AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dallon smiled smugly. “Sit.”
I sat and crossed my arms. If he said anything lewd, I wasn’t going to hesitate to kick him out, customer or not.
He put down the paper and leaned forward the way he had in his office, clasping his hands. “I was happy to hear from Jeremy that you had talked about me. Contrary to what you think, I am interested in getting to know you.”
“Right,” I muttered looking away.
He ignored me and continued on. “I know I can be a dick and I wanted to make sure you are all right. How is your new place?”
I shifted slightly before answering. “It’s fine.”
“Where is it? I’m not going to stalk you, just tell me the area of the city.”
“It’s in Brooklyn,” I said vaguely.
He nodded, biting the inside of his cheek as if in thought. “I’ve never lived in Brooklyn.”
“I’m not surprised.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not from a wealthy family, Amy. But I also wasn’t raised here.”
Oh. I nodded, feeling chastised for making an assumption about his upbringing. “I should help Jackson,” I said, standing up as if to leave.
“Sure. I can wait.”
“Wait?” My heart started beating like crazy. “Wait for...?”
He smiled, tilting his head and smiling at me in his smug way. “Wait for you to get off work, of course. I want to make sure you get home okay.”
“You’re not coming to my house,” I seethed in a low voice.
“Very well, we can go to a bar.” His tone was clipped and his eyes narrowed again. “I told you, Amy, we need to talk about this. Your place of work is not the setting for the nature of the conversation I wish to have.”
“I don’t want to talk to you about this. I gave you my answer.”
“How do you even know what I want to talk about? Give me a chance.”
“I already gave you a chance, and look how that turned out.”
“Well then, give me a second chance,” he smiled, flashing straight white teeth.
“You don’t deserve a second chance,” I muttered under my breath.
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” he chided, eyes narrowed.
“Okay,” I said, letting out a long breath. “How about I put it this way: why would I want to give you a second chance?”
He smiled, leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Becaaause,” he said, drawing the word out, “if you agree to spend time with me and give getting to know me a shot, I’ll promise to delete the pictures. Refill?” He held up his mug.
I took it from him. “Right. You’ve probably saved them somewhere else.”
He frowned. “You asked me to delete them, and now that I have said I will, you’re accusing me of saving them somewhere else? What do you want from me, Amy?”
“Fine.” I turned and stomped back behind the counter, began filling his mug. The nerve. When I got a hold of Jeremy, I was going to kill him. It was the last time I shared anything with him! What did he think, that he could just send Dallon here and we’d be best friends? What did he care, anyway?
“Trouble in paradise?” Jackson whispered, placing clean mugs on the shelf below where I was standing.
“Huh?”
“You having a fight with your boyfriend?”
I scoffed. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh.” Jackson looked surprised. “You look like a couple fighting to me.”
Like the people in the corner, I thought. I glanced over at their table, but they were gone.
“So, is your non-boyfriend waiting for you to lock up?” Jackson asked, grabbing more clean mugs and putting them away on the shelf. “Why don’t you take off? It’s been slow tonight so there isn’t much to do. And I kind of owe you.”
“That’s a great idea,” a voice said.
Jackson and I both jumped. Neither of us had realized Dallon was at the counter.
“I’ll take that to go,” he winked at me.
***
“So, Amy, what made you decide to go to NYU?” Dallon asked.
We were sitting at a table furthest away from anyone else, as per Dallon’s request. He’d given the hostess his dazzling smile and she’d practically tripped over herself trying to make him happy.
“I thought you already interviewed me,” I said tightly.
“Hmm. So it’s going to be like that.” He took a sip of his beer, his bright blue eyes never leaving mine. I shifted in my seat and finally looked down at my wine.
“I wanted to go to school far away from my parents, and I’d never been to New York.”
“Do you not get along with your parents?”
I thought about it for a moment, trying to gauge how much to reveal to a practical stranger. “We’re very different and I wanted a chance to be on my own for a bit and discover who I am.”
“I understand that. Did you come here thinking you would eventually go into Law?”
I hesitated, and he raised an eyebrow. I shifted again, but for some reason I answered his question.
“Kind of. I mean, I told them I would after my BFA. I feel a bit bad about that.” I looked down at my lap, biting my lip.
“Why is that?”
“Because they paid for me to come all the way here, and I kind of lied to them,” I said softly.
“You changed your mind,” he corrected.
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “There was an option for me to complete a fifth year and get an MA so I could teach, but they were insistent that I enter law. I think they’re mad that they ‘wasted’ money on my BFA.”
“I’m sure they’re happy you got an education and want you to be happy. Most parents do.”
“I hope so.” It was making me uncomfortable talking about myself, so I quickly changed the subject. “How did you end up in New York?”
He flashed me a smile and picked up his beer, took a swig. “I’m from small town Idaho. Like I said, I didn’t come from wealth. My mother was a massage therapist and single mom. We were very poor and I wanted to make something of myself. Investment Banking was an area I knew I was interested in and could do very well in, and I have,” he added with a wink. “New York is the place to be.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “I love it here.”
Dallon sat forward, leaned his arms on the table. “I’m going to be very honest with you tonight, Amy. I don’t usually make this much of an effort with a woman.”
I nodded slowly. He was probably used to women throwing themselves at him, sure, but for some reason I believed he was trying harder with me. So I asked the question I couldn’t not ask.
“Why me?”
He tilted his head slightly as if studying me. “I don’t know exactly. Obviously you fit all the qualifications, but there is more to it. A feeling I have around you. I haven’t experienced it before.” After a beat, he asked, “Do you feel it?”
I tried to shrug casually, but I knew what he was talking about: an energy pulling us together. Like I would know he was in a room without having to look at him. Like if I did see him, my heart would leap and I would get tingly and my spirits would soar just because he was there. But how was that possible when I didn’t even know him?
“All I know,” he continued, lowering his voice and looking at me intensely, “is that I am drawn to you, for lack of a better word. I’m hoping that it means something, that we want the same things, and I’m not going to ignore it.”
I chewed the inside of my lip. No matter my feelings toward him, I couldn’t let myself get sucked in. I would only get hurt. This man was gorgeous and rich—any woman would want him—and I was maybe slightly pretty and a wannabe artist. What could I ever offer him that would compete with any other woman? I was embarrassed to feel that about myself, but I had to face the truth: some of us were better looking and more successful than the rest of us.
“How many girlfriends have you had?” I asked, trying to sound casual and failing.
Dallon frowned and sat back in his chair, took a sip of beer before responding. His eyes never left me.
“One. It was in High School. After that, I never dated again.”
“You just slept with women.” As much as I’d tried to prevent it, my tone was critical. I looked away, feeling guilty for ruining what had been a nice moment. To his credit, he didn’t flinch, and he didn’t lie.
“Yes.” He watched me, letting me squirm while I processed this.
“And the pictures?”
“Are you asking if I’ve ever done something like we did the other night before?”
I nodded.
“Of course. But I think you already knew that. However, I have never put an ad out before. The pictures I have taken have been with women I’ve been with.”
