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He raised his brows at her dismayed tone. “Jesus. What could be worse than either of those scenarios?”
Her brows furrowed even more as she met his gaze, her own troubled. “He’s thirty-seven years old, he’s a finance manager for a car dealership, and money doesn’t seem to be an issue for him, considering how he dresses and what he spends on our dates,” she said.
“Okaaay,” Dylan replied, unable to find fault in any of those things.
“He drives a brand-new Mercedes,” she went on, waving her spoon in the air, her gestures and tone growing agitated. “He sends me a dozen roses every week at work and wants to take me to Fiji on vacation.”
Dylan scratched a finger against his temple in complete and utter confusion. The guy sounded damn near perfect. “So flowers and romantic getaways are suddenly a deal breaker for you?”
“No,” she said, adorably exasperated with him now. “Darren is almost forty, and he’s portrayed himself as a successful, financially stable guy, but tonight, I find out that he lives in his mother’s basement.”
“Maybe it’s just a temporary arrangement?” he suggested, trying to give the other guy the benefit of the doubt.
Serena shook her head as her lush, pink lips removed another dollop of ice cream from her spoon. “No, it’s not an interim thing, because I flat out asked. He’s never moved out of the house he’s lived in since childhood with his mother, and doesn’t plan to.”
Dylan blanched in disbelief and had to admit that the scenario was the stuff that horror stories were made of. “Okay, that’s creepy as fuck.”
“I know, right?” she said, sounding vindicated that he agreed with her. “That’s what I thought when I realized he lived in a basement! I could hear his mother moving around upstairs when we first entered the place through a back entrance. And then, as if she’d been waiting for Darren to get home, she opened the basement door, called down to him, and asked if he and his date wanted a slice of Darren’s favorite chocolate cake she’d made.”
As Serena explained the comical situation, Dylan started to chuckle, and by the time she finished, he was in stitches and laughing so hard he snorted.
She grabbed one of the throw pillows on the couch and smacked him in the face with it. “It’s not funny!” she said indignantly, because she always took these dates very seriously, mainly because she was looking for that forever guy and they always disappointed, one way or another.
He pressed a hand to his aching side, still laughing. “No, it’s fucking hilarious.”
“You’re such a jerk,” she said, though the corner of her mouth twitched with humor, which was exactly what he wanted. Darren the Dick wasn’t worth her frustration or anger.
“How did you not know this about him before tonight?” Dylan asked, more serious now. “You’ve been dating him for five weeks.”
“Don’t remind me, because I’m feeling incredibly stupid for investing that kind of time in him,” she said with a shake of her head. “I hones
tly thought he was just being a gentleman about sleeping with me and not pressuring me by taking me to his place.”
Dylan clearly remembered the day that Serena had met Darren, because he’d gone to the car lot with her when she’d traded her small, fuel-efficient vehicle for a newer model and had witnessed the flirtatious overtures between the two of them once Darren discovered that Serena was single and Dylan was just a friend. By the time she’d signed the finance paperwork and had her new keys in hand, the other guy had Serena’s digits in his phone with a promise to call and set up a date.
Up until this point, Darren had practically checked all the pertinent boxes as the prince charming Serena had been searching for. Economically stable, check. Attentive and thoughtful, check. Emotionally available, check. Hell, they’d also talked about the fact that they both wanted marriage and a family.
Even the few times that Dylan had been around him, he’d never seen a cause for concern, which maybe, in hindsight, should have been a cause for concern, he thought wryly. No guy was without their issues and faults . . . especially one who was thirty-seven and had never been married. Obviously, there was a reason for that, and tonight Serena had discovered her date’s fatal flaw that had undoubtedly ended many relationships before theirs . . . the fact that Darren was first and foremost a mama’s boy and probably always would be.
She put her half-eaten carton of ice cream on the coffee table and exhaled a huge sigh. “I guess I should have suspected something wasn’t right since we always went to my apartment after a date because he claimed it was easier or closer or some other reason that I accepted. And tonight, being the big night,” she said, putting the two words in air quotes, “he wanted to take me to a nice hotel and spend the night there, but that just felt . . . well, cheap to me. Especially for our first time together. So, I suggested we go to his place, and while I know he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, I told him that it was important to me to see where he lived.”
“Surprise!” Dylan said facetiously.
“No kidding,” she said, then lifted her chin in that stubborn way Dylan knew oh so well. “At first, I thought maybe he lived at home because his mother was sick or something, but that didn’t seem to be the case. When I expressed my concern about his living arrangements with his mother, when I need a man who is self-sufficient rather than codependent on a parent at thirty-seven years old, he had the nerve to get defensive and mad at me for being insensitive!”
Yeah, Dylan wasn’t shocked that didn’t go over well.
“And then, he informed me that he had to live with his mother, because he was so far in debt that he couldn’t afford a place of his own,” Serena said, her disappointment etched all over her face.
Dylan groaned, knowing that revelation had definitely sealed the other man’s fate. Serena had grown up with a mother who spent money frivolously, to the detriment of barely being able to make rent, pay utilities, and care for her two daughters after Serena’s father had passed away. Since then, Nina had already married and divorced five men, who were all flash and no substance, mostly because she liked being a kept woman.
Unfortunately, Serena’s younger sister, Christie, had followed in her mother’s footsteps, whereas for Serena, her childhood experiences and Nina’s behavior made her more determined not to make the same mistakes. As a result, Serena was practical, responsible, and independent . . . and not so patiently waiting for her Mr. Right to come along and give her the things she desired the most. Stability. Security. Love, commitment, and a family.
He reached out and placed his hand on her knee, giving it an understanding squeeze while trying not to think about how soft her skin felt against the pads of his fingers, or how badly he wanted to trail those same fingers up the inside of her smooth, supple thigh . . .
Swallowing hard, he forcibly banished the direction of those thoughts from his mind before his body followed suit. “Look, the way I see things, you dodged a major bullet,” Dylan told her, trying to soften the blow.
She made an annoyed sound beneath her breath and muttered, “How many bullets do I have to dodge before I find a guy who isn’t a jerk and treats me like I’m important to him or doesn’t disappoint me in some way? Or one who isn’t a cheat or has a wandering eye? And then there’ve been the men who aren’t looking for anything more than just a fuck buddy, or think women need to cater to their every whim like a ’50s housewife.”
