The Kiss

Chapter 28

A knock on her office door distracted Lisa from the new algorithm she was formulating. As she swivelled around, the door opened, and an enormous bouquet of calla lilies walked into the room.

Their lead receptionist, Hyolyn, a sexy brunette in her early thirties, set the vase on the desk and exhaled through her mouth. "Okay, that was heavy. It looks like you have an admirer."

Lisa plucked a card out from between the blooms. She recognized Taehyung's bold scrawl immediately.

For my Lili. Thinking of you. Love, Taehyung.

"I don't know what this means." She stared at the note sitting in the palm of her hand.

Hyolyn craned her head to the side to read Taehyung's script and grinned. "Taehyung is the honey you're dating, isn't he? He's quite the looker."

"We broke up."

Hyolyn's grin turned sly. "Looks like he wants to get back together. Are you going to give him another chance?"

Before she could reply, Jungkook stalked past her door. After a split second, he reversed and glowered at the bouquet on her table. An impressive black eye decorated the right side of his face.

"That son of a bitch." He barged into her office, headed for her flowers.

She threw herself in front of them. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to throw those in the Dumpster where they belong."

"No, you're not. They're mine." This was her first bouquet from a boy ever.

"I'll get you better ones," he said through his teeth. "Those have to go."

"I don't want you to get me flowers."

"We're dating, remember?"

"We're not dating. We went on one date, and I don't want another. We're not compatible at all."

Hyolyn pursed her lips and watched Jungkook with raised eyebrows, obviously enjoying the drama.

He approached Lisa with tensed shoulders and clenched hands. "And you're compatible with him?"

She curled her fingers around the card. Was it still compatibility if it was one-sided?

"I was really happy when he and I were together. He's a good listener. More than that, he wanted to know about me, my day, what I was doing, and —"

"All I care about is whether or not he's good in bed," Hyolyn interjected.

Lisa bit her lip and blushed down at the carpet. The word good didn't do Taehyung justice. Phenomenal was more like it.

"You lucky duck." Hyolyn turned to Jungkook and grabbed his arm. "Come on, JK, let's go to the kitchen. You need to ice that eye."

JK?

Jungkook grumbled under his breath and stared a few daggers at her lilies before he allowed Hyolyn to pull him out of Lisa's office. As the two of them walked down the hall, he settled his hand at the base of her spine, slipped it lower, and squeezed. Instead of smacking him as Lisa thought she would, Hyolyn brushed the light hair from his brow and clucked over his bruise.

That was . . . interesting.

Apparently, Hyolyn didn't care that Jungkook was a complete hound when it came to women. That worked out just fine for Lisa. She didn't have to feel bad for not asking him out again.

She rotated the flower vase and fiddled with the stems. Flowers had always seemed pretty senseless to her. They stank, they wilted, and then you had to clean them up. But these were from Taehyung.