Page 37 of Mitch

Penn moved next to me once more, checking the calendar on the wall beside me. That close, I could feel the heat rolling off of him.

He was practically sweating.

The motion pulled his shirt up on the side, exposing the sliver of perfect, golden skin, making my cock twitch.

Fuck, now is really not the time!

“Purely business related, Penn,” I said, hoping it would settle his anxiety, and also to quiet my damn cock with a mind of its own.

It wasn’t like I was asking him on a date or anything. It was just... business.

Right?

“Right...” he said, licking his lips. “I, uh, have an event tomorrow night. Near the city,” he said quietly.

“Time?”

“Six.”

“Cool. If it’s okay with you, I can meet you and Archie at the event?”

I watched his eyebrows furrow. “You mean, you wouldn’t be coming into the shop tomorrow morning?”

I didn’t miss the hint of disappointment there, but I didn’t want to read into it. No, I couldn’t afford to get hopeful.

Even though I wanted to believe it was because he wanted to seeme.

“Well, if you have an event, those are usually a couple hours, right?”

Penn nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’ll need time to edit what I took today, plus I still have a boatload of photos to go through from Giselle and Aaron’s wedding.”

“Right, right. I’m not your only gig, I get it,” he said, and I frowned.

I hadn’t wanted him to think I wasbrushing him off, or that I didn’t care about this gig.

“Penn...”

“No, it’s fine, I get it. Uh, yeah, you can meet me at The Robin. Six o’clock.”

I nodded in response as I packed up the USB once more, and grabbed my suitcase.

“It’s a date. See you tomorrow, Penn.”

CHAPTER 15

Penn

I’d beento The Robin a couple times in my life, mostly for events. My parents said in the past it used to be a little local style tavern, but after it changed hands with new owners, they completely redesigned the space to have a more modern feel. Though some of the original design was still intact, such as the deep, mahogany walls and the blue tile floor with the specks of silver all throughout.

Archie and I took turns unloading the van. While weddings were our bread and butter, I personally loved the specialoccasion or milestone parties like this one, for Tracy Lewis’s fiftieth. There was just something that pulled at my heartstrings about having a big birthday party with your closest friends, all decked out.

When her friend called to place the order for the cake, I was given a few suggestions. Black, gold, and silver was the color scheme, and they asked that the cake have a “Gatsby vibe”.

So of course, I went all out on the theme, adding little silver painted champagne bottles that spilled out large edible pearls and jimmies, cascading down the three tiers.

Just as I gripped my hand around the box, I slipped.

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