Just a Little Flirt

by Renita Pizzitola

  I slid my dress back over my head and followed him to the front door, completely baffled by what had transpired.

  He grabbed Ryder’s car keys and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you around.” He smiled and then slipped out the door.

  I locked it behind him and pressed my back against it.

  What had just happened?

  No guy had ever noticed I checked out before. Or if they did, they never cared. Maybe the loss of my Cade visual made my lack of interest more apparent than usual. Or maybe Luke was just that great of a guy. Dammit.

  I trudged back to my room and flopped onto my bed.

  It hadn’t always been this bad. I’d had sex with Cameron and enjoyed it. Sort of. Some of it was awkward since we’d both been virgins but we eventually figured it out. Kind of. By the third time it had been okay. And the fourth time had been pretty good. But then he’d dumped me and I’d spent the entire last year trying to disassociate sex with him. Problem was, I’d done too good a job. Now all my emotions went into hibernation the second the condom went on.

  I wanted to hate my ex for making me like this, but, ultimately, I only hated myself. For being weak. For believing sex was an extension of loving someone. But most of all, I hated the tiny part of myself who still wanted that to be true.

  Chapter 6

  Way too early the next morning I was in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher when Ryder walked in.

  “Hey.” He pulled a glass down and filled it with ice water. “You’re up early.”

  “Yeah. Couldn’t sleep. So, Luke took your car last night. I don’t mind taking you to get it.” Especially since it was my bad idea which resulted in him being carless. It was the least I could do.

  “I’m actually headed out for a run right now. I’ll be passing by his place anyway, so I’ll grab it.”

  I hadn’t run since my high school cross-country days. I couldn’t decide if I actually missed running though, especially since I tended to think a lot during those long runs. Which was overrated. My brain preferred radio silence these days.

  Ryder placed his cup in the sink and glanced at me. “Everything okay?”

  I snapped out of my thoughts. “Yeah.” The plates I’d stacked clinked together as I slid them onto the shelf. “But next time I decide to hook up with one of your friends, do me a favor.”

  His eyebrow quirked up. “What’s that?”

  “Steer me to the assholes.”

  Ryder chuckled. “You didn’t really think I’d let you bring an asshole back here, did you?” He grinned. “You’re Brinley’s friend; like it or not, I’m going to watch out for you too.”

  “I don’t need anyone to watch out for me.” I crossed my arms, not to keep Ryder out, but to keep myself tucked inside.

  “Of course you don’t need it.” He shrugged. “If Brinley wakes up before I get back, let her know I went for a run.” He opened the front door and slipped out.

  I should have said something to lighten the situation, a smart-ass comment to regain the upper hand, anything, but instead, I stood there speechless once again. My perfect little heartless world was being slowly obliterated by all these nice-guy bombs that kept dropping. I liked life better when nobody cared who I was or what I did in my free time.

  —

  Monday, I arrived at the hospital early but undecided if I should meet Cade for our lunch date. This weekend had screwed me up, leaving me in the wrong state of mind for him.

  But another part of me kept picturing him sitting by himself in the food court, waiting on me until he realized I’d stood him up. And because my fucked-up mind really liked to torture me, I imagined he’d be sad for a split second until the seat was filled by some hot nurse or something. Because really, a sad Cade was more than anyone could bear. Inevitably they’d hit it off, start dating and I’d be invited to their wedding.

  Groaning, I pressed the back of my head against the driver’s seat, then forced myself out of the car and toward the hospital to meet Cade.

  Each of the four entrances led to the atrium, so no matter how I approached the area, chances were, if Cade was already seated, he’d see me before I saw him. Which meant no turning back.

  A group of nurses shuffled past me, balancing trays as they talked. I shifted out of their way and almost bumped into an elderly lady.

  She smiled and patted my arm. “Excuse me, dear.”

  I apologized, wedged myself next to a trash bin and let her pass. The room buzzed with the lunch rush. How in the world would I even spot Cade?

