It had all been an act and my best friends didn’t even see it. I wished it were different. That I’d responded differently to the pain I felt, but I didn’t. By all appearances it looked like my dating life was hooked up to a twenty-four hour revolving door.
The popcorn maker finished popping, and I melted some butter, drizzling it over the corn, and tossed it slightly before salting it. Now wasn’t the time to keep going down memory lane.
“Hope you like lots of butter,” I called to Ayden.
“How could a person not?” he asked, as I handed him the napkins and took a seat right next to him so we could share the popcorn easier.
Sitting this close to Ayden made me keenly aware of his movements and just his entire existence. I didn’t remember the last time when I noticed how a man smelled, but he was intoxicating, a mixture of soap and something woodsy, something Ayden.
“You okay?” he asked.
I laughed and felt completely insecure as he sank his fingers into the bowl and crunched on the first handful of corn.
“Perfection,” he said, his eyes meeting mine.
I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the popcorn any longer. Or at least I hoped he wasn’t.
“It’s one of my favorite dinners so I got it right a long time ago,” I said, grabbing a few kernels.
“You eat popcorn for dinner?”
“Some nights I do,” I confessed. “The hours I keep kind of make my options limited.”
His eyes stayed focused on mine. “You’re hard to figure out. I’m starting to think the Lily everyone knows isn’t the true Lily at all.” He grinned as if he’d cracked open some sort of age-old mystery.
I laughed. “Believe me. I’m not that complex. What you see is what you get.”
“I don’t believe it for a second,” he replied. “But someday, maybe I’ll get to know the real Lily. Until then, I’ve narrowed our movie selection to either the rom-com or a sci-fi movie for the night.”
“You obviously don’t know the real me at all, because if you did, you’d know sci-fi would win every time,” I said, snatching the remote from his fingers, clicking the okay button on Alien.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t have guessed that one.”
“Alien it is,” I said, noticing he wrapped his arm around me as I held the popcorn bowl tighter.
“You know, I’m really happy my sister gave me an excuse to drop by,” he said, and my stomach literally dropped to the floor. “Scheming and chilling with you is kind of fun.”
He gave me a quick squeeze and took his arm away. We were clearly still in the friend zone and that was okay. That was how it should be.
As the movie started, I felt my body relax against his, and my mind escaped to a land far away from the one we lived in, filled with creatures and exploding things. Just how I liked it.
Nothing too deep.
I was at the office this morning by seven o’clock. The weekend went by in a flash, and I’d spent most of Sunday sketching out some ideas for the new client. I always got lost in a fantasy world when I created campaigns, which was why I loved doing it so much.
It’d been nice to hang out with Ayden. There were no expectations or disappointments. Plus, he accepted my whiskey behavior without judgment, and for that, I was extremely grateful. I didn’t remember all of the things that may have slipped out of my mouth, but I knew he wouldn’t hold any of them against me.
By Sunday, the idea of seeing Austin again began to creep into my mind, and it was kind of intriguing. As foolish as it sounded, I’d never been able to shut out those emotions and feelings that he conjured when I had been around him in high school.
High school!
And I’d been spending the start of my adult life trying to replicate them with men who looked the part but didn’t fit with me. Something needed to change!
I never received a text from Brandy or Gabby so either they’d had second thoughts or they were ensuring their story had no holes, which might take some extra time. Either way, I couldn’t wait to mess with them once I got the official invite.
“Have a nice weekend, Lily?”
I looked up from my laptop and smiled at Tori. She worked in the graphics department and her outfit matched that profession. She had purple eyeglass frames that could be spotted a mile away, and she generally wore layers and layers of clothing that were all mismatched, yet somehow went together flawlessly. If I tried out the look I’d either look like Bobo the clown or a hobo from the 1920’s. And I’m deathly afraid of clowns.
I smiled at Tori and nodded, bringing my attention back to her. “Really great. I had an unfortunate little date, but a friend from out of town came over and made it all better.”
Her eyes narrowed as she carefully examined me for something more.
“What?” I asked.
“You look different somehow. Like you’ve met someone. Are you sure the date was a disaster?”
I started laughing. “Positive.”
Maybe the idea of seeing Austin again did breathe new life into me.
“Well, whatever it is, keep it up. My weekend was absolutely horrid. I spent all of Saturday and Sunday redoing all of the artwork from last week’s meeting with Telly’s Ale. One minute they want old-school vibe and the next sleek and modern.”
“Oooh, that sucks,” I replied, noticing Rob walking off the elevator.
Perfect! Just the man I wanted to run into.
Tori followed my gaze and chuckled. “Gotcha. He finally wore you down, huh?”
I shivered and she caught my reaction, which resulted in a chuckle-snort from her mouth and a glance in my direction from Rob.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “Hard to believe something that can look that good on the outside can be so god-awful on the inside.”
