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“Exactly,” she declared, happy he was following along.
“Damn, you’re cute as a button,” he murmured.
Suddenly, it struck her. “I don’t know your name, Ice Pants Guy.” The corner of his eye twitched. She couldn’t blame him for hesitating given how they’d met and her revelations. “You don’t have to—”
“Alex,” he said. “Alex…” The pause was odd, but she figured something distracted him. Something distracted her all the time. “Payne. Alex Payne.”
“This has been nice,” she said, offering her hand. “Meeting new people can go either way for me. Usually they’re offended, but you really bounced.”
“It’ll take more than a little coffee to put me off,” he said.
“That’s good. I never say no to new friends.” Fixing the lid back onto her drink, she slid the cup onto the edge of the table. “I have to get back to work now, but it was really nice meeting you, Alex… Thank you for the coffee and sorry about the coffee.”
Standing up, she intended to go around him and head for the door. He surprised her by shooting to his feet, blocking her way.
“Is your lunch at the same time every day?”
“Yes,” she said. “Twelve thirty to one thirty. Why?”
He just smiled. “No reason. Have a good day.”
“You too.”
And off she went. Sometimes life was surprising, and she didn’t mind embracing that surprise when it came in packages like Alex Payne.
4
“So Eth and I have been brainstorming,” Lance said on the video call Xander had just answered through his laptop.
“Brainstorming what?” he asked, sinking into his chair.
All day he’d been trying to set up his system and get to grips with the new apartment. So far, it hadn’t been as easy as he’d hoped.
“Qualities the woman you’re looking for needs to have,” Ethan said.
They were at three different points on the globe, but it didn’t matter. Technology allowed each of them a window into the others’ environments. They may as well have been in the same room.
“She has to be smart,” Lance said, waving something at the camera that might have been a pen.
Ethan got closer to his. “Yeah, because you’ll want to be able to have a conversation. And you don’t usually pick Mensa members when left to your own devices.”
“Not that she has to be in Mensa,” Lance said. “‘Cause you’re not exactly Mr. Brainbox yourself.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, enjoying Lance’s jibe. “We don’t want her to get bored explaining herself to you.”
“You’re wasting your time,” he said, linking his fingers at the back of his head as he pushed back in his chair to recline. “I already met her.”
“The woman you’re committing yourself to for the next ninety days?”
Surprise shaded both his friends. Not only did Ethan’s tone give it away, but Lance dropped whatever he’d been waving.
“Ninety days, ninety years,” he said, swinging side to side. “Whatever.”
“Jesus, for a second, I thought you were serious,” Ethan said, clutching his chest.
“Yeah,” Lance said, “you’ve never met a woman you wanted to marry in your life.”
He stopped swinging to lunge forward, flattening his hands on the desk. “I love innovation, right? New, unique ways of doing things, thinking outside the box?”