  But I didn’t need to. I spotted Scout. He sat beside a table near a large potted tree while Cade spoke with two girls in blue scrubs. Shit, it had already happened. I could practically hear the wedding bells.

  “Excuse me,” a guy said to my right.

  I glanced at him. He was young, wearing a white coat and vaguely familiar.

  “My pen fell.” He pointed between my feet.

  “Oh.” I stepped back and picked up the metallic blue pen engraved with the name Thatcher. And it all fell into place. That’s why he’d looked familiar. He was the resident with the asshole name. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled as his gaze drifted down, probably noting the color of my scrubs, like some sort of caste system. “So you’re an intern?”

  Did this mean I qualified to speak with him? “Yeah, Child Life.”

  “Oh, I’m a pediatric gastroenterology resident.”

  That was a whole lot of syllables of I don’t give a shit. “Cool.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, like my response had amused him. “How long have you been interning at Memorial?”

  “Two weeks.”

  He nodded as if that explained everything. “Well, we are on the same floor so I’m sure I will be seeing you around…” He searched for my hospital badge, which was attached to one of my scrubs pockets. “Fallon. That’s different.”

  My name didn’t sound musical coming from his mouth. Kind of harsh.

  “Hey.” Cade slipped up alongside me. His gaze landed on Thatcher, giving him a quick once-over, then returned to me. “Ready for lunch?”

  Sweet, friendly Cade didn’t seem so amiable now. Was that a bit of alpha I was sensing? Damn. That was hot.

  I couldn’t hide my smile. “Yeah. I was just looking for you.”

  Thatcher tapped his stack of paper against the table. “Well, I have rounds to get to.” He stood and cocked a smirk that suggested we knew each other way better than we actually did. “See you around, Fallon.” Funny how alpha male wasn’t at all sexy on him. And I really wished he’d quit spoiling my newfound love of my name.

  Cade watched him walk off then glanced at me.

  I shrugged. “I picked up the guy’s pen and now he thinks we’re lifelong friends.”

  Cade smiled. “I doubt it has anything to do with his pen.” He nodded for me to follow. “I have a table over here. What would you like for lunch?”

  I’d planned ahead just in case I chickened out. “I actually had a late breakfast, so I’ll probably just get something to drink.”

  “You don’t mind if I eat, do you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Want to sit here with Scout while I grab something?”

  “Sure.”

  “What can I get you to drink?”

  “Oh.” I pulled a five out of my scrubs pocket. “I’ll take a coffee.”

  He glanced at the money and smiled. “I got it. Be good, Scout.”

  The dog raised his head, acknowledging his name, then nestled his chin back between his front paws.

  Cade walked over to one of the restaurants tucked into the food court, while I tried hard not to stare. Flashes from my dream heated my skin with a mixture of embarrassment and over-awareness.

  All wound up and frustrated was not a good way to enter this lunch date. Could I even call it that? It wasn’t really a date. Just two sort-of coworkers meeting for lunch. Dammit. Why was I all freaked about this?
I had to come up with a topic for conversation or else I’d probably lose my mind watching him eat or something.

  Cade reappeared with a tray. He placed a white to-go box in front of his chair and a coffee and brown bag in front of me.

  “What’s this?” I asked, gesturing to the bag.

  “Cookies. They’re the best. You’d think, cafeteria food? Not so great. But really those cookies are amazing. Wasn’t sure which flavor you’d like so I got a few.” He smiled as he popped open his box.

  I peered into the bag then pulled out a white bakery sleeve with three cookies inside. “Chocolate chip, sugar and…?”

  “Peanut butter.” He lifted his cheeseburger and took a bite.

  “Tough choice.” I grabbed the creamer and sugar packets from the tray and dumped them into my coffee. Stirring it, I asked, “So which one’s your favorite?”

  “I like the peanut butter. And the chocolate. Hell, they’re all good.” He popped a French fry into his mouth.

