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Sweat beaded his forehead. “Are you a follower?”
“Of course. I love her insights on dating, relationships and the dark days of heartbreak. She and her ex, Sunny, had a rough breakup some time ago and now he’s marrying Gianna’s ex-assistant, the woman he cheated with. Eww…wait. That’s not good.”
He lifted on elbows to look at her. “What?”
“I think it’s only been six-seven months since they split. That means you’re a rebound for her.” Maya’s piercing blue eyes stared back at him.
“That would be bad, that is if we were in a real relationship.” He lowered his cheek and stared at the wall. “I think you keep forgetting I haven’t seen her in years.”
“It all makes sense. She announced that you two are engaged on the same day Sunny’s engagement was announced in one of those rag-readers. She did it to get back at Sunny. That must be what this is all about.”
“Okay, but you’re forgetting I had no clue this Sunny guy announced anything, or that Gianna was even engaged to him. I asked her, not the other way around.”
“Car, this must be kismet. You asked at the perfect time. See, I told you, this is romantic,” Maya crooned.
“I think you’re reading too much into it. She’s probably had a dozen dates since she broke it off with that cheating twerp.” Anyone who’d break up with Gianna had to be out of his mind. “I don’t think so. She’s been very transparent about her breakup and the details surrounding what went down. Being open has earned her more success, yet there were rumors that Sunny ditched her because she was cold and a rich snob.”
“Since when do you listen to rumors?”
“I don’t. Aren’t you on social media?”
“Yeah, but not really. I haven’t been on in a long time.” He didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “Who’s Sunny anyway?”
“You don’t know? Don’t you listen to her podcast? Yeah, silly question. Sunny Banks. Ring a bell?”
“The MLB player Sunny Banks?”
“The one and only,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Apparently he couldn’t keep the bat to himself.”
“Gi was dating that guy?” He felt a punch to his gut.
“No. She wasengagedto that guy.”
“I always knew he had to be an ass. If you treat your fans bad, use a bat for anything other than hitting a ball, and break a cameraman’s camera, you’re a jerk. Goes to show you being good at a sport doesn’t make you a good person.” He blew out a long breath.
“Gianna’s beautiful though, isn’t she?” Maya swiveled on the stool to grab something off the table.
“Where’s this headed?” He lifted his head to cast her a narrowed eye.
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess I just always thought you two had a special chemistry.”
“We did. It’s called friendship.” He squinted as he felt a stab of pain.
“I meant, I always thought you two would end up together. I’m not saying that a man and woman can’t be friends only, but you two…I don’t know how to explain it. You two got each other. I always liked her, and I thought you liked her.”
Hell, maybe he did have a little bit of a crush on her at one time, but they were adults now and hadn’t seen each other in years. Outside of a few simple text messages here and there, they’d moved on. “She left. I guess we weren’t as close as I thought.” His feelings weren’t a conversation he wanted to have any time, let alone with his pants dangling around his ankles and a needle poking in and out of his ass cheek.
“For a big city, right?”
“Houston.”
“That girl always was a free spirit. I never saw her as an influencer, though. She wasn’t one who cared about the current fashion trends, or high-society social events.”
He lifted up to his elbows. “What should I do? How do I tell her that I was joking?”
“Good question.” She kept her focus on her work. “I always thought honesty was the best policy, but…”
“But what?”
