AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I take another sip of wine, doing my best to slow this all down. To shift us away from the direction he keeps trying to take us. “Was Amanda the only girl who’s used the ‘me, not you’ line on you?”
“No. Danika Jackson told me that when I was twenty, and Heather Martin did too when I was twenty-two. And now, you’ve said it to me before I’ve even had the opportunity to show you what you’d be missing. I think this may be my worst dating moment.”
I laugh.
I can’t help myself.
Owen is fun, and as much as I’m trying not to flirt with him, he brings it out in me.
“This is hardly a dating moment.”
He drinks some whiskey before flashing a sexy smile at me and doing his best to wipe my memory so I can’t remember my plan to never see him again. “This could be a dating moment if you let it.”
“I don’t date, remember?”
More of that sexy smile. “Give me the chance to change your mind.”
I assess him for a moment. I have no intention of dating Owen, but I am enjoying talking with him. There’s no harm in spending the rest of this night having a conversation with him. “Tell me something about you that no one knows.”
Surprise flickers across his face. The kind that lets me know he likes this question. “I detest small talk even though I’m good at it and people probably think I like it.”
“Oh God, yes. It’s the worst. I’d rather sit in silence than engage in polite conversation. My mother raised me to excel at it. She’d die if she knew I’ve stopped doing it over the last year while I’ve been away.”
“You just ignore people now?”
“I try not to be rude, but if someone is intent on talking with me, I’ll throw in some big talk. That’ll either scare them off or lead to some great conversation.”
“Big talk. I like that.” He eyes me over the rim of his glass as he drinks more whiskey. “What’s something aboutyouthat no one knows?”
“Well, that’s hard because Poppy knows everything about me.”
“Absolutely everything?” He says this like he doesn’t quite believe me. But then, women are different to men, so I guess this may seem hard to believe.
“Yes. There’s nothing we don’t discuss. But if we remove her from the equation, no one knows I count things.” At his look of confusion, I elaborate. “I count stairs as I take them. I count the cracks in the sidewalk. I count the things in front of me. I count the clouds. Anything and everything. I mean, I’m not counting all day, every day, but it can help calm my anxiety.”
“Have you always done this?”
I nod. “For as long as I can remember. It’s often how I get to sleep too.” I reach for my drink. “Okay, your turn. What’s something else others don’t know about you?”
“I’m a great cook.”
It’s my turn to experience disbelief. “No one knows this about you? Really?” I mean, Poppy told me Owen was married. Surely a wife would know that about her husband.
“No one.”
“Okay, so full disclosure; Poppy told me you have an ex-wife. How does she not know you can cook?”
A smile touches the corners of his mouth and eyes. “You asked Poppy about me?”
“She volunteered that information without my prompting.”
This doesn’t wipe the smile from his face. He still seems pleased to know we discussed him. “Jill and I didn’t eat in often. And when we did, she cooked. It was her thing she enjoyed. I didn’t take over.”
Jesus, I need to stop with the big talk. I’m only discovering more things to like about Owen.
Before I can switch to small talk, he angles his body more toward mine and asks, “Why did you leave New York for a year?”
“Why does any woman run away from their life?”
