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“Okay,” Neil said, interlacing his fingers together in front of me from across the small table. “I have a feeling that your foul mood has nothing to do with work. It has everything to do with whatever is going on inside of that brain of yours.”
“Aren’t you smart?” I muttered. “Is it that obvious that I am in a shitty mood?”
“Very obvious, boss. You’re biting everyone’s head off before they can even speak a word to you.”
“Fuck,” I said, sighing.
I brushed a hand through my hair before gazing across the table at Neil. He had been my friend for the past ten years. Nothing about him made me question his loyalty, but this secret with Penny felt scandalous. It wasn’t the type of secret that other people normally kept, either.
“It has something to do with Penny,” Neil stated calmly. He smiled at me when I looked at him in surprise. “You haven’t been like this ever. I can tell that there is something happening between the two of you.”
“There is,” I admitted with a resigned sigh. “I’ve tried to avoid it like the plague, but it hasn’t worked. There’s something about her that just keeps pulling me in.”
“Exactly how old is this girl?”
“Young enough to be my daughter’s best friend,” I answered.
Neil blew out a breath and leveled his gaze at me. “And what do you plan to do about it?”
I shook my head and stared down at the table. “I have absolutely no fucking idea. I’ve tried to stay away, I’ve tried to tell myself it isn’t right, but my body has other ideas. It’s ridiculous, Neil. I feel like a fucking teenager, controlled by my hormones. It’s wrong of me to take advantage of her and if Alyssa ever found out, I don’t think she’d be able to forgive me.”
Neil regarded me for a few moments before speaking. “Shit Gabriel, you’ve gotten yourself into quite a situation here, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” I answered.
“Sounds like you need to find a way to nip this in the bud before it gets totally out of hand,” he said.
I nodded and grunted a reply. My brain knew full well that what he was saying was right. My cock, on the other hand, had entirely different ideas.
CHAPTER TWELVE – PENNY
When Gabriel called to ask me out to dinner, I’d agreed without thinking. Whatever the hell was going on between us had overridden my better judgment; removing all rational thought and making me act on impulse. It wasn’t like me to throw caution to the wind this way, but the man just had some power over me I couldn’t resist.
Two hours before having to meet with Gabriel, Alyssa texted me that Scott had asked her out for dinner. She came back to the condo soon after so I could help her get ready for her big date. She had no idea that I, too, was eager to get prettied up for my dinner with her father. Of course, I couldn’t get ready with her around or else she’d know I had secret plans.
I had spent the entire afternoon trying to come up with some sort of excuse to leave the condo at the same time as Alyssa, but so far, I couldn’t think of a convincing reason that wouldn’t seem suspicious. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Then again, I wasn’t sure why I had accepted her father’s offer to have dinner when the two of us couldn’t be alone together without falling into each other’s arms. I had avoided Gabriel over the past two days, just as much as he avoided me. Neither one of us wanted to think about that line we had both sprinted across. I couldn’t even look Alyssa in the eye as she talked about her new love interest for the winter break.
“He’s just so dreamy,” Alyssa said as she smoothed down the sweater dress she wore. “I wish I went to college here in Chicago. The guys at our school suck. You ever notice that?”
She turned to look at me as I combed through my own hair. I didn’t want to risk putting on makeup because it would draw attention to what I was going to do, but I needed to get ready quickly the second that Alyssa left.
“I’ve noticed the distinct lack of quality in the guys at our school,” I said. “That’s why I tell you to stay away from them. They all just want one thing from you.”
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing sometimes,” Alyssa said, shrugging. She slipped into a pair of tall brown boots before standing in front of me. “What do you think? Do I look classy enough for wherever Scott is taking me?”
I ran my gaze along Alyssa’s athletic frame, squeezed into a dark blue sweater dress with tight leggings and knee-high boots. She had taken the time to style her short black locks into messy curls that bounced whenever she moved. I smiled at her.
“You look beautiful,” I said. “He won’t be able to resist you.”
Alyssa grinned as she swept up her purse and phone from the edge of my bed. She glanced down at her phone before her fingers danced along the glowing screen.
“You’re too sweet,” she said, and then kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t wait up for me. I’ll be back whenever Scott decides to bring me home.”
I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice to conceal my own nervousness about tonight. Once I was confident that Alyssa was gone and she wasn’t coming back, I rushed into my room to pull out the outfit I had mentally planned throughout the afternoon. I had done a bit of research on this restaurant that Gabriel suggested, and there was no doubt in my mind that jeans weren’t allowed there. This place called for nice and expensive clothes, so I shimmied into a floral-patterned skirt that flowed down to the tops of my knees. I paired it with a cream-colored blouse, along with some nylons and ankle boots.
I spent the next few minutes contouring my face with makeup while fighting nerves. I had no idea what Gabriel wan
ted to talk about, but I was glad that he wanted to do it out in public, not in private like the previous times where both of us had caved into temptation way too easily.
