malign you.”
Hardly believing how much he was enjoying her onslaught, he shook his head. “One would think Maysoon is your favorite sister and bosom buddy from the way you’re hacking at me.”
The intensity of her contempt grew hotter. “I would have hacked at you if you’d done the same to a stranger or even an enemy.”
“So your moral code is unaffected by personal considerations. Commendable. But what have I done exactly, in your opinion?”
Her snort was so cute, so incongruous, that it had his unfettered laugh ringing out again.
“Oh, you’re good. With three words you’ve turned this from a matter of fact to a matter of opinion. Play another one.”
“I’m trying hard to.”
“Then el’ab be’eed.”
This meant play far away. From her, of course.
Something he had no intention of doing. “Won’t you at least recite my charges and read me my rights?”
She produced her cell phone. “Nope. I bypassed all that and long pronounced your sentence.”
“Shouldn’t I be getting parole after ten years?”
“Not when I gave you life in the first place, no.”
His whole face was aching. He hadn’t smiled this much in...ever. “You’re a mean little thing, aren’t you?”
“And you’re a sleazy huge thing, aren’t you?”
He guffawed this time.
Wondering how the hell this pixie was doing this, triggering his humor with every acerbic remark, he headed back to Johara’s desk. “So are we done with your search mission? Or going by the aftermath of your efforts, search-and-destroy operation?”
“Just for that,” she said as she placed a call, “you put everything back where it belongs.”
“I don’t think even Johara herself can accomplish that impossibility after the chaos you’ve wrought.”
She flicked him one last annihilating look, then dismissed him as she started speaking into the phone without preamble. “Okay, Jo, I can’t find anything that might be the file you described, and I’ve gone through every shred of paper you got here.”
“You mean we did.” Aram raised his voice
