by Chelsea Hale
“I always like a German chocolate cake with a coconut pecan frosting.” She ducked her head. “It tastes better than it sounds.”
He smiled. “I believe it.” He made a mental note to remember that tidbit for this weekend.
“Do you have a favorite?” she asked him.
“Cake?”
She shrugged. “Or any dessert.”
“Lots of them. I try to just enjoy whatever I eat.”
“C’mon, what is one that people don’t know about?”
He tapped his finger against his chin, wondering what he’d never told anyone in a magazine interview before. “When I go to movies, I like Lemonheads. Not the chewy colorful kind, just the old-fashioned ones.”
When dessert was over and the waiter had boxed up the desserts for Emery, a hostess escorted them out of the restaurant. Emery's car was waiting for her. “Wow, they are prompt here.” She fiddled with the clasp on her purse and pulled out her wallet.
James knew she was about to tip the valet, but he’d already taken care of it. He leaned closer to her, feeling the heat between them though the cold night air surrounded them. “I’ve already taken care of it.”
“Are you sure? You can add it to my tab.”
“I’ve got it.”
The look in her eyes was so perfect. She smiled. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. I had a great time.”
“We’ll have to do it again.”
“I’d like that,” she said.
He knew it was silly, but not knowing when that would be threw him off. “How about coffee tomorrow? Same time and place as this morning?”
“I’ll end up being there twenty minutes before you if I come at the same time,” she said playfully.
“I won’t be late this time.” Was it bad that he wanted to kiss her right now? Sure, the valet was standing right there, but Carl was used to seeing couples together, it’d be fine.
He leaned closer to her, and instead of kissing her he held her hand, bringing it up to his lips and kissing her on one of her knuckles. Warmth spread through him like he’d kissed her on the mouth, and he wondered how intense that would feel if just kissing her hand was sending him off balance. Better to not find out tonight.
She closed her eyes briefly at his touch, and then blinked like she’d been in a daze. He walked her around to the driver’s side door and helped her in, waving off Carl who came to help.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said. “Drive safe.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m going to tell everyone who asks that what you meant by ‘drive safe,’ was ‘May the Force be with you.’” She leaned closer to him and whispered, “It will make a much better story.”
He laughed. “It will be a race to see who can pull out the most quotes from our favorite show.”
“Good night, James.” She waved to him once he closed her door.
She drove away, and he wasn’t sure that he could wait until morning to see her.
Maybe it was because she’d caught the Star Wars reference, but for the first time in a long time, it was nice to just be him. Not James, the Billionaire; or James, the CEO; or James, the boss. Just James.
“Shall I grab your car, sir?” his valet asked.
James pulled out his wallet, and took out a few hundred-dollar bills, giving the four valets each one. He’d left sealed envelopes for each of the staff tonight with one each. It was a small bonus for not blowing his cover—and for taking down his picture in the entryway. “Nice work tonight. Thanks for not blowing my cover.”
It’d been all he could do not to talk to all of the staff like he knew them personally. He’d owned the restaurant for a couple of years. And he went in at least once a week to see how things were running. But if he didn’t need a private room for a business meeting, he’d eat in the middle of the room, where he could be seen taking pride in his ownership of such an upscale establishment.
“Anything you need, sir?” Carl asked him.
“My car will be fine.” The valet brought out his Moonlight Silver Bugatti Veyron, and it hit James that tomorrow he’d probably need to drive something less flashy to work. Especially if he was going to meet up with Emery again. And he definitely planned to do that.
Chapter 7
Emery woke up the next morning wired. Maybe it was the desserts, but she hadn’t had that much fun just going out to dinner in a long time. She and James had joked around and had taken turns asking and answering questions.
And what had been up with his movie quotes? Sure, there weren’t too many, but that was probably due to the fact that they were interrupted in the middle, which in and of itself had been funny and oddly close to the script.
Emery flushed at the memory of his quotes surrounding the Han and Leia kissing scene. It was all she could do to try and think straight through the rest of dessert without thinking about kissing him. The idea both excited and scared her.
On the one hand, he was going to pretend to be her boyfriend this weekend, so they should probably kiss at least once in the next two days before they arrived there, otherwise that could pose all sorts of awkward, weird questions.
Then he’d kissed her hand like in some sort of Regency Romance, and she had almost lost it and pulled him in for a kiss. The idea flooded through her memory again as she walked into the coffee shop to see a very smug man in the corner, sitting at the same table she’d reserved the day before, in her chair. He had a notebook in front of him.
She walked up to James. “Good morning,” she said. She should definitely not start the day thinking about kissing him. But her eyes settled on his lips as he smiled at her. He had a very nice smile.
He stood up and gave her a hug. “You’re late,” he said.
“Am I?” Her heart sped up at the thought that maybe he wanted to spend more time with her.
