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I shouldn't have said anything at lunch, nothing about how I should hate her. I should have just kept shut and continued to treat her as nothing but a co-worker, nothing but a travel partner, nothing but a rival. That's what she was, she is. We'd barely been in New Orleans for two days, how could things have changed so quickly? 

"You seem a little uh, distressed," Jamieson said.

We were currently walking back to our hotel after lunch, walking instead of taking a cab because we were here to explore the city and what good would that be if we just get a taxi to go everywhere? 

"I'm not," I replied, glancing at him and then facing ahead where Poppy and Valerie walked side by side. I glared at him silently and he responded with a small shrug. 

"Oh, wait. Is it just because Poppy's here?" 

I huffed, stopping and facing him. 

What is with his questions? 

He rolled his eyes at me. "I'm only asking because you're never like this when we travel for your articles. It's definitely about Poppy. God, do you really hate her that much?" 

"Yes," I replied immediately. "I do." 

No, I fucking don't. But I should, damn it. 

"Why? I don't get it, I'm curious. The whole office probably is. It's like the biggest mystery we have." 

"Mystery?" I snickered as we resumed walking. 

"Yeah. Think about it from our perspective. This new girl joined the company and everybody clicked with her instantly, we all loved her. Now, we know you're a bit of a... How do I say this nicely? Yeah, you're a bit of a grump." 

"That's nice, thanks," I replied sarcastically. 

"But still. We've never seen you be so rude to any other co-workers." 

"Jamieson." 

"What?" 

"Why don't you shut up now? Worry about your photography. Did you get enough pictures today? I would hope so, considering how long you spent at the museum." 

"Oh, we left the museum not too long after you, actually." 

"Then what took you so long?" I questioned. 

"We got lost here." 

I paused. "You got lost too?" 

"Too? You and Poppy did as well?" 

"Yeah. We ended up going in a circle." 

He scoffed and shook his head, "We only got lost because of Valerie. She insisted on leading the way and I told her repeatedly that we were going the wrong way but she didn't listen to me. Was Poppy leading the way? Is that why you've been so annoyed ever since lunch?" 

I hesitated, glancing at Poppy while Valerie dragged her along, their arms linked forcefully by Valerie. "No, actually. I was leading the way," I mumbled. 

He stayed quiet for a beat before laughing, "What? Are you serious?" 

I ignored him, rolling my eyes and we continued walking. 

"Josh, you—" 

"Shut up," I groaned softly and picked up my pace, walking a bit further ahead of him. 

Later that afternoon after we all rested up a bit in our hotel rooms, Jamieson texted me to let me know that he was leaving with Valerie to photograph the local area around our hotel area. 

I was only scrolling through some other articles written by our competitors about New Orleans when the doorbell to my room rang. I stood up, put my laptop on the bed, and fixed my shirt up before getting the door, pulling it open. 

Poppy stood there with her laptop, journal, and a pen in hand. "Hi," she smiled, bouncing on her heels. "I was thinking we should talk about work a bit, are you free?" 

"No," I replied, leaning against the doorframe, folding my arms across my chest. 

Her eyes narrowed as she nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm going to take that as a yes." She slid past me and into the room, sitting on the free side of the bed and crossing her legs under her. She was still wearing her dress, so she took a pillow and placed it in front of her before opening her laptop and looking at me as I shut the door and walked back into the room, stopping at the foot of the bed. 

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked her, lifting my brows. 

"Working with my co-worker. Anyway," she said, shifting a bit. "I was thinking we should at least write down a few points about each location we visit as the trip goes on. That way, once we're back in New York, writing the article will be much easier and we'll remember it all. I do that every time I travel, don't you?" 

"I do," I nodded. 

"So, did you write anything down about today?" 

I shook my head. "I was just about to. I was reading some other magazine's articles about New Orleans to see what should make our article different from theirs." 

"And what did you find?" She blinked at me, the brightness from her laptop adding a glow to her face. "By the way, are you just going to stand there?" 

"I might," I answered. 

She shrugged softly, "Suit yourself." She stole another glance at me before looking back at her laptop and typing away silently. 

I opened my mouth to say something but hesitated. 

Why the hesitation? I have every right to ask her why she's barging into my hotel room? 

"Why are you here if you'll just be typing away?" 

"Well, I came to discuss it all with you since we'll write the article together but you just want to stand there." She looked back at me, rolling her eyes. "Unless you've decided to settle down, Joshy." She patted the spot beside her, pulling on a fake, sweet smile. 

"Stop calling me that," I demanded. 

"Okay," she nodded and went back to typing. "Whatever you say..." Her eyes met mine as I rounded the bed and sat down on my side. "Joshy," she whispered to herself. 

I blinked, grabbing my laptop and sitting against the headboard, straightening out my legs. 

She's annoying. Really fucking annoying.

»»————　➴　————««

We were supposed to leave for dinner at a restaurant nearby that we saw on our way back from the museum earlier today, and currently, I'm getting dressed. 

I pulled on a white thin v-neck sweater with black pants and then pulled on a pair of shoes before putting a spray of cologne on and then pocketing my wallet, room keys, and phone, as I left the room. I glanced at my watch for the time and then halted at Poppy's door, contemplating whether I should wait for her or just leave. 

Every time we were alone together, she found new ways to test my patience. Earlier, when we spent a couple of hours writing a bit in my room, she wouldn't stop talking to me as she wrote about everything that we did today. She was telling me all of it and not writing even half of it. 

After that, she started playing music on her laptop and when she turned it off after I demanded that she would, she started singing and humming. When I couldn't tolerate that, she started drumming and tapping her nails along her laptop in thought. 

At one point, I'd had enough and told her maybe we should finish writing in our own rooms and discuss later, so I practically kicked her out. That was the end of today's story. 

Hopefully, she quits being so annoying. But then maybe that would only be worse for me because it would leave me with no excuse to keep her at a safe distance. 

It was so obvious that she went out of her way to annoy me, at least some of the time. I wondered why she did that, she does that normally, now that I'm noticing it. 

Before I could walk down the hall and leave her behind, her door opened and she slipped out, fixing her purse on her shoulder before locking the door behind her. 

She turned to me, smiling widely again. 

God, it's her stupid smile. It's... fucking dangerous. 

"Hey," she greeted chirpily. 

I stared at her blankly. "You give me a headache," I told her. 

"Well, at least I get some reaction out of you, so I'll take that as a compliment. Let's go?" 

I hummed and led the way, unintentionally slowing down a bit when I remembered that she told me during the day that I walk too fast. Before she could taunt me about slowing my pace to match hers, I shot her a stern look and she got the message and sent me a faint nod while biting down a smug smile. 

As we waited for the elevator, I took a glance at her dress. 

She was wearing a satin full-sleeve square-neck dress that was a deep blood red in color and stopped about midthigh. The dress was a little tighter around her waist, accentuating her curves and with her hair pulled up in a bun with two strands falling out and framing her face, she actually looked kind of... pretty. Yeah, she looked pretty. 

No, wait. Josh. Stop it. Snap out of it. 

With the ding of the elevator, we stepped inside. "Are Jamieson and Valerie already downstairs?" she asked, looking at me. 

"I'm not sure, I'm guessing they are. If they aren't, let's just tell them to meet us at the restaurant." 

She blinked in surprise. "You don't want to wait here for them?" 

"Why? We'll meet there anyway," I shrugged, stealing another look at her dress. 

Fuck, that's a gorgeous dress on her. 

With a clench of my jaw, I forced my head out of those thoughts. 

No looking at the dress, no thinking it's pretty, no focusing on Poppy. Poppy equals danger. 

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