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“That might be the case, but your memory is a little faulty in this instance.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, and I tried not to notice how his muscles bulged under his running jacket.
“I sat in the crowd and cheered for Dominic and then my parents took a group of us out for dinner, including you.” I pointed at him, then marched by him to keep moving. Sometimes it was hard to look directly at Sebastian, especially with his face glistening and his stubble at just the right length. The man didn't know what he did to me. What he’d always done to my insides when I saw him.
“I was at that dinner.”
Sebastian jogged a few steps to catch up with me. “I don't remember that.”
“I remember you.” I hoped any potential blush on my cheeks could be blamed on the cold wind.
Willow trotted next to me, and I reached down to give her a soothing pet.
“I said ‘hi’ to you and you ignored me. You spent the entire time talking to Dom and Jerome about some latest business theory you had come across in The Economist.”
“Fuck, that does sound like me.”
“You didn't see me.” I hated how that sounded to my ears. To be fair, I was still in high school at the time. I was too young to be a blip on his radar.
I glanced over my shoulder to find a frown tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Is that true? You were there?” Sebastian was self-aware enough to amend that statement almost the second it left his lips. “Of course, you're sure.”
“You were wearing this terrible brown suit. It was both too big and too small, which I’ve never seen before or since. It defied all laws of physics.”
“It was the only thing I could find at the Goodwill that would fit me.”
“But it didn't fit…” Not that it mattered. He still left me tongue tied. His hair had been longer back then, and his tall frame hadn't filled out yet, but he still made for an imposing figure, even back then.
“Okay, smartass. It was all I could afford at the time. Pretty sure that same suit was the reason your brother took me to his tailor and gifted me my first good designer duds.”
I conjured up images of him in a suit and they were all spectacular. “You learned your lesson?”
He clicked his tongue. “I learned the power of a good suit.”
I lifted my hands. “Fair enough.”
Then he shook his head again. “I can't believe I didn't realize you were there.”
I shrugged my hands into my pockets.
“I thought the first time that we met was-”
“Was when?” This I had to hear.
“Dominic’s going away party. Right before he left for London.”
I burst into laughter. “Wow. Your memory is terrible. Should I be worried?”
The memory hit hard. Him in a slim suit. His hair was longer then.
I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. That it wasn’t burned into my core memories.
The man had made me nervous from all the way across the room. My palms actually sweated when I thought about meeting him that night. It took all the muscle memory in my legs to carry me across the room to introduce myself. He was that much of a presence, and I should know, I spent my entire life around big personalities. People who you met that carried a certain weight around them—that drew people in, that had that magnetic power to overwhelm the senses.
And this man overwhelmed my senses.
Then and now.