He made a dramatic flourish as he turned his wrist over, looking ponderous at a very expensive watch. “I’ve been here twenty minutes. And the amount of questions I wrote down proves it.”
Or maybe he was just poking fun at her from yesterday. She decided to roll with it and laughed it off. “Thanks for saving my favorite table.”
“What do you know? We now have the same favorite table.”
They got in line for their coffee. She hadn’t learned yesterday what he liked since Matt had ordered for them.
When they got up to the register, she ordered her Caramel Macchiato. James ordered a Tall Decaf Cappuccino. She hadn’t pegged him as the decaf type, but that was cool.
This was their second time having coffee together. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that they’d had coffee together every day since they met.
She pulled out her wallet, fishing out a card from the plastic holder.
James pulled a twenty out of his pocket. “I’ve got this,” he said.
She put her card on the counter. “I can pay for my own coffee.”
“Not if you’re going to be my girlfriend, you can’t,” he said, smiling and handed the bill to the guy behind the register.
“What is this now? What rules are you making up?” she asked when they were seated at the table.
He lifted his eyebrows to her and drank his coffee like he didn’t know what she meant.
She said, “The guy paying thing? It’s not a rule. I can pay for my own coffee.” Though she knew that Sydney Hart would say that he was trying to be a gentleman, and she was making much too big of a deal about this.
But Sydney’s advice didn’t apply to fake relationships, and Emery wasn’t about to take advantage of someone and let them buy her coffee for a couple of bucks. Sure, she and Matt switched off paying, but that had mostly to do with convenience of who was in line first.
“It is though—at least for me. I’m the guy, I pay for things.”
She waved her hand in the air. “That’s ridiculous. I’m not freeloading off of you, especially because …” She let the sentence dangle in the air, not wanting him to feel like she was judging him.
He straightened in his chair. “Especially because what?”
She leaned in closer, suddenly aware of their surroundings and not wanting to draw attention to what she was about to say. “Because you’ve had financial trouble. Look, I don’t want to keep bringing it up.”
“Then don’t,” he said flatly, putting his cappuccino down on the table firmly enough that it almost spilled.
“But I’m not going to have you pay for things.” She lowered her voice. “I’m the one who’s paying for you to help me out, not the other way around.”
His eyes pierced hers with a dangerous look. “Looks like you can now officially tell your family that we’ve had our first fight, because I’m digging my heels in on this one. I’m a gentleman. I pay for my dates. We’re dating. You’re going to let me pay. End of story.”
She shook her head. “I just can’t do that to you. I’m not going to take advantage of you that way, especially since you’re the one doing me the favor.”
He gritted his teeth. “If Matt would have just kept his big mouth shut,” he muttered.
“Don’t blame Matt. Even if he hadn’t have told me, I would still say the same thing. I suppose it’d be different if we were actually dating. I guess I wouldn’t mind who paid for what then, but I’m the one who is asking for you to come with me, so it’s my responsibility to pay.”
He rolled his eyes. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Do you always compete to be right?”
“We need to come to a compromise here.” He grabbed her hand again. Zaps of electricity tingled up her arm, and she wondered if he would try to finish quoting the Star Wars scene that they hadn’t completed yesterday.
The quoting would of course have to be followed up with a kiss, just to really do the scene justice. Her cheeks flushed at the idea of kissing him. They wouldn’t be able to avoid it for too much longer and the thought filled her with a giddy anticipation.
“What’s your compromise?” Her voice came out way breathier than it should have.
He ran his fingers over hers tickling them light as he said, “Let me pay for things.”
She was having a hard time thinking clearly. “I think you’ve missed the definition of a compromise.”
“No, I haven’t. You’ll compromise, and I won’t. I think it works nicely.” He flashed her a playful smile.
“You’re impossible.”
“How about if we are on a date, I pay. If we are doing a specific activity that falls under the pretend boyfriend contract, then I’ll still pay for it, and you can add it to my tab if you feel strongly about it.”
“Okay, so anything I choose can be added to your tab?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“Deal.” She stuck out her hand and he shook it, holding it for an extra heartbeat before letting it go. She almost wished he would have continued holding it. But no, not in her local coffee shop.
Too much PDA in here might be a recipe for disaster, especially since they’d probably only come here again for two more mornings before leaving for Boston.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, I was able to book our flights with no problem. My miles were upgraded and I was able to book us first-class tickets. It wasn’t extra.” He held up his hands, palms toward her in show of innocence.
“Thanks. That’ll be nice.”
“Questions you want to discuss today?” he asked.
“Where does your family live?”
“West Coast.” He played with his straw.
“Any particular part of the West Coast?”
He narrowed his eyes just a fraction and she wondered what she’d said. “Why?” he asked.
“I told my mom we’d be visiting them for Christmas. Is that what you’re planning on doing?”
He shook his head, the tension smoothed out from his forehead. “I’ll be here. Lots of work to do between Christmas and New Year’s.”
