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I shifted the coffee mug in my hand, bringing it to my lips.
“Yes, he did,” I answered before taking a sip of the hot liquid. I took a deep breath, using the first sip to center myself for our early morning ritual.
“What a prick,” Ella—my other best friend—said from where she was crunching on a celery stick across the room, raiding my fridge like she always did. She came to sit down next to Nora and me. “Did you set up a date with someone else?”
“Not exactly,” I said, peeling the wrapper from my cinnamon muffin.
We had exactly fifteen minutes before Nora and Ella would head to school and I’d start my work-from-home day. Nora was a third-grade teacher, Ella a nurse at the same school, and we all lived in the same apartment complex. Having coffee together was a daily ritual of ours we rarely broke, and since our schedules were always packed, it was the only time we could catch up.
I took a bite before shaking my head. “I didn’t have time for him anyway,” I said. “It was silly for me to think I could manage a date, especially when the next few months are packed for me with a new client and the ASPCA.”
Except I would’ve made time for the date, if he’d shown.
But I wasn’t all that surprised. Sometimes my relationship boundaries weren’t what people were looking for, and I could totally respect that. That’s why I was up front when I’d created my dating profile after Nora and Ella had talked me into it a year ago. I’d been single for three years before that, thanks to my last very toxic and abusive relationship. The very thing that gave me no interest in ever allowing myself to get lost in a man ever again.
“Wait,” Ella said. “What do you mean, not exactly?”
A pair of light gray eyes flashed in my mind followed by a confident smirk and a kiss I could still feel the remnants of on my lips.
Damn it, that was the tenth time I’d thought about Ethan—the mystery man who’d entertained me for a few blissful minutes after I realized I’d been stood up.
Heat flowed through my veins at the memory of his laugh, the shock in his eyes every time I lobbied a question at him, as if he wasn’t used to people surprising him. The way he filled out his no doubt two-thousand-dollar suit in a way that should be illegal.
He’d given me his number, and I was definitely going to use it tonight, and not because he was mouthwateringly gorgeous, but because he’d met my rapid-fire conversation without hesitation. He’d kept up and didn’t stumble, even when I’d thrown the kiss-test his way, which he passed with flying colors. Plus, he was funny and a Hurricanes fan. All wins in my book.
“Whoa, what is that look?” Ella studied me, her eyebrows raising.
“What look?” I asked, scraping up the empty muffin wrapper and carrying it to the trash.
“You have a look,” Ella said, turning in her chair so she could keep her eyes on me.
“And you’re not answering her question on purpose.” Nora furrowed her brow, then grinned. “You do have a look.”
“I don’t have a look,” I argued, but even I knew it was pointless. Every time I thought about the mystery man, I got butterflies, complete with a goofy grin on my face. God, we’d spent only ten minutes together and shared one kiss, and I couldn’t get him out of my head. What was wrong with me?
“Don’t lie to us,” Ella said. “Especially when we only have two minutes left before we have to leave for work. Spill.”
I rolled my eyes, grabbing my mug from the table, draining the rest of the contents before washing it in the sink. “It’s nothing,” I finally admitted. “A guy.”
“That’s not nothing,” Nora said, joining Ella as they met me by the sink after clearing their trash. “Who was he?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “His name was Ethan. He was incredibly gorgeous. Like, just walked off the pages of GQ gorgeous.”
Nora and Ella sighed with appreciation.
“He was funny,” I said, unable to stop my grin. “He said his friends had bet him ten million that he couldn’t get me to fall in love with him,” I continued, chuckling. “I’ve never heard that line before. It was cute.”
My friends laughed too.
“One minute,” Ella said. “Finish the story.”
“I might have given him the kiss-test,” I said sheepishly.
“Omigod, he must’ve been intriguing,” Nora said. “You haven’t done that in forever.”
“No guy has made it that far in forever,” I said. Both my friends knew the reasoning behind my rules surrounding relationships.
“What happened after the kiss?” Ella asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I went home.”
“Alone?” Nora teased.
“Yes,” I said. “Very much alone.”
Even though every cell in my body had begged me to drag him home with me. God, he’d made me melt with just a kiss. I could still feel that raw ache inside me right now, begging to be soothed. I had an amazing imagination, and I’d played out several scenarios on just what else Ethan would be capable of with a mouth like that.
