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Her eyes widened slightly and I heard her swallow.
"I'm sure you are," she muttered. "Is this the place?" She stopped outside Luigi's, a small Italian restaurant that smelled like pizza and garlic two of my favorite things.
"Yeah, does it look okay?" For some reason I was suddenly anxious. It mattered what she thought about the place. I didn't know why.
To my relief she said, "It looks perfect. If we can get a table. They seem to be busy."
I shifted from foot to foot. "I might have made us a booking. I didn't want to assume you'd like it, but I didn't want to miss out if you did." I said all of that in a hurry, suddenly feeling awkward like I was back in high school trying to impress the head cheerleader. Yeah, like she would have looked twice at me. I wasn't sure if Hayley would either, to be honest. But for some reason, I really wanted her to.
"No, that's good thinking," she said. "I should have thought of it myself. It's my job to think ahead." She wrinkled her nose adorably.
"You're not on the clock now," I said. "You're allowed a night of once in a while aren't you?"
"Not when there's a tour happening, but I guess technically that's not happening tonight," she said slowly.
"There you go then," I said. "You've already let your hair down literally, let it down figuratively too. We're just two friends out for a nice dinner and to enjoy each other's company. In fact, maybe we should make it a rule for the rest of the night that we don't talk about work."
She hesitated for a moment. "Okay, I can agree to that. Actually, it sounds really nice. What's the penalty for straying into work territory?"
"A spanking?" I asked, giving her a wink.
She laughed and open the door to the restaurant. Under the tinkling of bills, I could have sworn I heard her say something about threatening her with a good time.
5
Hayley
"This was nice," I said.
The meal, the company, the casual flirting, skirting around work topics without getting too close to them. For a while I almost forgot we worked together, but it didn't feel like two friends having a meal either. It felt like an actual date.
Yeah, I know, I'd have to be out of my mind to think a guy like him would go for a girl like me, even if we didn't work together. For one thing, he was crazy hot. I'd seen him without a shirt often enough to know he was ripped, and tattooed in the right places. For another thing, he was famous, talented and could have his pick of women. I'd seen plenty of them throw themselves at him and him disappearing with them. I didn't even start counting how many there were. Enough. He was approximately thirteen thousand percent out of my league.
At least we could be friends. One of the things I liked about him and the rest of the Rock Dragons, was that they never treated me like I was a member of staff. Or if they did, I was a valued one. Mostly though, they joked around with me and everyone else in the crew like they did with each other. Well almost. They gave each other a harder time than they did anyone else.
"It was very nice," he agreed. He sat with one elbow propped on the table and his opposite hand around his beer glass. He always looked chill, but tonight he looked more relaxed than usual. Like, just when I thought he couldn't unwind any further, he did.
What would it take to stress him out? And, did he give lessons in being so laid-back? If so, give me a whole course of them. I was all about being calm and rational, but he took that to whole new level.
"Are we forgiven?" he asked teasingly.
"I haven't finished my desert yet," I said in the same tone. I dug my spoon into my ice cream. "For the record, you were forgiven hours ago." I expected him to say something like he could have left then if he'd known, but instead he smiled.
"It's good to know. I’d hate it if you were cranky with me. It's going to be a long flight to Vancouver. I'd like to know I'll make it without being thrown out the window." He smiled slowly.
"There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I don't even know where to start," I said. "Except to say I would never throw anyone out a plane window. It wouldn't end well for any of us."
"What kind of window would you throw someone out of then?" His smile widened.
I snorted a laugh. "Only the kind that overlooks a swimming pool. I'd make my point but you'd get a soft landing."
His left eyebrow twitched. "Me specifically? What would I have to do that would make you push me out of any kind of window?"
"Nothing I can think of the top of my head," I said. "Do me a favor and don't take that as a challenge. I may not have as much patience as I think I do."
He laughed. "Believe it or not, I have no desire to be annoying. Especially that annoying. Besides, you should know, if I'm getting wet, you're getting wet too."
There was no mistaking his double meaning.
