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“Ah, I see you can’t say much about your celebrity case,” Cody whispers.
“Yeah, that’s true. I wasn’t even supposed to tell you she was a client.” I shoot him a look. Cody has always shown an interest in my work, but he is especially interested in the Haven Winters case. I mean there aren’t too many people who aren’t. Haven has been accused of a hate crime against the LGBTQ+ community after getting caught in the middle of BLANK. A lot of people are torn about whether she is guilty or not.
“My lips are sealed.” He mimics zipping his lips and throwing away the key.
“How was the bar this week?” I change the subject.
“Good.” Cody starts going off into some lime shortage and how some customers were complaining but I am only half listening. It is hard to pay attention today, I feel more tired than I usually do.
“Can we get some coffee?” I interrupt him. I only had one cup today, that must be the issue.
“Of course, there’s a cart.” He points ahead. It isn’t Starbucks but it will do. Cody orders a tall black with two sugars for himself and a medium vanilla latte for me.
“Here you go.” Cody hands me my coffee and I close my eyes.Ah, this was what I needed.
“Thank you.” I smile.
“You paying attention now?” He chuckles. I guess my distractedness was more obvious than I thought.
“Yes, I’m sorry I was more tired than I thought.”
“I wanted to know if you’d be my date to a ball.” He smiles.
“A ball? Like a real ball?”
“Yes, it’s something an old friend of mine runs every year at his office for charity. I reached out and secured two tickets if you’d like to go,” he says like a question.
“I’d love to! I’ve never been to a ball! Do I need a fairy godmother too?”
“All right, you do need a dress. The theme is black and white,” he explains and I smile. He has gone all out with this date.
“And an excuse to go shopping? Why didn’t you start with that? I’d love to go with you.” I put my hand on his chest and lean on my toes to kiss him.
“It’s in two weeks, is that enough time?” he asks nervously.
“Yes, it’s more than enough time. I probably have something if I can’t find anything.” I think about my extensive closet of dresses that never get worn due to my corporate uniform.
“No, you should definitely go shopping. Grab anything you want and it’s on me, I want you to find the sexiest dress you can find. Something that will make me want to talk you out of it all night.” He winks.
“Cody!” I smack his chest, blushing. He is never so bold in public like this.
“I can’t help it, there’s something about you lately. I just want you all the time.” He leans in for a steamy kiss that definitely shouldn’t be happening in the middle of the park. When he pulls away my lips are numb, and not from the cold.
Cody holds me close, his arm around my waist as we walk around the park. He talks to me about the plans he and Sawyer have to open the second Puzzles location. Sawyer saw it when she was visiting with Riley’s family upstate and fell in love with it. I haven’t seen it yet, but I have only heard good things. Sawyer spends most weekends up there lately, having enough help in the city. I know they were both excited to be doing financially well enough to open a second location. It is mostly just ripping down the structure so they can start from scratch, but it is sexy as hell to hear him talk so passionately about this project.
“Are you even listening?” Cody raises an eyebrow.
“Yes, you and Sawyer need to find a contractor who knows how to do the insulation,” I repeat.
“Huh, you looked like you were eye fucking me.” He chuckles.
“I’m a very talented multitasker.”
“Oh yeah? We may have to test that later.” The way he looks at me tells me I’ll be happily paying for that later. Cody starts talking about the bar again, but I only comment when he says he might want to move there someday.
“I’m sorry, what?” My native New Yorker heart is cracking at the thought of moving anywhere else.
“Not now or anything, but I don’t know. When I get married and have kids, I thought moving upstate might be nice.” It’s not lost on me that he said ‘we’.
