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“No problem,” I said, snapping back to attention. “I’ll come get you in the morning to pick up your car.”
“I can call an Uber,” she said as she opened her door.
I quickly unbuckled my seat belt and followed her out of the truck.
“Why bother?” I asked as I met her at the front of the truck. “I don’t mind coming to get you.”
She paused and looked up at me. “You’re walking me to the door?”
“Of course,” I said. “My dad’s rules, remember?”
“What would your dad say if you insisted even though the woman didn’t want you to walk her?” she asked curiously.
I stopped walking. “Is that what’s happening now?” I asked.
Sarai smiled. “No. You can walk me.”
I let out a small sigh of relief and caught up to her.
“You know, I’m still hoping you’ll go to dinner with me,” I said as she started up the stairs.
She paused and stared down at me for a moment, then laughed, her eyes lighting up.
“You don’t give up, do you?”
“Not usually,” I confessed as she started climbing again. “Especially when I feel strongly about something.”
“You don’t even know me,” she scoffed good-naturedly.
“I want to get to know you,” I replied. “I like what I’ve seen, and I want to know you better.”
“Well, that’s honest,” she said as she stopped in front of her apartment door.
“Honesty is always the best policy,” I said, grinning.
“This works for you, doesn’t it?” she asked, waving a hand up and down between us. “The charm and the smile and the honesty. It’s your thing.”
“Full disclosure, Sarai? I haven’t asked any woman out in a long-ass time, and I haven’t even been interested in anyone but you since we met.”
She looked at me for a long time without replying. When she finally spoke, I wanted to punch the air in celebration.
“Breakfast,” she said, tilting her chin up.
“Breakfast it is,” I said, smiling happily. “What time should I pick you up?”
“Ten,” she said as she unlocked her door. She opened it and stepped inside, then turned back to me.
“You’re not invited in,” she said, her lips tipped up in a small grin.
“I didn’t think I was,” I replied, my own lips curving upward.
“Good night, Alex.”
“Good night, Sarai.”
She closed the door, and I couldn’t help myself. I spun in a circle, fist pumped a couple of times, and punched the air as if I were hitting a speed bag. A knocking sound interrupted me, and I froze, then slowly turned my head toward Sarai’s apartment. She was standing in the window next to the door, laughing hysterically.
I ran a hand over my face and shrugged in embarrassment. Then, since I loved the look on her face, I punched the air a couple of times more, waved one arm like Arsenio Hall, and moonwalked out of her sight.
As soon as I reached the parking lot again, I pulled out my phone.
“I will kill you,” Ani answered.
“I have a date tomorrow,” I said before she went into detail about exactly how she planned on killing me. “Breakfast.”
“Friend zone,” she said flatly. “You called me at ten o’clock to tell me you’d been friend zoned.”
“I’m not friend zoned,” I argued, climbing into my truck.
“You’re totally friend zoned.”
“She agreed to a date,” I said, pausing with my keys in the ignition.
“She agreed to breakfast.”
“So?”
“Breakfast isn’t an actual date unless she slept over,” Ani said drily. Bram said something in the background that I couldn’t hear.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He said even he knew that breakfast isn’t a date.”
“It’s a date,” I ground out.
“It really isn’t.”
“Shit.” I turned the truck on and dropped my phone on the passenger seat as the Bluetooth clicked on. “Are you sure?”
“Jesus, Alex,” Ani said with a snicker. “Breakfast is even worse than lunch. At least with lunch, it could turn into dinner. Breakfast is like, Let me get this out of the way before I get on with my plans for the day.”
“She likes me,” I replied stubbornly.
“She may like you, but she’s not interested.”
“You’re wrong.”
“We’ll see,” Ani joked.
“I have to go,” I mumbled. “I’m driving.”
“You’re echoing, so I know I’m on Bluetooth and you can still talk to me,” Ani called out as I hung up on her.
“Dammit,” I said under my breath as I pulled out of the parking lot.
Ani was wrong. I was almost sure of it. Sarai wouldn’t have made any plans with me at all if she was trying to blow me off. She’d had no problem turning me down before.
I really hoped Sarai wasn’t putting me in the damn friend zone. I wanted to be more than friends. That sounded sappy and ridiculous, but it was true. I wanted to know her better than I knew my friends. I wanted to know what made her tick, what made her work so hard, what made her laugh and cry. I wanted to watch stupid chick flicks with her and then bitch to my brother about it. I wanted to see her naked. God, did I want to see her naked. I wanted to map every inch of her skin with my mouth, find every mole and dimple.
