“Just tell me the truth.” He takes a shaky breath. “Am I the buffest guy you’ve ever been with? Yes or no.”
I think back on my previous dates, to one guy who won second place in a bodybuilding competition and is the reasonwhy I generally avoid big buff gym bros. “Well, there was this one guy, but—”
“I knew it!” Tall & Buff bangs his fist against the door.
I jump at the sudden noise. “Honestly, that’s not why I’m—”
“You don’t need to lie to me. Please leave. I knew I wasn’t ready yet. I have to go to the gym.” Tall & Buff opens the door for me, and I’ve never been so thankful for chivalry in my life. I step through the narrow opening and all but run down the hall to the elevator, Tall & Buff’s cries echoing through the hall before they’re cut off by his door shutting him back into his creepy mausoleum of sadness and death.
I jam the elevator button a hundred times while waiting for it to make its way to the floor I’m on, then jump through the sliding doors and continue jamming buttons until the doors close and I begin my descent back into normalcy. Once I’m moving, I slump against the wall and sigh a breath of relief. My pulse is racing like I’ve just outrun a lion on the open savannah.
Once I’m outside I immediately spot Lex in her Subaru, parked in the middle of the street with cars stuck behind her honking obnoxiously for her to get a move on. I jog over, open the door, and jump inside.
I barely have the door shut before Lex leans over the centre console and pins me to my seat, her fierce blue eyes stabbing into my own. “Don’t youdareput yourself in danger like that ever again,” she growls.
All I can do is swallow.
“You promise me.” She grips my thigh.Hard. “You never, ever avoid your instincts and go home with a crazy person like that. Do you understand?”
I manage to nod.
“Promise me. Say you swear.”
Horns are blaring. Someone on the street is shouting at us. But Lex doesn’t move, and neither do I. Her hand squeezesmy thigh harder, nails digging into my flesh, sending a jab of electricity up my spine. My heart pounds in my ears, my skin is flushed and tingling from my narrow escape from death, and I’m completely arrested by Lex’s unflinching blue eyes as she pins me to my seat.
“I swear,” I whisper.
Lex leans in closer, and I suck in a sharp breath. “Say it again. Louder.”
“I swear! I swear, alright? I won’t do that again!” My hands are raised like I’m being held at gunpoint.
She holds my gaze for three more seconds, searching me in that intrusive way of hers, before releasing her grip on my leg and receding back into the driver’s seat.
Lex manoeuvres us into traffic as if nothing happened; meanwhile, I’m a mess of tingles and heat, dizzy with relief.
I exhale a slow, shaky breath. “So... wine?”
chapter seven
The Curse Is a Real Cock Block
We go to my place, obviously to avoid Olsen, and pause by Pat’s to grab Sir Winston Churchill. I forgot to warn Lex about the little maniac, but thankfully she’s a dog person.
“I forgot you have a dog,” Lex says, squatting so Winston can assault her with his gingivitis.
I take a wad of paper towels from Pat and go through the routine of soaking up all the puddles Winston leaves in his wake. “We haven’t had any of the normal conversations two people generally have when they get to know each other.”
Lex huffs a laugh. “This is true.”
“He ate all his lunch,” Pat informs me before relaying every single moment of their day together, which takes a better part of five minutes, ending with: “I haven’t had a chance to walk him, though. The old hip’s been acting up.”
“No problem. I can take him. Lex, do you mind?” I ask.
Lex shakes her head. “Not at all.”
I snap the leash Pat keeps for Winston onto his collar, andwe descend the front steps and back out onto the sidewalk. The sun has set now, and there’s a beautiful glow about the city this time of day. Other dog walkers and joggers pass as they enjoy the balmy weather, the windows of all the other cozy homes are lit with people eating dinner and watching TV, and there’s a special kind of warmth to the air that permeates the city in these early summer days before it gets too stiflingly hot later in the year.
“Sure has a lot of energy,” Lex comments as Winston runs from his tenth pee spot to his eleventh. “How old is he? He’s pretty grey.”
