Chapter 381 - Guilt (1/2)

”Have you got nothing to say for yourself, eh, Red?”

She looked up. 'What could I possibly say?' she wondered. 'And why does he keep calling me that? I should probably ask him to stop.'

But she knew she would not. This man had a weird effect on her and oddly, she liked the sound of it, so no she would not ask him to stop even though it was so confusing that he would be scolding her and calling her a pet name while at it.

She could bet her left great toe that he meant it as a taunt or at least for it to come off as such, but he was failing woefully and instead, he sounded very sweet.

The word rolled right off his tongue like an incantation to one's favorite god.

”Your mind sure wanders a lot,” he said, startling her back to the present.

”I… I am sorry, boss. I just think too much these days is all.” She bit her lip shyly.

”Maybe take a break from whatever is running through your head and do something for me.”

”Yes sir,” she nodded enthusiastically, and standing up in readiness.

He told her what he needed. For her to look through his shelf of books and find an economic magazine from nearly a year ago. She tried her best to hide her frustration, but she was failing at it.

”Is there a problem?” he asked. He sounded brash as usual but there was a note of genuine concern in his voice. He slapped himself mentally.

Whatever was happening to him needed a quick nip in the bud, he thought. A part of him knew making her do these odd and unnecessary tasks was mean but another part of him enjoyed having her all to himself even if it was in these awkward, silent moments.

She got up and made for the bookshelf. The nearly ten-foot-tall wooden structure was intimidating. Amy wondered where she was supposed to start from.

”Start at the bottom,” Edward said, as if hearing her thoughts.

She crouched down and started leafing through tons of magazines.