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Ethan was suspicious. “Yeah.”
“This woman is as far outside the box as you can imagine. You were right. No more cookie cutter for me. All I want is Rainie.”
“You’ve had her?” Lance asked. “Geez, did you break the deal and buy her diamonds already?”
“Where is she?” Ethan asked, his face coming up close to the camera like maybe he could manipulate the space and look around the room just by getting nearer the lens. “I want to see her. Is she sleeping? How late is it there?”
“No diamonds and she’s not here… yet. She will be. We’re just friends right now.”
Because he hadn’t told her he planned to show up at lunch the following day for another date. And the next day, and the day after that.
“Friends?”
“Yeah, the deal was I commit myself to her,” he said. “And I am committed. Totally faithful. Nowhere said she had to commit herself to me.”
“I think this is fucked up.”
“He’s not wrong,” Ethan said, ever the epitome of fairness and impartiality. “We can’t ask that he waits ‘til they get to a point where they’re talking exclusivity on both their parts. That could take ninety days by itself.”
And as much as he didn’t mind spending that time with Rainie, he couldn’t wait that long to be honest with her.
“Okay,” Lance said. “How did you meet?”
“In a coffee shop.”
His friend and colleague scoffed. “You were on the phone telling me you didn’t know how to pick up a woman—”
Ethan laughed.
“That’s not what I was saying,” he said.
“You wanted instructions. I told you she wouldn’t just crash into you and introduce herself. You’ve gotta put the work in with women.”
“So is she hot?” Ethan asked. “Did you just walk up and say hello…? What were you wearing?”
How was that relevant?
In contrast, Lance got it in a heartbeat. “Yeah, ‘cause if you went strolling up in a hand-tailored fifty-thousand-dollar suit…”
“Women notice that shit,” Ethan said.
“You think I snuck clothes out of the hotel?” he asked, amazed they’d believe him to be so conniving. “You were in the suite when I left.”
“Didn’t raid your luggage though,” Lance said. “And you have a whole goddamn wardrobe on the jet.”
“You really don’t think a woman could just be interested in me?”
“She could, but coffee shop meetings aren’t as common as you’d think,” Ethan said. “Usually if you try talking to a woman there, she thinks you’re a creep with one thing on your mind.”
When Rainie was around, it was difficult to think of anything else. Especially when she kept talking about it. Sex. He’d never considered talking about it before. Once in a while, he’d be with a woman who appreciated a suggestive phone call, but he rarely had time to fully commit. And when Rainie talked about it, she wasn’t doing it to arouse him. She was just that honest. Just that open.
“It didn’t happen like that.”
“So how did it happen?” Lance asked.
He’d been looking forward to telling that truth. “She crashed into me and introduced herself.” Silence. “Honestly.”
Ethan laughed while Lance was just dumbfounded, searching for something to say in the face of such an unlikely scenario.