“Ha. That sounds like my line.”
“Maybe that’s why we’re getting along so well.”
She wondered what his family dynamics were like and why he didn’t want to talk about them. But then she thought of her own family dynamics and how much drama there was, and she realized she didn’t want to answer the same questions, so she took a sip of her coffee.
James had gotten his hair redyed since yesterday. She wondered if he’d actually gotten his hair colored after dinner last night. Maybe it was the lighting at dinner that she hadn’t noticed. “Your hair looks really nice today,” she said.
“I’m still not used to the color.”
“It suits you though.”
“Thanks.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Are your frames new? They seem to be sliding a lot.”
“I need to get them adjusted. I think I must have bent them in my pocket.” He shrugged.
“Back to the question of where your family is. It doesn’t really matter to me. Why don’t you just give me a city that I can reference, just so that I have something to say.”
“San Francisco.”
“Really? I’ve always wanted to go to San Francisco.”
“Have you?” He leaned forward like it was an interesting thing to learn.
“I want to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Have you ever done that?”
“I have. I’ve also driven across it too.”
For a moment Emery allowed herself to think of what it would actually be like to go there. She’d been to Southern California before.
She had loved going to Disneyland as a child and dressing up like a princess, but there was something about Northern California. Her screen saver pictures of it always looked so beautiful and mysterious shrouded in fog.
James leaned toward her, like he was about to share a secret. “Did you know that Star Wars VI Return of the Jedi was partially filmed close to San Francisco?”
“Really?”
“Yep. At the Redwood National Park, in Northern California. It was where the Ewoks lived.”
“You mean, they didn’t actually shoot on location in Endor?” Emery did her best to hold a straight face but ended up laughing.
He joined in. “You’re funny.”
Her lips twitched. “Yeah, sometimes I am.”
After their coffee, James walked the two blocks with her to her office, holding her hand the entire way. They were both wearing gloves, but it still took her breath away.
“Have a wonderful day at work,” he said.
“You too.” She gave him a hug. “Don’t miss me too much.”
“I won’t as long as you let me take you out again tonight.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“I think we need to get a few pictures together, don’t you?”
“I hadn’t even thought of that. Yes, we’ll need pictures together. And probably some indoor ones so they don’t all look like they were taken in December.”
He nodded. “We could go to dinner first—some place quicker than last night, and then take a few pictures while we are out.”
“You know, I actually don’t mind a three hour dinner when you’re my company.”
“That might be the nicest thing you’ve said to me so far.”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “Seriously, I’m so grateful you’re coming with me this weekend, I could kiss you.” She clapped her hands over her mouth. Had she really just said that out loud?
“I’ve been thinking the same thing since yesterday.” He looked intently into her eyes, and her insides fluttered and spun all over the place.
He was going to kiss her. He stepped closer to her, and her lips parted ever so slightly.
“But I have a feeling that you don’t want to be kissed in front of your office building,” he said. He glanced behind her for a fraction of a second.
“Probably a very good point.” It was actually a considerate and thoughtful thing, except that now she was going to anticipate the kiss all day long. Would she even be able to think of anything el
se?
He took out his phone. “Here let’s take a selfie so we have a picture from the morning that we almost kissed for the first time.”
“Is that how we’re going to tell my family about our dating history—by the pictures that we take?”
“Admit it, that’s what you would do, if we were really dating.”
She smiled. If they were really dating she’d want lots of pictures with him and would stare at his handsome face all the time. Then she wouldn’t get her work done and probably wouldn’t be up for a promotion. “Yeah, I’d probably memorialize every single moment.”
“See, I’m not that far off base.” He changed the filter and made it a high contrast black and white before taking another picture. “This one almost looks like it’s a different day.”
“Very smart.”
He gave her a hug and then kissed her on the top of her forehead. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Text me where I’m supposed to meet you.”
James turned back down the street they’d come, looking back once. She smiled and waved at him, since she was still watching him. It was like one of those movie moments where the characters should get together but didn’t, except this time, he had looked back and she had seen it.
Chapter 8
Emery headed inside Above the Fold Advertising Agency, texting James. Don’t look back for too long, you might run into a pole or a sign.
His response was almost immediate. LOL. It would be worth it though.
He was adorable. She sent him a smiling emoji.
Are you a chocolates or a flowers kind of girl?
I like both. Preferably together. She pushed the elevator button.
I’m glad to hear you say that. Have a fun day. Try not to daydream about me all day.
Ha. If that’s what you’re thinking then you’ll probably be thinking of me all day long, wishing you had kissed me last night. She couldn’t help flirting with him just a little.
If only the valet wouldn’t have been there.
I’d rather kiss a Wookiee. She knew it was a line he’d appreciate, and she felt proud of herself for finding a moment to use a Star Wars quote this morning.
