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“Paula, what do you do for fun?” I asked.
Her heels echoed for at least two steps before she replied. “Fun?”
“Yeah. Like what do you do when you’re not…” trying to bang hockey players. I didn’t finish the sentence.
“Ummm. I like to go out for lunch with my friends.”
That didn’t give me much to work with. “Are you in school?” She looked somewhere between twenty-one and thirty-five years old. It was so hard to tell these days.
Paula bit her lower lip. “I was in school, but I decided that wasn’t the right path for me.”
“Oh? So what are you doing now?”
“I’ve – I’ve got something that I do online.”
I stiffened. If Paula was in porn, being seen with her wouldn’t be, as she would say, a good look. “Online?” My voice was low.
“Makeup.” She smiled. “I do tutorials online.”
I let out a breath. “Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to say that you were in porn.”
“This is my place.” We’d stopped in front of an older apartment building and she put her hand on my waist, stepping close to me. “You think I could be in porn?” She looked up at me from beneath her thick fake eyelashes. She thought that I’d given her a compliment. She shut her eyes, parted her lips and tilted her head back, fully prompting me to kiss her.
I took the leash from her fingertips and stepped away. “Have a nice night, Paula.”
Her eyes flickered open. “You’re not coming up?”
“I’ve got to get Norman home.”
“Oh. I could come to your place.”
For what she lacked in perception, she made up for in persistence. “Not tonight, Paula.”
“Tomorrow? After the game?”
I was going to have to be more direct. “Paula. You’re a sweet girl, it’s just – I’m seeing someone.”
She stepped back like I’d slapped her. “No, you’re not. I asked Hammer and Mike specifically if you had a girlfriend.”
I didn’t know how long it would take to get Everleigh out of my system, and until I did, I couldn’t imagine being with someone else.
“I’m a private guy, Paula. I’m sure you’ll have no problem meeting someone better than me.”
“No shit.” Her voice was angry and she stomped down the street, the way that we’d just walked.
I was confused. “Isn’t this your house?” I pointed to the building. “Where are you going?”
She turned and threw her arms up in the air. “Back to the bar. Fuck you, Gunnar Lockwood.” And within seconds, she had turned the corner and was out of sight.
“Well, that went sideways fast,” I said to no one, but Norman grumbled as though he agreed.
At my building, I pushed the button for the elevator but didn’t race it since Norman was still in recovery. As the two of us waited for the old lift to grumble to the lobby, I thought about the evening. Hanging with the guys had been fun. Well, until they’d been distracted by the bunnies. I thought about Colton, waiting in his loft for his fiancée to show up. That was more my speed. But until I met a woman who wasn’t off limits, I was going to be spending my nights alone. And if I was being honest, Everleigh was a billionaire businesswoman, and even though we’d suspended reality for a while, she wasn’t a ‘snuggle up on the sofa and eat pizza’ kind of woman.
Maybe it was good that things had ended the way they had with Everleigh. We didn’t hate each other, and were left with the mystery of what could have been. I respected her and she respected me.
I sighed. Sure, I respected her. But that was only part of it. I was an idiot, and had totally fallen in love with Everleigh King. I needed to snap out of it if I was going to play well. But I didn’t know how.
The elevator dinged and the doors creaked open. “Come on, Norman. It’s just you and me.”
