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The entire time we spent at the museum, we never found Valerie and Jamieson. I got a text from him about ten minutes after we arrived that they had as well but they were having trouble getting tickets to get in. About twenty minutes after that, he told me they finally made it but had no idea where to start with the photography.

As we left the museum, I messaged him, asking where they were and currently, we were still waiting for his reply. Josh and I stood in silence, taking a look around while I tapped my phone on my hand consistently. I took a peek at him, noticing his full-sleeve black v-neck with the black pants. He sure wore a lot of black.

"Stop staring at me, Poppy," he said without even looking at me.

"I'm just..."

He turned to me, eyebrows raised. "Sure. What do you have to say now?" he smirked. "That I'm handsome?"

"I just... keep running out of excuses," I muttered under my breath, looking away from him. I was saved by the chime of my phone when Jamieson replied. I frowned, staring at the screen.

More time alone with Josh. Great.

"What did he say?" Josh asked, suddenly grabbing my arm and pulling me closer to him.

When I looked up, I realized a man had been walking this way without looking and would have bumped into me had he not pulled me out of the way. My eyes dropped to his hold on my arm before he pulled away. I cleared my throat, "Um. He said they'll still be there for a while. So, he said we should head over for lunch and just tell them which restaurant we'll be at. They'll come there."

He paused for a beat. "Are you serious? We can't just wait for them?"

"I guess not, he's saying they'll take a lot of time. We can go back to the hotel if you want," I replied a bit half-heartedly. We were in New Orleans, just because we weren't the best of friends and didn't get along, we didn't have to make the whole trip so dull.

"No, let's grab lunch."

I blinked in surprise. I genuinely expected him to say we should just go to the hotel. "Really?"

He looked down at me. "Why are you so surprised that I agreed to have lunch with you? We've had lunch together before, Poppy. Dinner too."

"No, I know. I just..."

He rolled his eyes and started walking towards the exit.

I took quick steps and caught up to him. "I was expecting you to say no," I admitted.

"Why?" he asked without glancing at me.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I figured you'd want to spend as little time with me as possible. That's what you said when we were told we'd be working together now."

"Fair enough. But it would be a waste to let that ruin this trip. We might as well act like we get along. Otherwise, it will just get complicated and awkward, even for Jamieson and Valerie." As we continued walking, he said, "Not to mention, you're probably the only co-worker I've had a meal with."

My eyes widened as I stole a quick look at him before watching where I was going. "Ever?"

He let out a hum but nothing else.

As we continued walking, the soles of my feet started to hurt with how quickly I was being forced to walk.

The man is so tall, his legs are so long, of course, he walks fast, but this fast? Really?

I grabbed his sleeve, stopping abruptly. He stopped as well, turning to me with impatience written all over him. "What?"

"Can you slow down? Do you have a train to catch or something? This isn't a race. You're walking too fast."

"No," he said slowly, "you're walking too slow."

"Really?" I put my hands on my hips, holding his gaze. "Look at your legs, of course, you walk fast. Just slow down, please?"

He thought for a second before nodding just once. "Fine." He matched my pace this time, I caught him watching my steps to decide how fast or slow he should walk. It was a little less dickish of him. Dare I say, nice.

Walking from the museum to a local area, we wandered from street to street and eventually made it here. I had no idea where we were. It was a busy street with café after café and restaurant after restaurant. There were street performers every few meters and it was after we saw the same performers twice that I thought maybe we were lost. "Josh," I told him as we passed the same café... again. "I think we're lost."

"What? How can we be lost? We've been following signs."

"We just passed this café like twenty minutes ago. And those performers were back there, they can't be here now. We're in the same place again. I..." I looked around in confusion, both of us stopping. "I think we just went in a circle."

"No, we didn't, Poppy. Just keep moving, come on."

I grabbed his arm with the first step he took. "Josh, I'm serious. Count our turns. We walked in a circle, I'm telling you."

"We didn't."

"We did."

"We didn't, Poppy."

