Page 29 of Manhattan Bossholes

We walked to the double front door of my building in silence. Was he thinking the same thing? Vincent turned to me suddenly, and I held my breath because there was a different sort of fire burning in his eyes.

“That was…good,” he finally admitted. “Thank you for being so kind to my father.”

We were standing closer than normal beneath a burned-out light above the main doors.

“How could I not? He’s an absolute charmer,” I said. “Too bad it doesn’t run in the family.”

Vincent pretended to take a blow to the chest. “Ouch.”

“Kidding. He reminds me of you in some ways. His intensity. It’s similar, but different. I can’t quite figure it out.”

“Well, it sounds like you’re going to be seeing more of him, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get to the bottom of it,” Vincent replied. “Yoga, golf, the farmers’ market…you definitely went above and beyond. But honestly, I appreciate it. I’m all for him having hobbies that don’t put his life at risk.”

“You do know you have to come to yoga, too,” I teased.

Vincent grimaced. “Eh, we’ll see about that. I probably have some important meetings that can’t be shifted⁠—”

“I didn’t take you for a man who’s afraid of a little downward dog,” I joked.

I realized too late what it sounded like. Vincent’s expression shifted as his gaze jumped from my eyes to my mouth.

He looked downright famished.

“I, uh…I should go,” he murmured.

He didn’t move.

“Thank you,” I said. I couldn’t stop staring at him even though it made me fluttery inside to stay locked on him. “For a surprisingly good time.”

“See you Monday?” Vincent asked.

This was the moment. I could change everything and invite him in, or I could keep the guardrails up. Before I could make up my mind, my phone vibrated in my hand with a new text. I glanced down and saw that Darcy was on her way home after a shitty date.

“My roommate will be home soon,” I said, taking a step away. “So, yeah, I guess I’ll see you Monday.”

I held my breath as Vincent paused to scan my face again, then turned to leave without another word.

Let’s just say I was happy I had twenty minutes before Darcy arrived and fresh batteries in my vibrator.

9

VINCENT

I’d woken up early craving fresh-squeezed orange juice and a croissant for some inexplicable reason.

Okay, it was in no way inexplicable.

I tried to put any thoughts of Piper out of my head as I rushed through my morning workout in my home gym, but by the time I finished, the thoughts were a drumbeat I couldn’t ignore.

She’d been perfect last night. And I felt like I needed another hit of that perfection.

I checked the time and saw that the Broad Street Farmers’ Market was due to open in thirty minutes. I needed to haul my ass across town.

I wasn’t a farmers’ market kind of guy normally—I had a chef who saw to my grocery shopping and meal prep—but once I arrived at the market, I discovered I’d been missing out on one of the simple joys of life. The stalls were overflowing with farm-fresh vegetables, bags of coffee beans, fancy juices, and goat milk soaps. Suddenly, I needed to buy carrots with the greens still attached and brussels sprouts on the stalk.

What the hell was happening to me?

I blamed my evolution on Piper.