9 What's Wrong With You?

Eden channeled all of the confidence Aubrey had given her into the interview, being sure to mention some of the skills her bestie praised her for earlier as well as mentioning the fact that she never had a single lab accident her entire time working in her professors' labs in college. She hoped it was enough.

She strode confidently out of the building following the interview but her legs gave out on her  as soon as she was out of sight of the doors. She ended up leaning against a random car for support. Being in these heels certainly didn't help her sense of equilibrium.

"That was so stressful," she lamented as she tried to get her balance back.

Her car was parked in a guest lot farther away because she didn't have a parking pass. She wasn't sure she would be able to walk all that way in heels in this state.

Resigning herself to looking like an idiot, Eden took her shoes off and walked barefoot across the gravel. She thought that interview went pretty well so she was feeling lighter than she had in a while.

There wasn't anyone else in the parking lot this time of day so she sang softly to herself and swung her purse in one hand and her shoes in the other as she made her way back toward her car. This song had been popular when she was in middle school and it was still one of her favorites. If she was going to look like an idiot anyway, she may as well go all the way while she was in a good mood.

She was too preoccupied with singing and thinking about what movie to watch when she got home to realize how precarious her grip was on one of her shoes. As she swung her arm, one of them got loose and went flying.

The shoe made it an impressive ten feet away and hit a man in the arm. He was walking the opposite direction from her and all she could see was his left side profile  from that angle. And what a side profile it was!

The man she hit had similar chiseled features to this celebrity she had a major crush on in high school. He wore business casual attire and had curly reddish-brown hair and green eyes.

The eyebrow she could see shot up as they made partial eye contact and the man seemed stunned. Eden began panicking. Of course he would be shocked being hit by a flying shoe in the parking lot of a business complex! It was completely unprofessional!

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay? The heel didn't hit you, did it? I'm such a klutz; I swear I didn't mean to chuck my shoe so far. I was just—I'm sorry," she finished lamely. Explaining herself at this point was a lost cause.

The man cleared his throat and spoke hoarsely as if he was a chain smoker. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. Here's your shoe."

He held it out to her, still refusing to face her fully so she could only see his left side and scurried off the moment it made contact with her hand. Eden tried calling after him to apologize properly but he was already gone.

How stupid was she? She made a complete fool of herself. At least that man seemed to be coming from a building that wasn't connected to the lab she wanted to work at. She probably wouldn't run into him again.

===

Jonah couldn't believe how close that was! What were the odds that the one day in a month he actually went to the office to pick something up he would run into Eden?!

He had noticed her first as she walked in his general direction because she looked completely carefree and was singing one of his favorite songs. He wasn't sure why she wasn't wearing shoes but she was even more radiant than usual.

Her hair was always in a ponytail or a braid at work. This was his first time seeing it down and she had obviously curled it because it looked similar to Aunt Mel's when she brought out her curling iron.

He was in the middle of wondering what she was doing here on her day off when her shoe smacked him. He completely froze for a moment, desperate to keep his burn scars from her, which was stupid because she didn't even know who he was.

But Jonah wouldn't be able to take the flash of disgust or pity in her eyes that all females gave him. Anyone could look at him like that but Eden.

Gathering his wits about him slightly, he knew he had to sound different or she would recognize his voice. He used his best Christian-Bale-as-Batman imitation that Troy always used to find hilarious and got out of there as quickly as he possibly could, not daring to look back until he was in his car.

His heart raced as he tried to catch his breath. Seeing Eden without the mascot head on had been terrifying. He never wanted to do that again.

Concentrating on work was difficult once Jonah made it back to his house but he did his best until it was time to clock out. Then he spent the rest of the day until Troy got back from the recording studio watching movies in a vain attempt to distract himself.

It didn't work very well since the movies in question were ones that Eden had recommended to him. He really was an idiot.

After the scare he had today…it might be better to cut all contact with her after finishing his ridiculous favor to Troy after all. He could remember their time together as a beautiful memory and leave it at that rather than risk ruining it if she ever wanted to meet up with him.

"The recording session was awesome," Troy announced as he came through the front door. "Everybody was totally on point today and—dude, what's wrong with you?"

"Everything," Jonah moaned from his spot on the recliner.

"Geez. Sorry I asked."