Page 46 of So Not My Type

Ella poised her fingers to respond, but before she could, another message popped up.

Sophie:

A heart emoji. There was no mistaking the message’s intention. Ella closed her eyes for the evening, a full smile spreading at the same rate as her heart filling.

The next morning, Ella showered, took her meds, and bolted to the driveway in record time.

Was the sun a little brighter today? Only a sliver of sunlight cracked through the dusky clouds, yet it seemed the brightest morning in forever. She pulled in a breath of springtime air, the mineral, earthy scent of Lake Washington hitting her nose.

Thomas held a tire air pressure gauge in his hand and glanced up from his squatting position. “You’re ready early. Big day today?”

Sure is. “Just the usual.” Such a damn lie, and she fumbled with her bag to avoid any eye contact. Right now, this little whatever it was with Sophie was a magical secret secured in a twinkly box, and she was not ready to share it with anyone. Much less Thomas, who was a master at uncomfortable silences and would just wait it out until she cracked.

She hopped in the back seat and shoved her laptop bag on the seat.Be cool, be calm.“Can you swing by Sophie’s place and pick her up for work today?”Dammit. Her voice had a squeak to it, and she cleared her throat.

“Ah,” Thomas said, with a tone like “I knew it!” But he didn’t know it. Or maybe he did. Maybe how she radiated inside was seeping to her outside, and soon everyone in the world would know she had a big, fat crush.

The ride to Sophie’s house took forever. She tried to distract herself by scanning emails and scrolling social media, but she eventually gave up and tossed her phone back in the bag.

A car zoomed by and she grabbed her phone to snap a picture. “Is that a ’69 Mustang Fastback?”

Thomas’s eyes widened in the rearview mirror. “How in the world did you know that?”

“Over lunch last week, Sophie told me how she used to work with her dad on cars. He was obsessed with this old, broken down ’69 Mustang. Apparently, he spent like ten years fixing it up, but all he ever does now is polish it with a cloth diaper.” She grinned, remembering the conversation from the café. “I didn’t know what it was, so she showed me a picture.”

“Ah. Sometimes it’s more fun to collect the car than drive it. Especially one that’s such a beauty.” He rolled to a stop at the light and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Sophie sure is a nice young woman. We ended up chatting the whole way home last night.”

Ella’s ears perked up. “Yep, she is.” Why hadn’t she just gone with her last night? But her confidence was still bruised from Jasmine, she wasn’t sure where they stood, and the idea of a thirty-minute awkward AF conversation had knotted her stomach.

He bumped over a pothole and turned down a block, where Sophie stood with her leather wrist bands, multiple rings, ripped fishnets, and plaid skirt. God, she was so damn pretty.

“Morning!” Sophie hopped in the back, her cheeks pinking when she smiled. “Thanks for picking me up.”

“Anytime,” Thomas said as he pulled into traffic.

“Hey, you.” Sophie’s eyelashes fluttered with the whisper.

Damn if Ella didn’t feel that tone to her toes. “Good morning.” Could Sophie feel this charge in the air? This heaviness, this urge, to reach out and touch her again? She desperately wanted to recreate the hot tub moment in the back of the SUV… if Thomas weren’t sitting right there. She wanted to ask Sophie so many things but knew good and well that Thomas might appear as if he wasn’t listening, but he heard everything.

“I can’t believe they got the building cleared already for us to return.” Sophie’s office-professional voice returned, much to Ella’s dismay.

“I know. It’ll be so weird to see it all boarded up, though.” The traffic slowed to a roll, and Ella checked her watch. “We’re going to be putting out fires left and right with the loss of time yesterday.”

“For sure.” Sophie glanced out the window. “We’ll set a quick scrum call when we get in.”

Small talk was dumb. Ella didn’t care about status meetings, calls, level setting, or if the copy editors agreed on a proper comma placement. She wanted to pull Sophie to her, taste her mouth, trail the pad of her fingertip up her silky smooth arm.

Once Thomas dropped them off at the office, with the purr of electric cars and traffic humming down the street, Ella tugged her cross-body bag over her shoulder. She moved toward the building when Sophie laid a hand on her forearm. The hand was warm, the gentle touch telling Ella everything was okay.

Sophie glanced behind her shoulder. “Hey, um, so about what happened at your house…”

She wanted to do it again? Maybe go into the alley and make out against the wall? Could Ella pull her into a single stall restroom, throw her on the counter, and show her what her hands could do? Ella was open to just about anything.

Sophie bit the side of her lip and her gaze dropped to Ella’s mouth before it snapped up. “My job is really important to me. Like, sometimes, I feel it’s the only thing I have, you know?”

A bus screeching to a halt at the corner perfectly mirrored Ella’s insides.Her job is important? Obviously. But what does that mean for what happened?Ella hated that her hands fidgeted. She tugged her purse tighter to her chest to hide the motion. “Yes, I get that. It’s important to me, too.”

Sophie looped her thumbs in her backpack straps. A thin red stripe ran through her neck, and she glanced at the sidewalk. “I just think it wouldn’t be appropriate if we said anything or… did anything… at the office.”

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