Desire Me If You Can [Novel] - Chapter 28

They had created various videos for the firefighter applicants and posted them online. One of them compared good and bad examples of interview responses…
“You’re saying he recited it exactly?”
“Yes.”
Watching the chief nod, Wilkins let out an incredulous chuckle and said,
“What a senseless guy. Probably because he’s some rich kid. Nobody would think to just copy it outright like that.”
“Right.”
The chief agreed, but he wasn’t finished yet.
“But the problem is, he copied everything, down to the finger gestures.”
Wilkins blinked, his smile frozen on his face.
“…What?”
At his dumbfounded question, the chief’s words flew out at him, much faster than usual,
“Not just the answers, he copied the entire video! The facial expressions, the finger movements the way he looked around and cleared his throat! He did that for every single question in the video!”
Wilkins could only stare blankly at the unexpected words. Sure, some people memorized the videos, but that usually just meant memorizing the answers. But to copy even the gestures?
“B-But you must’ve asked questions that weren’t in the video… right?”
“Of course. But he must have found the answers to those questions in other videos and copied them too. I didn’t check, but I’m sure of it.”
Seeing Wilkins at a loss for words, the chief pressed him roughly.
“Do you understand now? He’s a psychopath. So I’m telling you-leave him alone before you stir up trouble. Don’t ever mess with him! You never know what he’ll do. Grayson Miller is definitely an Extreme Alpha who’s lost his mind because of his pheromones, he’s not in his right mind!”
Wilkins couldn’t do anything but agree. Amidst his confusion, a sudden wave of regret surged in his chest for having done something unnecessary.
***
“A toast to today’s victor!”
At Valentina’s shout, the gathered women let out a loud Woo! and raised their beer glasses. As they clinked glasses and downed their drinks, Grayson, the only man among them, sat there with a smile.
“We ended up here again.”
At Rivette’s comment, another staff member replied,
“Familiar places are the best. This is also a good place for large groups anyway.”
There were only a handful of places that could accommodate this many people. That’s exactly why they always ended up at this bar whenever there was a team dinner or gathering. It was the very same place where they’d thrown Grayson’s welcome party when he first arrived.
“It’d be nice if the guys could join in too, but oh well.”
Valentina popped a french fry into her mouth and glanced to the side, and everyone’s gaze followed.
Two large tables placed side-by-side were occupied by the same group of coworkers who’d started at the same place but had now divided into two groups. Specifically, Grayson and the female staff, and Wilkins with the male staff. The atmosphere at each table was as starkly different as the gender ratio.
At the clearly audible voices, DeAndre spat out roughly,
“Mind your own business, we don’t want to mooch off that guy like you all are.”
“We decided to drink among ourselves. Thanks, but we’ll pass.”
Wilkins quickly stepped in and politely declined. The chief’s warning still echoed in his ears.
For a brief moment, Wilkins imagined a fight breaking out between the two tables, Grayson flipping the table in a rage, then, with a smile, picking up a bottle and smashing it over DeAndre’s head. The chief was right, it wasn’t just Miller, it was Grayson himself who was the problem.
Ahem.
He cleared his throat, pretended to drink his beer and averted his gaze.
The women, as if to say “suit yourselves,” turned away briskly and crowded around Grayson. Truth be told, they clearly didn’t care about their male colleagues’ bruised egos. Lately, the guys’ behavior had started to look downright pathetic.
Listening to the cheerful laughter and chatter from the other table, the men silently drank their beers. If they’d gone to a different place, it might not have felt this miserable.
Grayson’s offer to buy drinks had lit a fire under them, and they’d charged in headfirst-only to overlook the fact that there weren’t many other suitable places to go. Sitting next to a lively table and trying to drink just killed any chance of enjoying themselves.
“Hey, did we come to a funeral or something? Why’s everyone so down?”
DeAndre, unable to bear it any longer, hissed under his breath, and Ezra replied,
“Well… there’s not much to be happy about…”
As the others nodded in agreement with subtle glances, DeAndre’s frustration boiled over, his eyes widening.
“So you’re just gonna sit here looking this pathetic right in front of them? Look over there, we can’t lose! Smile, damn it, everyone smile!”
The team members, glancing at each other with hesitant looks, forced out a laugh. DeAndre also burst into loud laughter, slapping his thigh.
“Wahaha, hahahaha! Wahahahaha!”
“Ah… haha, hahaha.”
“Haha, haha, hahaha.”
The others joined in, imitating DeAndre. Even as they did, they kept sneaking glances at the next table, but the women paid them no attention whatsoever. Raising their voices on purpose to catch the attention of a girl you like-wasn’t that something kids did in elementary school?
“Stop it, you’re only making yourselves look worse.”
At Ezra’s dissuasion, everyone, including DeAndre, quieted down.
How did things end up like this?
The mood grew gloomy again as they sipped their beers, but then Wilkins, having finished his drink, set down the empty glass and suddenly spoke up.
“Losing the competition, fine, that can happen. But there’s something I just can’t wrap my head around.”
At his unexpected words, everyone turned to look at him. Wilkins fixed his gaze on Dane and asked, “What exactly happened up there? Fine, you came back late, but there’s no way you’d just be late for no reason. Something must have happened, right? What do you all think? Am I on the mark?”
“You’re right. Dane, we’re dying of curiosity here. How did that guy beat you?”
DeAndre asked in a rushed tone. Under the mix of curious and anxious stares, Dane replied calmly,
“Nothing much. We just exchanged a few blows.”
“You fought? Why?”
“Out of nowhere?”
Everyone was surprised and asked for a reason, but Dane didn’t answer. Only DeAndre seemed restless, gulping down his beer. Without even glancing his way, Dane said,
“I just felt like hitting him.”
What was that supposed to mean?
They all exchanged puzzled looks, but his words weren’t entirely out of character. Ezra nodded in
agreement.
“That makes sense. I’m holding back the urge to punch him every second myself.”
“Like right now?”
As one guy chimed in, a flood of confessions followed.
“I’ve thought about dragging him to the storage room and locking him in there more than once or twice.”
“I was tempted to slash the tires of his precious Jaguar.”
“Honestly, if I could just punch that smug face once, I’d have no more wishes.”
“Nah, that’s not worth it. You should save your wish for something more important. Like winning the
Powerball jackpot.”
“You little…!”
After a round of chastising the “traitor,” the conversation resumed.
“Fighting’s one thing, but why were you late?”
At Ezra’s question, Dane paused for a moment before answering,
“We were fighting and we almost rolled toward a cliff…”
“What? A cliff?”
“You mean that one at the end of the slope? Whoa, that’s seriously dangerous!”
As everyone shouted in shock, Dane responded indifferently,
“No need to make a fuss. Nothing actually happened.”
It was half true and half a lie.
By sheer luck, they hadn’t plummeted off the edge, but they’d ended up in a situation where they had to
climb up the steep slope.
Just moments before, they’d been beating the hell out of each other, but that wasn’t an option anymore. Survival was their priority, finding a way to climb back up. And then, almost at the same time, they both
spotted it.
And…
Dane raised his beer glass to his lips and added casually,
“We almost fell, but we made it up anyway. Miller was faster than me, and that’s it.”
He had drastically simplified the actual events, and one of his colleagues, looking at the others doubtfully,
asked,
“Still, be honest. You could have won, right?”