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“Josh?”
It really was him, standing in front of me, wearing a suit. As I gawked at him, Josh gently ushered me over to the side of the room and smiled. “Hey, Red.”
Following two months of separation, I struggled to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. Forcing my eyebrows to furrow, I asked, “What’re you doing here?”
“I was looking for you,” he answered honestly, and internally I cringed at why I’d bothered to ask him at all—of course that was why he was here.
The more important question—“Why are you looking for me?”
He sighed, raking his fingers through his hair which still looked damp from the snow that had started to flurry outside. “I wanted to apologize for the way our relationship ended,” he said slowly, like he was making an effort to chose his words carefully. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know that I’ve finalized the divorce with Laila.”
“Why would I care about that?” I inquired further, placing my hands on my hips in a pose I hoped looked incredulous.
“Because it means that I’m done trying to play both sides,” he replied, cheeks tinging pink. “Wh-what I mean to say, is that it means I’m choosing you, if you’ll have me.”
I looked him up and down, searching for a physical sign that he was lying and found none. Meeting his gaze again, I let the faux annoyance drop from my tone as I sincerely said, “Josh, I’ve moved on. It…it took a while but I finally found a way to make peace with what we had and the fact that it’s over.”
Gesturing between us, I continued, “we’re not meant to be together. You’re some rich asshole who can have anyone he wants and I’m just a smartass working girl with high hopes and dreams.”
“High hopes and dreams?” Josh asked with a playful smirk, good-naturedly making fun of my cliché response.
“Yes,” I replied seriously, crossing my arms over my chest. “It just wouldn’t work out.”
Josh looked around for a moment and I followed the path of his chocolate-brown eyes until they flickered back to me. “But we’re the only people who dressed up for this thing. That has to count for something, right?”
I stared at him, amazed at how even after I said I didn’t want to have him in my life anymore, Josh was still finding ways to flirt. He grinned, proud that he’d gotten me to pause in my line of logic, and held out his left hand.
“All I’m asking is for you to have dinner with me,” he said, “so that I can tell you everything I wanted to but never had the balls to say. And then, afterwards if you still feel this way, I won’t bother you anymore.”
He concluded his offer by raising three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
This time, I couldn’t keep my poker face, snorting quietly as I teased, “God, you’re such a dork, Old Man.” I took his hand and we headed for the doors, stopping at the threshold to put our jackets on. As he helped me with mine, I noted, “you remember what happened the last time you offered me something, right?”
“Yeah, we ended up sleeping with each other,” he answered with a cheeky grin and I hit him impishly on the shoulder.
“This is just dinner, right? Nothing more?” I inquired as we ducked out into the cold, wanting to make sure that I wasn’t getting myself into that same mess again.
“I promise, Red. Nothing more.” Josh grinned and stuck out his elbow for me to take.
Chapter Twenty-One
Joshua
Ihardlyfelttheicy snow swirling around us as I walked, arm in arm with Amelia. My steps felt lighter than they had in weeks, despite the lingering aches in my right knee, and warmth coursed through my veins at the way her small, mitten-covered hand dipped into my left coat pocket to escape the chill.
Resisting the urge to unwind my arm from hers to take that hand in my own, I babbled while we waited for the crosswalk sign, “how are you liking it here? Oh, and your new job—how’s that going?”
My teeth chattered slightly as I talked, making Amelia giggle, and she responded with the same shiver in her tone, “it’s okay…I’m kind of lonely here since I haven’t made any friends yet. But the job pays way more than my old one did so its worth it.”
I frowned, looking down at her with concern. “You don’t even have roommates or anything?” When Amelia shook her head, I had to restrain myself from warning her about the dangers of living alone in a big city, and then she added—
“The, uh, salary you paid me helped me afford the house I live in now, if that makes you feel any better.”
And it did. I had to admit that the idea of Amelia with an entire house around her made me far less anxious, but I still felt the need to advise, “that’s great to hear, Red. But you really should make sure you have people here who care about your well-being…I’d hate if something happened to you and I—no one was around to help.”
Amelia worried her bottom lip between her teeth at my words and then what she said next nearly knocked me over. “Well, you’re my friend, Josh. So if I need anything, I’ll just call you, okay?”
Under any other circumstance, the innocence of her suggestion and the blush that spread across her cheeks when she mentioned it would be misconstrued as naivete. But after getting to know her for the better part of a year, I knew this was Amelia’s way of trying to mend the bridge between us, even if all it lead to was friendship.
