Page 32 of The Spark Between Us

But since then, he’d been busy with work and so had I. We’d interacted like roommates, ships passing in the night. As it should be.

It had taken all week for the memory of his fingertips brushing my skin to fade a tiny bit. But his hand on his date’s back brought back all the lustful feeling I’d been working hard to shove away.

I allowed myself to watch him since they were too far away for him to notice me voyeuristically tracking his every move.

His date was pretty—I could see that from far away. Petite with curves and ample breasts, she had long red hair that reminded me of my younger sister Cherry, the only redhead in our family.

I told myself that I most definitely did not have a crush on my roommate. My interest in him tipped toward the purely scientific—cataloging what a handsome firefighter did for fun, what kind of woman he found attractive.

You are so full of crap.

They entered the restaurant across the street, and I couldn’t see anything else. I deflated, unable to decide if I wanted to see him lean in and kiss her neck or if that would make me throw up on the nachos.

If I saw him kiss her, my dumb brain might realize he was off limits to me. He had a life here long before I arrived, and he wouldn’t abandon it to satisfy my roommate lust.

“Old laser physicists never die. They just become incoherent,” Keith said to the roaring appreciative laugh of my physics friends. These were my people. Like attracted like.

Nevertheless, while my team prattled on and the jokes got even worse and therefore more hilarious, I couldn’t help glancing at the door to the restaurant across the street, wondering if Braden’s date was running a bare toe up his leg under the table.

Probably.

Braden struck me as someone who knew what he wanted, and she was on a date with him now. He’d given no indication that woman was me.

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