  I broke all three cookies down the middle, and gave him half of each. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to try them all for myself.”

  “You can eat all three if you want.”

  I smiled and swirled the little stirrer in my coffee cup. “I’d much rather share them with you.”

  “Thanks.”

  I glanced up and caught him staring at me. His eyes were such a midnight blue they almost looked black right then. They were intense, in the best possible way, and striking against his golden skin.

  “So tell me how you got involved with therapy dogs?” I’d blurted out the first thing to come to mind and it was, thankfully, a really good question.

  Cade sipped his soda. “Well, my mom is a handler, and I’ve been around therapy dogs for as long as I can remember. After starting college, I was looking for some sort of volunteer work and naturally just fell back on this. I got Scout as a puppy from the shelter and just knew he’d be perfect. He was affectionate and really personable. We went through the training program, got certified and then we were ready to start volunteering. We will have been working at Memorial for a year in August.”

  “That’s really cool. And pretty amazing you find time to do this on top of going to school.”

  He nodded. “They’re really understanding about my hours. I also work part-time at the campus rec center. I try to stay on a schedule but sometimes with exams and work, it gets thrown off.” He picked up his burger and started eating again. “So tell me about you.”

  “Uh, after that, I’m pretty unexciting.”

  “You’re interning here. That’s something. What made you decide to work in Child Life?”

  “In high school, I volunteered at the children’s hospital. It was initially just something to put on my college applications, but I really fell in love with it. Then I came to college and the first year was so busy I wasn’t sure if or even how I could get involved with kids again, but then this opened up and, well, it all seemed to fall into place.”

  I broke a piece off the chocolate chip cookie and popped it into my mouth. “Oh my God. This is good.”

  “Right? So much better than you’d expect out of a hospital food court.” He’d polished off his burger and had been working on his fries, but after my comment, he picked up the cookie and bit into it. “Now try the peanut butter.”

  I did and my eyes practically shut on their own accord. “That might be even better.” I took another bite of the peanut butter cookie. “Or a really close second.” I broke off a piece of sugar cookie and ate it as well. “Geez, even this one is delicious.”

  I opened my eyes and found Cade watching me, cookie in hand.

  He looked down and settled back in his chair. “Hard to choose. So it’s probably good we get to eat all three.”

  “I almost wish I hadn’t discovered how good they are. I’m going to want to eat them all the time. I’ll gain a ton of weight before this internship is over.” I ate the rest of the chocolate chip.

  “Nah, you’ll work it off. Between chasing kids around and our weekly volleyball game, you’ll be good.” He grinned. “And you can always visit me in the rec center.”

  Like I could ever work out knowing he was watching…wait? Did he say the volleyball game was—“Weekly?”

  “Yeah, you’re going again, right?”

  “I didn’t know you met up every week.” Was I supposed to? Maybe they didn’t want the interns there. Or maybe just me.

  “Oh, you left early last week.”

  “Yeah.” Thanks to the temptations of beer and bad choices. “I had to get home. I have class on Friday.”

  “That’s right. You missed when we talked about it. We exchanged numbers too, just in case someone couldn’t make it or something.” He pulled out his phone. “I can add you to the group texts. What’s your number?”

  I gave him my number, while little red flags went up. But it wasn’t like he was asking me for my number for future dating purposes or anything. It was a group thing. Totally safe. Platonic.

  My phone pinged in my pocket and I pulled it out.

  It had a number across the screen with the message: Hi.

  “And now you have mine. That way when you get the group texts, you won’t just think it’s some creepy stalker or something.” He grinned.

  I saved the number along with his name. Secretly thrilled to be able to do so, even if we’d never amount to more than teammates. I kind of liked having this personal part of him stored into something that was a part of me.

  We finished up lunch and he walked with me to the playroom.

  “So other than volleyball Thursday, do you have any other plans this week?”

  Uh-oh. Was this question leading into date territory? And if it was, what would I say? I couldn’t shoot him down. But saying yes would give him a false sense of hope. Then again maybe this was just small talk and I was completely overthinking it. Which would be lame. I wasn’t this girl.