"Yes, we did, Josh."

He huffed at me. "You're wasting time."

"Really? Am I? Count our turns. Count them out loud. You can't always be right. Count them," I demanded, folding my arms across my chest. "If I remember correctly, we took a right," I said slowly and he nodded, rolling his eyes. "Then another right."

"Yes," he ground out.

"And then another one."

"No, we took a left the third time."

I shook my head. "No, we took a right. Here, we took our third right. And then we took another right, bringing us back to where we started and now we've done it all over again. Great, we walked in two circles. We were stupid twice. Twice as stupid," I released a breath, taking a look around. "We're lost!"

He took a look around, running a hand through his hair before sighing, "Why are we wandering around anyway? There are so many restaurants and cafés. Let's just... sit at one and let Valerie and Jamieson find us. Then we'll let them lead the way out," he mumbled.

I watched him and the frustration etched onto his face when he realized we were lost. No, no, when he realized he was wrong. I couldn't help but start laughing. I looked away from him, putting a hand over my mouth. "Yeah, yeah," I cleared my throat. "Let's do that. So uh, where..." I chuckled before taking a breath and finally looking at him again. "Where should we eat?"

He glared at me, his eyes narrowed. "You're having so much fun with this, aren't you?"

I nodded, grinning, "So much, you have no idea." I watched him a little longer, amused. "Admit it. You were wrong and I was right. Say it," I ordered, rubbing it in further.

"I will never," he took a step closer, leaning down a bit to reach my height. "Say those words."

"Well, I know it. That's enough," I shrugged, smiling helplessly.

He didn't seem embarrassed by it, but I knew that Josh was the kind of person who just never admitted he was wrong, never acted like it either. When you convince people you're right, you don't need to feel embarrassed. Either that, or he was just really good at hiding it.

We stood in silence a little longer, taking a look around. After a pause, I suggested, "Should we walk in another circle? And actually, look at the menus of these places this time? We just wandered around until now."

He faced me again, a little surprised. "You haven't actually been looking at these places until now?"

"No... have you?"

"Of course, I have. What else are we doing here?"

"And yet you still managed to fail to realize we've gone in a circle?" I lifted a brow at him. "Wow, Josh," I teased, patting his arm. "You're so intelligent."

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He let out a dry chuckle and I stared at him. Even if it was sarcastic, that was quite possibly the first time I've heard him chuckle or do anything remotely close to a laugh. He hardly smiles at people anyway, a laugh is a huge deal for Joshua Nilsen. He shook his head to himself and then looked at me. "Every time I think working with you might not be so bad, you prove me wrong, Poppy."

"Well, good. I like proving you wrong, Joshy."

He stared down at me, running his tongue along the inside of his cheek while his eyes twinkled with something similar to amusement. But he seemed a little happy too, maybe I'm just seeing things I kind of... wanted to? But shades other than annoyance and anger were good on him.

He's better when he isn't a grump.

"You're unbelievable," he scoffed softly.

"It's okay to smile," I snickered, "you can admit I do things other than just get on your nerves."

"Yeah. You... surprise me."

My brows shot up.

"In the worst ways possible," he laughed.

He laughed. Josh laughed for me.

His eyes went to the restaurant behind me and then he nodded towards it. "Mexican food sounds good?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding quickly. "It sounds great."

He stared at me, his eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, clearing my throat, trying to ignore and move past the dip in my stomach.

"Poppy," he said sternly.

"Nothing. You just... laughed. I've never heard you laugh before. Unless it was... fake and at me. You should laugh a bit more, Josh. You're better when you smile."

He blinked, then paused, then lifted a brow. "You'd like that, would you?"

I hummed, shrugging nonchalantly. "I actually would, yeah. I don't like hating you. Do you?"

He shook his head softly, "No. But I really should."

Before I could ask him anything, we were interrupted. "Poppy, Josh!" I spun around, spotting Jamieson and Valerie walking over.

Why the hell should he hate me?

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