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I can’t tell him that’s exactly what I’m worried about.
???
I must try to put that text together twenty times, pacing back and forth across the loft apartment above my studio, picking up my phone, and putting it back down over and over again.
What am I supposed to say to her?
Only a month ago, my life was completely under control. I could pretend, so long as I kept my distance, that I wasn’t attracted to my best friend’s daughter. It had never crossed my mind that she might share my attraction, nor that she would call me the one thing I’ve never been able to admit I wanted her to, even to myself.
My thumbs fly over the keyboard of my phone, and I stare down at the message, frowning.
Penn:Hi, Daisy. Phillip asked me to reach out to you about a part-time assistant job. Let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in, and we can discuss the details.
Fuck, I sound like a fucking job recruiter. No. I’ll try it again.
Penn:Hey, Daisy. Hope you’re settling back into Philly life. Are you looking for another job? Phillip mentioned you were only part-time at the after-school program. I’m looking for an assistant if you’re up for it.
Every single word feels forced and fake as hell. This isn’t me. I don’t obsess over every word I say to a woman. I don’t overanalyze and spend all evening trying to write one damn text.
I need to clear my head.
Without really thinking about it, I throw on a baseball cap and duck outside into the dark city. I don’t have a particular destination in mind, but my feet carry me back to my old neighborhood, the one where I’d lived in the apartment above Phillip and Daisy’s garage for years before I bought the studio.
Everything in my life was different back then. Harder but simpler too. Success wasn’t handed to me, though the Lowell brothers had tried to help. I wanted it to be mine, not anyone else’s, and even now, when I’m not entirely happy with the end result, I can’t bring myself to regret it.
During those years, whenever I sold a painting, it was tradition for me, Phillip, and Daisy to go to Charity’s Diner to celebrate with milkshakes. The place is an institution, hands-down the best twenty-four-hour diner in the city. I haven’t been there in years now, but that’s where my feet carry me.
Slipping inside, I smile at the waitress whose eyes practically bug out of her head at the sight of me and slide into one of the familiar blue vinyl booths with my back to the door. The place is almost empty, with only a teenage couple sitting at the counter looking at something on the guy’s phone.
The young waitress appears beside my table, her cheeks bright pink and a pen already poised over her notebook. “Can I get you something to drink, Mr. Adler? I mean, sir-“
“Coffee, if you wouldn’t mind?”
She peeks over at me one more time before hurrying off just as the bell on the door chimes and a voice calls out, sending a surge of heat down my spine.
“Hey, Emma!”
No.
No way.
My mind is playing tricks on me because I’ve been thinking about her. It just couldn’t be. What are the chances of her turning up at Charity’s in the middle of the night, the first time I’ve been here in about five years?
From the corner of my eye, I see the pink-cheeked waitress brighten from behind the counter, waving merrily at the woman who just walked in.
“Oh, hey there, Daisy! Sit wherever. I’ll be right over.”
I don’t move, my heart in my throat as a petite, curvy young woman moves past me, her sandals slapping on the faded linoleum floor.
It’s her. Daisy,my Daisy, right here in front of me for the first time in two years.
Fuck, she’s gorgeous. A tiny waist that flares into generous hips, thick thighs, and an ass that sends blood rushing to my cock at the sight of it.
Her hair is longer than I remember, the tips of the pale blonde dipped in pink and falling around her freckled shoulders as she drops down into a booth three up from mine without ever turning around.
I have to actively remind myself to breathe.
The waitress, Emma, reappears at my side and slides a cup of coffee and bowl of creamers onto the laminate tabletop. “Anything to eat?”