  “Not really. I usually just hang out with the roommate, or you know, jump into some last-minute plans with friends.”

  “Would you be interested in jumping into some last-minute plans with me?”

  Here it was. Dammit. “Like what?”

  “It’s my twin nieces’ second birthday party on Saturday. And I’m, literally, the only non-parent in attendance. I can’t miss it, but my roommate bailed on me so now I’m stuck going alone. And I figured, considering you clearly don’t hate kids…” He looked at me, slightly pleading and totally adorable. “Really, I’m on the verge of asking a random stranger. It’s painful. You can only listen to discussions about potty training and the terrible twos so many times before you want to take a nap, facedown in the kiddie pool. But on a good note, there’ll be cake and pizza.”

  Okay. Not a date. A friend helping a friend. More like a wingman…at a toddler party. I could do that.

  “I do love cake and pizza. And I don’t hate kids.” I smiled and lowered my voice as if sharing a secret. “I even, sort of, like them.”

  He grinned then raised an eyebrow. “So does this mean you’ll go?”

  “One question.”

  “What’s that?”

  “What will your family think about you bringing a girl to the party?”

  “Like, will there be any awkward when’s-the-wedding questions?”

  I laughed. “Pretty much.”

  “No. I hang out with girls I’m not planning on marrying all the time. They won’t think anything of it.”

  “And here I thought I was special,” I teased, though genuinely disliking the thought of all these girls he hung out with. Even if he didn’t plan on marrying them, that didn’t mean they weren’t more than friends.

  “Who said you aren’t?” He opened the door to the playroom.

  I glanced at him, trying to gauge if he was teasing too. But his smile revealed nothing.

  “Fallon, there you are.” Amy popped in front of me.

  “Am I late?” I checked the time on my phone.

&n
bsp; “No, not at all. I could just use the extra hands right now.” She looked at Cade and Scout. “Lots of kids showed up which, now that I think about it, means you should probably help Cade. These kids are going to need some gentle reminders to take turns. I’ll finish up what I’m doing and jump in if you need me. I have a feeling I’ll lose my audience as soon as they realize Scout’s here anyway.”

  She darted off in the direction she’d come, and I turned to Cade. “I’m all yours. Just tell me where.” And, yes, I totally knew there was sexual innuendo laced right into that comment. But I couldn’t help it. Even though it’d go nowhere, I kind of wanted to see if he’d bite. After all, flirting was my thing, and turning it off for any hot guy was impossible.

  His eyebrows pushed together and he studied me. “Hmm. Well, right now, I’m thinking the floor. But I’m open to suggestions.”

  Wait, was that a nibble? We were in a room full of kids; the floor made the most sense. But suggestions?

  Time for a little more bait. “I’m flexible. The floor works for me.”

  He sucked in a deep breath then exhaled. “Good to know. I work well with flexible people,” he said as a smile danced around his lips. He brushed past me and murmured, “Might even say at my best.”

  The tension from that point on was awesome. The good kind that always led to amazing I-can’t-get-your-clothes-off-fast-enough sex. If only I hadn’t been surrounded by kids and, of course, at work. A girl can dream though. And I had. If nothing else, hopefully this served as a catalyst for more Cade dreams. Then again, handling them may be an issue. Clearly it hadn’t gone well the last time.

  I glanced at Cade and he offered a half-smile, almost a smirk. Like he knew my thoughts, or maybe he was having a few of his own. Regardless, it was hot.

  When the hour was up, he leaned in and whispered, “Lunch tomorrow?”

  If the warmth of his breath on my neck hadn’t sent heat rushing down my thighs, I’d have come up with an excuse. But instead, my head bobbed while my pulse raced.

  But damn, if my little game of flirtation wasn’t going to get me in trouble.

  After he left, so did my concentration. One of the many reasons getting involved with someone from work was a horrible idea.