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They were all beautiful, all fun, and all hotter than sin. And, he had no interest in calling any of them. His eyes fell to the strawberries on his coffee table.Lily.
Against every cell in his body, every rational thinking part of his brain—of which there weren’t many right now—and everything he knew was right, he pushed the entry for Lily. It didn’t actually sayLily. It saidLiving Healthy with Lily, the name of her business. He knew she had his number in her phone. She’d put it in her contacts when he signed up with her so that she’d have it readily available for any questions or problems.
“Aiden?” she asked on the third ring. “Is everything okay?”
No, he thought but didn’t say it. He didn’t say anything before she continued. There wasn’t time.
“Is something wrong with one of your meals? Did I mix something up?” He heard a gasp on the line. “Oh no! Shellfish! You didn’t get shellfish by mistake, did you? Are you okay? Are you in the hospital? Your epipen. Do you have an epipen? It’s really important that you keep that with you everywhere.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it as though it could provide some kind of insight into the woman on the other line. A woman who’d apparently just jumped from hello to major health crisis in the blink of an eye without a lick of input from him.
He put the phone back to his ear. “Lily,” he said, a bit of laughter escaping from him, despite his best effort to hide it. “Lily. Calm down, Lil.”
“Oh. You’re okay? You’re not calling from the hospital?”
“No, I’m not calling from the hospital.”
“Good. Phew. That was close,” she said and he laughed out loud, as he pictured her, most likely placing a hand on her heart or fanning herself.
“Do you want to know why I’m calling, Lily? I mean, if you’re done with your little visit to panic land.”
He heard a nervous laugh from her. “Sorry. Yup back from panic land. I’m good.”
He found himself smiling ear-to-ear a lot when he was talking to her. He did so now as she babbled on the other end of the line.
“So, I was calling to see if you want to have dinner with me sometime.”
He didn’t know where that had come from. He had planned to ask if she wanted no-strings-attached sex that would last exactly one night and one night only. Just to scratch this damned itch and move on. Dinner hadn't been a part of his plan at all.
He was met with silence.
“You know. Dinner. That meal you have in the evening. Sometimes people do it out. At a restaurant. With someone else. I have tonight off. We could go out tonight.”
Jeez, he was babbling as much as she did now.
“Um, like a date?” she asked.
“Yes, like a date.”
She wasn’t babbling now. He’d stopped her from breathing, never mind speaking.
“Lily?” Wow. He sounded like the geek he’d been in high school before he’d hit his growth spurt and realized he could throw a ball faster than anyone else in town. This was going really well.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Should he give her the, “you eat dinner, I eat dinner, we might as well eat dinner together,” line? Nope. He wouldn’t be that cliché.
He could always go with, “I can make you come until you think you might cry then start all over again until you beg for mercy,” but, no. Better not to say that one out loud.
“Come on, Lily. We can just get together for a great dinner, talk, laugh, and then go our separate ways if that’s what you want. No pressure. Your choice.”
He heard her take a deep breath.
“Okay. Dinner,” she said firmly. “Just dinner.”
Aiden grinned.
“Just dinner, it is. Pick you up at seven?”
