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“Okay, I suppose. It’s been a hard adjustment for me and the kids, but I’m slowly getting used to the perils of being single,” I reply, slightly sarcastically.
“How old are your kids?”
“Seventeen and seven.”
He bites into a roll. “Seventeen?” he repeats, with his mouth full of bread. “Damn. I didn’t realize your daughter was that old.”
I nod and sip my wine. “Yes, I had her right out of high school.” I’m not sure when seventeen became an age that was considered old.
“I don’t have any kids,” he says, taking another roll from the basket in the center of our table. “I can’t imagine having a teenager right now at my age, though.”
“I’m surprised you’re not married.” I wonder why a man in his mid-thirties isn’t married, and to the best of my knowledge, never has been. Maybe that’s a red flag that he’s just a player, or just not a good catch.
He laughs. “Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors floating around the office that I’m gay.” Yeah, or that.
“Are you?”
He almost chokes on his bread, throwing his head back laughing. “Ivy, I can assure you, I am not gay. I just haven’t met a woman I felt like I could stay committed to for the rest of my life.” He takes a sip of his beer. “If it happens, it happens. If not, I’m totally fine just dating and having a good time. The last thing I want is to get married and then end up having an affair because I wasn’t ready to give up variety.”
I blink at him from across the table. “Yeah, that variety is a bitch.”
He nearly spits his drink out. “Shit, Ivy, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I catch his eyes ogling my chest again.
“You’ve had my interest for a long time, though, so who knows what could happen. Maybe you’ll be the one to catch me.”
Um. No. I gaze around the restaurant, hoping the waitress will show up with our food soon, and I do a double take when I see Lukas standing at the bar, laughing with a group of people. A gorgeous girl with long blonde hair is standing next to him, laughing with him, her hand on his arm. Oh my God. I gulp half my drink as he turns and his eyes lock on mine, as if he could feel me looking at him. Dammit.
I have no right to feel jealous, but I do. Again. He didn’t waste any time finding someone else to spend time with tonight, now did he? And here I thought he actually really liked me.
“I’m starving. I hope our food gets here soon,” Tim announces.
“Me too. I haven’t eaten all day,” I answer vaguely, smoothing my napkin on my lap.
I look back over at Lukas to find him walking right toward our table. Uh oh. Something tells me this may not be good.
He stops next to our table and smiles down at me. “Hey,” he says. “What a surprise to see you here.”
I smile back. “Likewise. Tim, this is Lukas. Lukas, this is Tim. We work together.”
Lukas shakes Tim’s hand. “Nice to meet you, man,” he says, but I can see his jaw clenching. He doesn’t hide his feelings well at all.
I want to kiss the waitress for showing up with our dinner at that exact moment and saving me from further awkwardness. “Well, I’ll let you two eat,” Lukas says. “It was nice to see you again.”
“You too. Enjoy your night,” I say back. He nods to Tim and walks slowly back to his date at the bar.
“Who was that?” Tim asks.
“Just a friend.”
Tim cuts his steak and makes a surprised face at me. “Him? He doesn’t look like someone you’d be friends with.”
“Why is that?” I inquire, offended by his remark.
“That hair and all those tattoos? What the fuck? How does someone like that even get a job? You’re in HR, Ivy. Would you hire someone that looks like that?”
I slowly chew my ravioli. “I guess it depends what the job was, Tim. He’s a tattoo artist, so the way he looks goes with his career choice. He’s not a criminal.”
“Well, he looks like one.”
And you look like an asshole.
My phone beeps in my purse, and I reach down to pull it out in case it’s one of the kids.
It’s a text from an unknown number.
Meet me by the restrooms please.
I look up quickly to see Lukas heading to the back of the restaurant.
“Tim, excuse me for just a moment. I have to go call my daughter.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, just parenting stuff is all. I’ll be right back.”
I make my way through the crowded restaurant to the hallway where the restrooms are, and find Lukas standing there, waiting for me.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“I was going to ask you the same. Who is that?”
I raise my eyebrows at him. Who does he think he is to be questioning me? “Excuse me? Why is that any of your business?”
“I guess it’s not. But you told me you weren’t ready to date when I asked.”
“It’s not a date. He’s a co-worker.”
“It looks like a date.” He looks back at Tim sitting at the table and then at me. “You could have just told me you were dating someone, Ivy.”
“I am not dating him. And what about you? You’re not here alone either.”
“She’s just a friend. She’s actually dating one of my good friends. I stopped by here on my way home to grab a quick drink and say hello.”
Relief that I have no right to have washes over me. Suddenly, he moves and traps me against the wall with his body and lowers his face close to mine.
“Look, Ivy. We can stay here and eye-fuck each other across the room all night, or yo
u can ditch this boring date you’re with and meet me back at my place in half an hour.”
I lick my lips and look nervously back at the table where Tim is waiting. I have zero interest in him. I should have never agreed to have dinner with him.
“And then what, Lukas?” I ask, turning back to him, our noses touching. “We shared one kiss, and it was probably a mistake.”
A sexy defiant grin spreads across his face.
“I told you already, Sunshine. I don’t make mistakes.” He bows his head down lower until his lips brush across my cheek. “I make memories,” he whispers. “Memories you’ll never forget.”
My heart pounds harder and faster in my chest.
“Lukas . . . please . . . you’re twenty-four. I’m thirty-six-”
His lips on mine quickly shut me up.
“Shh . . . be a kitten tomorrow,” he whispers, his hand sliding slowly up my arm. “Be a cougar tonight.”
I giggle in his face. “Oh my God, Lukas, seriously? Did you just say that?”
He laughs with me and leans his head against mine. “I did. I’m losing my mind over you. You have to agree to have dinner with me before more cheesy shit starts coming out of my mouth.”
I try to suppress more giggles. “You are crazy, you know that?”
“I know.”
“You have to stop this,” I tell him, although I can’t stop smiling at him.
“I don’t think I can.”
I pull away from him and straighten my sweater. “You look really pretty,” he says. “That sweater brings out the teal in your eyes.”
“Thank you.” I love that he used the word teal. How many men know what color that really is? Of course, he does because he’s an artist, and I absolutely love that about him.
“Lukas, I can’t just leave Tim. I work with him. I have to see him every day. I am not a rude person, and I’m not going to start being one.”
He looks defeated. “Don’t make that face, please,” I retort. “You look just like my son.”
He pouts some more, making me laugh. “You better stop,” I say.
“Ivy, this sucks. We could be having a really nice dinner right now, at a nice quiet place, I might add, and instead, you’re with that poser and I’m bored out of my mind. Now, I’m going to go home alone and think about you all night. There’s no telling what I might do to myself thinking about you.” He grins deviously and raises his eyebrows up and down.
