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“None of your business.”
He grinned. “It’s that Nora woman, isn’t it? She’s hot, dude. Nice figure.”
I clenched my teeth. It annoyed me that my brother had even been looking.
He pointed to my jaw. “Oh yeah. You got it bad. It’s definitely her you’re texting. What’s the deal with her anyway? Is she single?”
“Yes.” I pulled my chair up to my desk and put my phone down. “Now, what did you come in here for?”
“I sent you over the new prospectus to review. The old one was outdated and didn’t include some of our key investors. Plus, it was boring and had too many words on the page.”
“It’s a document that informs people about the company. Of course it has a lot of words. It’s informational.”
“Yes, but you need fewer words on the page and more bulleted information. People in my generation have the attention spans of a gnat. We like our information bite-sized. Our brains are wired by TikTok and Snapchat. All your boring information will be there. But it will be snappier and easier to digest. And we also need more pretty pictures.” He grinned. “Come to think of it, I should’ve put myself on one of the pages.”
I shook my head. “Whatever. I’ll look at it this afternoon.”
Jake kicked his feet up on my desk and locked his hands behind his head. “So getting back to this Nora chickadee. Why haven’t you made a move yet if she’s single?”
I frowned.
Jake’s eyes widened, along with his smile. “Holy shit. She shot you down, didn’t she?”
“She didn’tshoot me down, if you must know. We’ve…spent some time together.”
“You mean you’ve hooked up?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Jake.”
“But you like her. I can tell. I saw the way you looked at her at the hospital, and every time you talk about her, you have this goofy smile.”
“It helps when you like the people you hook up with…”
Jake shook his head. “No. This is more than that. Youlike her, like her. So why is it only a hookup? Why don’t you ask her out and see where it goes?”
The only thing Jake liked better than looking in the mirror was gossip. He wasn’t going to let this go. I sighed. “She doesn’t want a relationship, which is fine with me. I’m too busy for one. So we’re keeping it simple.” I didn’t add that Nora hadn’t even committed to an ongoing physical relationship yet. It had been three days since our conversation at my place. We’d texted about Louise, but neither of us had raised the subject. I didn’t want to come off as desperate, even if that’s how I felt waiting for her to make her decision.
“Oh shit. So you’re doing what you hate when women do the same to you.”
I squinted. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re upfront with women that you don’t want a relationship. They agree to a casual arrangement, and then after hooking up a few times, they want more. They bait-and-switch you.”
I wasn’t doing that.Was I?Would I take more if Nora was offering it? Yes. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t capable of hookup only. Hell, I was the king of hookup only.
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Jake shook his head. “No strings attached doesn’t work when one of you has feelings.”
“I like her, but she also drives me damn nuts at times. I don’t havefeelings.”
“Sure, Mr. I-Make-Goo-Goo-Eyes-When-I-Text-Her. But whatever. It’s your string to choke on.”
“Is there anything else we need to discuss, or is Dear Abby hour over? I have shit to do.”
“Who’s Abby?”
“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled and pointed to the door. “Get the hell out of my office.”
