“And you’re just telling me now?! I thought we were friends.”
“Friends don’t stick friends with douches on a blind date. But in this case I should thank you. I met Dean that night after I ditched Dwayne.”
“Seriously? Where?”
“He was bartending at Pulse. I went in there to have a drink and we talked.”
“He took one look at you in the killer dress and probably needed the paddles from the wall to resuscitate himself,” Tonya said.
“You’ve been in there before?” she asked.
“I have. It was last year with a bunch of friends. I never went to the bar though. Now I wish I had. I might need to go back. I heard that is the place to be to meet single men. I wonder how often he gets hit on.”
She should have figured Tonya would point that out. As if she didn’t feel self-conscious enough on her own that this sexy, good-looking guy wanted her, she was going to hear a comment about his profession and the amount of time he was around women hitting on him.
“Most likely a lot. I’ve seen it myself, but it is what it is,” she said.
“I like this side of you,” Tonya said.
“You do?” she asked, slightly surprised.
“Yes. Your shoulders are straighter, your smile is a bit brighter, and you’ve got an I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude talking to me. Not in a mean way, but in a good way.”
“Maybe Dean brings the best out of me.”
“Oh, I’m sure he brings out a lot of you,” Tonya said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I think the phone is ringing up front,” she pointed out.
“Crap. We need to catch up.”
“Maybe,” she said as she prepared to get ready for work.
An hour later, she got a text, pulled her phone out to see it was from Dean.How did it go?
Talk about super sweet.As expected.
The phone rang in her hand, so she answered. “Hey. Cleaning the house with Jonah at Pre-K for the day?”
“I worked out and did some paperwork.”
“Do you ever get a break? It seems like you do it all. Does the owner do anything? I never even asked who owned it.”
There was silence on the other line. “It’s a holding company. But I pretty much run the show.”
“Ahh, got it. The owner probably isn’t even around much. We just never talk about it much and I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t interested in your career. I am.”
“We don’t talk about it much because our mouths are put to other uses,” he said, laughing.
“Good point,” she said smiling. “They must think highly of you.”
“What can I say?” he said. “I’m good at what I do.”
She laughed. “You are very good at what you do. In more ways than one.”
“Now you are just pumping up my ego. I’ll let you get to work. Dinner tonight at my place, right?”
“I’ll be there right after work and then you can see what I wore today.”
