Page 5 of As You Crave It

CHAPTER TWO

CELIAEXHALEDA breath as she watched Quin walk back into the nightclub. Despite what had happened to them years ago, it was nice to see him, and reconnect with her old friend. She’d been a couple of minutes away from leaving the club, but she no longer felt like leaving. Even though she couldn’t forget the way he’d rejected her in the past, the hurt of that night had dulled. So many years later, she could barely hold it against Quin now. They’d been kids. Stupid. She should have known he wouldn’t have had romantic feelings for her... Didn’t excuse what he’d done to her, however. That night she’d learned that even the sweetest guy—her best friend, even—would push her away, not care about her feelings. She shook away the negative thoughts with the mantra that had kept her going throughout her adult life. She was smart, she was beautiful and she didn’t have to take shit from any man.

Was he still that callous person? Maybe he had changed since then. Hell, she had.

He was only gone a short time before he came back with two drinks. Her fruity concoction, and a short tumbler that most likely contained a rum neat. That had been his drink back in the day. At the time, he’d thought it made him look cool. She smirked. Maybe he hadn’t changed much after all.

“Let’s go sit down.” He gestured to a bank of small tables. “We can talk.”

“Sounds good,” she said. They did need to talk.

Quin put both glasses on the table and sat next to her. The small bench accommodated the both of them, but still his thigh brushed hers. If he felt the same rush at their touch that she did, he didn’t show it. But why should he? The attraction between them had been strictly one-sided. He hadn’t wanted her then, so why should he want her now?

“You changed your hair,” he noted. “You look great, Celia.” She knew she did. She was no longer the mousy girl she’d been in college, when she hadn’t figured out makeup, or fashion, or how to wear clothes that flattered her. She bit back a hint of skepticism. Of course, he thought she looked good. Quin always liked a certain type of woman and now she looked the part. But that was coincidental. When she’d decided to change her look, his preference for brunettes had nothing to do with the type of hair dye she’d selected. Even though he might have had a part in her emotional transformation, Quin had had no hand in her physical one.

Her change had more to do with her reason for being back in Miami. She had a score to settle with a former boss, to make him pay for his past transgressions. But Seeing Quin had been a pleasant surprise.

They’d become friends on their first day of college when he’d shown up late to class and took the only empty chair left in the computer lab. She couldn’t believe her luck that this gorgeous guy was sitting next to her. She was embarrassed by how lame she’d been. But once the class progressed, she and Quin got to know each other, and they became good friends. They’d studied together, and Quin even invited her to his parties, even though she in no way had looked like the other women that were invited. She should have seen then that she’d been squarely put in the friend zone. Instead of humiliating herself four years later on the night of their graduation.

“Thanks,” she said. “You haven’t changed much, though.” He was still the same handsome guy, with wavy hair, dimples and a mischievous smile. There were some fine lines that she noticed at the corners of his eyes, of course, but because men were blessed with the ability to age gracefully, it just added to his appeal. She, meanwhile, barely looked like the girl she’d been in college.

“Celia...” he began carefully. She knew what he was going to say. “I would really like to apologize for what happened the last time we saw each other.”

Embarrassed, she lowered her head. “You know, it’s okay—”

He put up his hand. “It really isn’t. I know it was a long time ago, but I think about how much I must have hurt you that night.”

Celia looked away, the tears of humiliation threatening to fall from her eyes. But she wouldn’t shed them. She was done crying over it. It should have been long-forgotten, ancient history. But it wasn’t. She’d had too many drinks, and she’d come on to him. They’d kissed and fooled around a little in his room before he’d stopped, telling her that they shouldn’t go any further because he was worried about their friendship. Her biggest mistake, however, was telling him how she’d really felt about him—that she’d been in love with him for years.

“I should have handled it all better,” he continued, “but I was young and dumb, and drunk. I was confused, and I’m sorry.” After hearing her admission of love, he’d backed away and left the room. She’d been hurt by that. Sure, it stung, but it was catching him later in the hot tub in the middle of a drunken, semipublic threesome that had crushed her. She’d immediately left the party—and Miami—the next day to start her new job at a tech start-up in New York.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate it. But you don’t have to apologize for not reciprocating. It wasn’t your fault you weren’t interested.”

“I didn’t have to do what I did, though. Going off with those girls, I think I was just trying to—” he paused, as if trying to find the words “—push you away. Or to make you not want me?” He sighed. “I don’t know, maybe I was just a horny asshole who had no idea how to handle legitimate feelings.”

“Yeah, maybe it was that one,” she agreed, rolling her eyes.

“You were my best friend,” he told her. “And I’d had no idea how you’d felt about me.”

“I don’t know how you missed it. I basically threw myself at you at every opportunity, Quin. I wanted you so bad.” Celia hadn’t meant to divulge so much, but now that she was in front of Quin, she felt the need to get it all out, and let go of the feelings that she’d carried for so long. When she was still in love with the guy. Not now, of course. But when she looked him up and down, she couldn’t admit that she wasn’t attracted to him. She felt a small quiver of awareness crawl up her spine at the way his clothes clung to his trim, athletic build.

“You can add unobservant to my list of qualities, too, I guess. How blind was I? But either way, I knew I didn’t want to hurt you, and if we’d given in to temptation on that night, then that would have led to me hurting you.”

Celia crossed her arms and tilted her head at Quin. “You are so full of it. Are you just trying to save face or make yourself feel better? Because you aren’t making any sense. You say you didn’t want to hurt me—” she paused “—but you did.”

“And I’ll be sorry about that until the day I die.”

Quin looked genuinely remorseful, and she didn’t think he was that good of an actor. “I know you are.”

“The next day, you were gone. You didn’t return any of my calls or messages. I tried to track you down on social media, and nothing.”

“I don’t use any social-media platforms. I work with computers—you’d be surprised how easy those things are to hack.”

“I figured.” He frowned and sipped from his drink. She did the same and they sat in silence. It was awkward, and she wished they could go back in time eight years—to when they were twenty-two, best friends, when they talked about everything and were full of hope for the future. “How long are you in Miami for?” he asked, finally breaking the silence.

“I live here now.”

“Oh, really?”

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