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5: Selene
Aidan pulls out my chair and I take a seat. We’re out for dinner. Again. Though the restaurant is new, so I suppose he gets points for that. His hand caresses my shoulder as he moves around the table to sit down. That’s some extra touching from him. Interesting.
I give him a nice smile and pick up my menu.
I haven’t seen Ronan since the meeting yesterday. I’m not sure if he was in the office today—I didn’t see any sign of him, and I avoided the hallway that leads to his office like the plague. The anticipation of having to speak to him face to face is getting worse. I wish I got it over with yesterday. I could have stopped by his office to say hello. It’s not like I don’t have a reason. I worked closely with Brad, and I have a lot of valuable information that Ronan is going to need. But mostly I want to get that first conversation over with so we can move on.
Instead, I’m sitting with my boyfriend (he is my boyfriend, right?), completely distracted by thoughts of another man. That’s really not good.
“So,” I say, trying to stay in the moment. “How are you?”
Aidan smiles over his menu. “Not bad. You?”
“Lots going on at work,” I say. “Our company was bought out.”
He winces. “That’s not good. Are you worried about your job?”
“Well, the message we’re getting is that no one is going anywhere, but I’m not sure how much I trust it.” After all, that line came from Ronan—and I don’t trust that man any farther than I could throw him.
“Are you going to start looking for a new job?”
“Definitely.”
As I peruse the menu, the back of my neck prickles. I have the distinct feeling that someone is watching me. I shift in my seat, telling myself I’m being paranoid. We’re in a busy restaurant. A lot of people could be looking in my direction.
The feeling doesn’t go away. I glance over my shoulder and almost drop my menu. Ronan is sitting across the restaurant, his hand resting on his chin. Our eyes meet, and he makes no attempt to hide that he’s staring at me.
I quickly turn back to Aidan.
“Are you okay?” he asks. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
I do my best to smooth out my expression. “Yeah, I’m fine. What are you going to order?”
Aidan opens his mouth to answer, then looks up in surprise.
Ronan’s smooth voice almost makes me jump out of my seat. “Selene.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Of course he would come over here and interrupt my date.
I decide to play it off like Ronan isn’t the only man here who has seen me naked. “Ronan,” I say. “What a surprise.”
“Excuse me for interrupting.” His eyes flick to Aidan, and immediately back to me. “I saw you sitting here and had to come say hello.”
“Aidan, this is Ronan Maddox,” I say, gesturing between them. “Ronan and I used to work together.”
Aidan and Ronan shake hands, but Ronan hardly looks at him.
“And it appears we work together again,” Ronan says.
“Do you?” Aidan asks.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been by your office yet,” Ronan says, keeping his eyes on me, as if Aidan didn’t speak. “I had meetings with my lawyers all day.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” I say. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“No?” He grabs a chair, slides it up to our table, and sits down. “I certainly didn’t intend to go this long without saying hello. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“Which I’m sure we can do another time,” I say.
