“This isn’t just about sex, Alex.” His hair was sticking up a little. “I want to date you. Why can’t you take my interest in you seriously?”
“Are you dating anyone else?” I blurted.
He stopped in the middle of the hallway. “No.”
My chest rose and fell. “You’re not seeing someone back in New York?”
“What part of no don’t you understand? Now, what time are we going to dinner tonight?” When I hesitated, he said, “I’ll meet you downstairs at eight.”
Then he walked back the other direction, toward the elevators, and disappeared.
I caught myself licking the corner of my lips. He was right. I did do that when I was nervous.
***
That evening, Brayden took me to an Indian restaurant he’d wanted to try. The food was spicier than I normally liked—too hot to handle, like pretty much everything else about this day.
At one point he left his phone on the table while he went to the bathroom. It lit up with a call, and a woman’s face appeared on the screen. She had long black hair and dark red lipstick. She was beautiful, and I panicked inside.
Jealousy tore through me. I’m too old for this shit. He said he wasn’t dating anyone. I wanted to believe him. But who was this gorgeous woman?
Brayden returned to the table, and his smile faded as he got a look at my face. I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding my emotions.
“What’s wrong, Alex?”
I slid his phone toward him. “You missed a call.”
He narrowed his eyes and looked down. “Yeah. Okay. It was Billie…”
“Who’s Billie?” My heart pounded.
“My buddy Colby’s wife.” His eyes widened. “Wait, did you think…” He exhaled. “I get why you might’ve assumed that.”
“Who bothers to upload a photo of his friend’s wife to his caller ID? I would never have imagined that’s who she was.”
Brayden rolled his eyes. “I didn’t upload it. She did. Billie grabbed my phone one day and did it to bust my balls. Did you not notice she’s giving me the middle finger in that pic?”
I hadn’t. I’d been too busy noticing how beautiful she was.
“She said I never answer my damn phone, and that’s why she did it.” He sighed, and then a lightbulb seemed to go on. He snapped his fingers. “You know what? You and Billie need to talk.” He scrolled on his phone.
“What? What are you doing?” I asked.
Brayden waited for her to pick up. “Hey, Billie. What’s up? I saw you called…” He scratched his chin. “Oh, yeah. Tell Colby I got them down to two thousand. I meant to fill him in on that.” He paused. “Listen, I need a favor. I’m on a date right now. Her name is Alex. I need you to talk to her and tell her she can trust me.” Without further warning, he handed the phone to me.
I cleared my throat. “Um…hello?”
“I can’t believe that jackass just handed you the phone.” She laughed.
“It’s because I saw your photo on the screen when you called and thought you were more than a friend after he’d told me he wasn’t dating anyone.” I sighed. “You’re very beautiful, by the way.”
“Aw, well, I like you already and don’t even know you.”
“I’m sorry. This is terribly awkward. Not sure what I’m supposed to say right now…” I looked over at Brayden, who stared at me intently.
“I don’t know you or what’s going on between you and Brayden,” she said. “But I can tell you a couple of things even so.”
“Okay…” I licked the corner of my mouth.