“So you—”
She nodded. “I made it to date two and couldn’t handle it any longer. But luck was on my side, and a new hire came on board that distracted him enough to make my getaway painless.”
“Who?” I asked, leaning into the desk.
Rob had trundled off to his office so at least I was safe for a while.
“Cindy,” she uttered.
I absolutely loved office gossip as long as I wasn’t part of it!
“No way! She’s so—”
“Prudish?” Tori responded, smiling.
“Exactly.”
“Just know it happens to the best of us. I’m impressed you held out so long.”
“The date imploded before dessert was even served,” I confessed.
Her brows fell in disappointment, and I knew it then…she’d had sex with him.
Poor soul!
“Lucky,” she hissed, and turned around, making her way through the sea of cubicles.
For once, I was thrilled that I wasn’t the one doing the march of shame.
My phone buzzed, and I saw a new email had come over. This was it, had to be it! The message was from Brandy and the subject simply read ‘Ski Trip’. I chuckled as I opened it up and read through it.
Grab your cute sweaters and furry earmuffs! We’re headed to the mountains of Utah. Plans are set and there’s no getting out of it. Gabby, Jason, and Aaron are coming. And my brothers are coming too! We’ve got a great place rented for all of us. You can bring your board or skis or rent whatever. I’ll send the deets over this week, but put in for December 26th-January 1st so you can get the time off. We’ll show this New Year who’s boss and maybe you’ll even bump into Mr. Right!
Hugs and smooches,
Brandy
I felt absolutely giddy as I hit the reply button. I was so grateful to Ayden for spilling the beans.
You always know the right thing to do! Can’t wait! And guess what, girl? I’ve even got a guy to bring and ring in the New Year. How perfect is that?
Hugs and Smooches back at ya,
L
I started laughing as I set the phone down. My guess was I’d get a message within five minutes, which would give her enoug
h time to consult with Gabby before sending a frantic email back.
I bent under my desk, adjusting the dial on my space heater. I had to get it blasting before my toes fell off. I loved my office and all of the windows that looked over the city, but it made it extremely chilly now that it was December. The heat began wrapping around my ankles, and I sat back in my chair taking everything in around my office. It was an odd sensation knowing that I was going to be giving my notice soon.
The space had really started to feel like my second home. I liked how I had decorated it and had many memories of eating take-out late at night, staring at storyboards spread out all over the place. Beyond the boring décor that was standard in all of the offices, I’d brought in a few photographs of my family and some funky artwork that one of my friends from college had painted. But it would all look just as wonderful somewhere else—of that I was sure.
I picked up the photo of my parents, who had been married for over forty years. My father had his arm wrapped around my mom’s shoulders. I think it was a church directory photo, and it showed. They loved each other, but it wasn’t a passionate relationship. Not like the one I imagined for myself or saw with Brandy’s parents. Maybe their relationship held some fire in the beginning, but I didn’t ever remember them showing affection in public. My father was a successful real estate developer, and my mom worked with him in his office, off and on. My dad also happened to be the mayor of our small town for much of my junior high and high school years, which explained why my dating life always felt like such a liability to them. God forbid something might happen that would ruin his bid for reelection. But if I were honest with myself, I’d say I outgrew them. They had a very small view of the world.
I set down the picture and picked up the one of our entire family. I had my father’s eyes, but everything else seemed to be from my mom. My brother, Heath, was a spitting image of my father and so was my sister, Ivy. Their raven-colored hair was shiny and beautiful and with their green eyes, they were stunning. Our eye color was the only thing that signaled we were related. My auburn hair came from my mom, as did all of our name choices. She liked the idea of naming us all after plants.
I’d been one of those surprises that parents speak about, so both of my siblings were quite a bit older than me. My brother had graduated from high school, and my sister had just entered high school when I was born. We got along well enough, but it wasn’t a really close relationship. They both followed the paths my parents wanted for them. Heath had a city council job and my sister married right out of college. My parents were already proud grandparents, so at least, I was off the hook for that.
Placing the photo back on the desk, I grabbed my notes and flipped through some of the artwork I’d envisioned for a launch. Retro was popular right now and much of the campaign I came up with reflected that. Now, I just needed to get some of the storyboards going, and the launch party details figured out.
I had to stay on track! If I could get the preliminary sketches done tonight, I could send them out to the team to look over tomorrow before our meeting on Wednesday. It was going to be a long night.
My phone dinged, and I saw the reply from Brandy like clockwork. This time it didn’t come over on email. It was a text.
What?!?!? How could you not tell your poor, crippled best friend this piece of news? I’m excited to hear all about him, but are you sure he should come? Not that it matters and we have plenty of room.
I laughed as I read the last sentence.
