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“Oh? What’s up?”
My heart was pounding so loudly that I was certain Joanne would be able to hear it, or that it might just burst out of my chest. It was too late to back out now, though.
“I thought that maybe it would be nice if we, um,” I shoved a hand back through my hair and let out a long, slow breath. “If maybe we did that again sometime? I mean… not just the kiss. Although I’d like to do that again, too. But maybe I could take you out?”
“Out?” She turned to face me, her hand falling away from the doorknob. “Like,out, out? Outside of work?”
“Out. Like… on a date. Just the two of us. And yes,anywherebut here.”
“A date?” Joanne repeated the words as a smile spread across her lips. “Me and you?”
“I’d like to. I mean, if you want—”
“Yes.”
“You know, if you need time to think about it, or—yes?” I was smiling, too, but I needed to be sure, to be absolutely certain that we were on the same page. “That was a yes?”
Joanne nodded. “That’s a yes. I’d love to go out with you sometime, Brady. Sometime soon, preferably.”
I felt something warm blossom inside me as my heart did a slow roll in my chest. I let Joanne’s words wash over me for a moment, savoring them as I repeated them to myself.
Yes. That’s a yes.
I’d love to go out with you.
Sometime soon.
“Great. Okay. So that’s a date, then.” I sat down, then stood up again, feeling too full of energy to stay in the small, cramped office. “So… coffee? Maybe I’ll go with you? You know, in case you need help carrying… stuff.”
Joanne laughed. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
I reached past Joanne to hold the door open, feeling a little frisson of excitement as our bodies brushed against each other, reminding me of the day before. Of the touch. Thekiss.
And when Joanne glanced up at me, looking like she might be remembering all those things, too?
It gave me hope that—despite our differences—there might be more yeses in our future, too.
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Joanne
I would normally describe myself as a patient person. Laid-back. Mostly willing to go with the flow. But the three days that had passed between the time Brady had asked me out on Tuesday and our actual date on Friday had felt like an eternity.
Never before in my life could I remember a time that I’d looked at the clock—and calendar, and phone, and clock again—more than I had in the past seventy-two hours.
It had been torture. But what had been even worse?
Knowing that I’d had to try and remain mostly—well,somewhat, at least—professional while we were both at work. Knowing I couldn’t shove the papers off the desk and use it as a place to make out. Knowing I had to be content with the stolen looks and lingering touches, at least for a while.
But it had been a while—a long,longwhile—and now it was Friday.
At Naomi’s insistence, I’d left work a couple of hours early to start getting ready. And thank God for Naomi. She’d seemed almost as excited for the date as I had been, and if she hadn’t come in to cover the last part of my shift?
Yeah, there was no way I would’ve been ready in time.
Even after mixing and matching outfits at least a dozen times, adding product to my hair and immediately washing it out another three times, then finally agonizing over which perfume to wear, I still wasn’t completely happy with the end result.
I cast another furtive look at the clock.
Was there time to change clothes again?