You may be poor but you’re not crippled. Nice try. And YES!! Totally bringing him. I’m sure you’ll love him like he’s your brother! Now off to finish this project. xx
By the time evening rolled around, I was tired, hungry, and grumpy. My office looked like a bomb went off, and my mind felt just as scattered. I sat on the couch, alternating between sipping a cold latte from Starbucks and nibbling on a dried out bagel. My neck was killing me, but I had to finish and get the email sent before I could leave for the night. I grabbed the remote to my iTunes player and turned it up. Something had to keep me going.
It had taken me far longer to get everything organized than I’d planned because my mind kept wandering off…daydreaming about Austin. And the ‘what ifs’.
I even Googled him!
Three times!
In an hour!
Twice!
The problem with that—okay, there were a lot of problems with that, I’d admit it—was that he wasn’t one of those guys who turned into a troll out of college.
Oh, no! He turned out to be hotter than I remembered from high school. He had that rugged snowboarder look, like he didn’t care what he looked like and everything magically just fell into place after a day on the slopes. The last time I had spied on him, he looked good but not this good.
I wasn’t even sure why I was getting so amped up about him. It wasn’t like my odds were that high that he’d even acknowledge that I existed. His non-communication style already did a good job of that.
I stood up and circled around the corkboards that I had everything pinned to. Maybe I was closer to being finished than I realized. I wanted to capture the winter season in the drawings, and I think I did that. What was lacking was a female presence. How was I going to fit that in?
My phone dinged, and I walked over to my desk and glanced at the screen. It was Ayden.
Stopped by your place to surprise you with a warm meal, but you’re not here.
I laughed and texted back.
Nope. I’m not there. I’m here. At the office. Preparing for that presentation I told you about.
The flutter in my stomach took me off guard and he texted back immediately.
Have you eaten?
I typed back.
Starving, but I won’t be home for at least an hour.
He didn’t miss a beat.
Text me your address and I’ll drop it off.
A smile spread across my lips as I thought about Ayden standing at my apartment door with a bag full of food. I knew he was sweet, but I didn’t know he was that sweet. I texted him my office address when I had an epiphany. That was what this story needed. The brand bringing people together, friendship at its best. I quickly began sketching out the last scene of a couple huddled together by a fire, enjoying love and laughter.
I started scanning my sketches and notes, organizing them quickly so I could compose the email to the team. I was halfway through when my office phone rang. It was the security guard and Ayden was downstairs with the food. I told the guard I’d be right down and hung up the phone.
The elevator quickly whisked me down to the lobby, and I heard Ayden’s laughter bounce along the marble walls as I walked off the elevator. He was joking around with the guard, standing in front of the large counter, holding several take-out bags. His blonde hair was disheveled, and he was dressed in a gray-checked flannel shirt and loose-fit, dark jeans. His blue eyes met mine and a charge ran through me so quickly, I wasn’t even sure if it was real or imagined.
“Thanks,” Ayden told the security guard, but his eyes never left mine as he walked toward me. “Hope you like Italian.”
“I love Italian,” I said, but my words sounded more breathy than I expected. And I noticed a glint of amusement flash across his gaze. I walked onto the already waiting elevator and pressed my floor.
“Do you always look this sexy at work?” Ayden murmured, as he stepped onto the elevator.
My hands started sweating, and my entire body felt like I’d walked into a sauna. I could feel his gaze running down the length of my body before I turned to face him.
“You certainly know the right words to say,” I teased, pushing my hair back. I knew what I looked like, and it was far from sexy. “I feel like a squirrel who forgot where she put her nuts, and I’m pretty sure I look like that too. But thanks.”
He laughed loudly and shook his head, and somehow the space between us narrowed even more. When the elevator doors opened, he placed his free hand on the small of
my back and guided me forward. A pulse of excitement ran through me and I chuckled.
“What?” he asked, his voice low.
I shook my head, ignoring his question, and guided him through the cubicles toward my office. It was the only one with lights on, and I was suddenly contemplating how private it was, which was ridiculous.
“We can sit over there on the couch,” I said, pointing at the small trail we could follow to get there.
“Perfect. I wasn’t sure what you’d want so I got Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce, and Fettuccine Alfredo.”
“Sounds delicious. But what are you going to have?” I teased.
“These are incredible,” Ayden said, not answering my question as he stopped to look at some of the designs I had piled along the trail. “Great concept.”
“Thanks. I’m getting there. Hopefully, the guy will like it.”
“I can’t imagine him not liking it. I really think you’re there.” He sat down next to me and placed the bags on the side table, digging out the plastic utensils and paper napkins.
“So what does that girl you plan to bring to Utah think about you delivering food to—”
Beyond Reason (Beyond Love Series #3) Page 3
