Page 13 of My Sweetest Temptation

I shook my head. “No, Lola was short a waitress.”

Tabi brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I hope this group isn’t a freaking nightmare like the last one.”

“They won’t be,” Adrian said, pouring another round of shots for a nearby group.

As the music shifted to “The Hills” by The Weeknd, I took the drinks from Adrian and placed them on the round black tray.

“I’m off,” I said. With a final wave, I spun off toward the first table of the night.

I stood in front of my door, retrieving my keys from my purse to unlock the apartment door. I groaned in frustration as the jumble of keys in my hand seemed to mock me.

“Oh, come on,” I grumbled, almost losing my grip on the paper bag of groceries. It felt like a cruel game, and all I wanted was to be inside so I could kick off these damn shoes and crawl into my warm bed. Just as I was about to scream, I heard the door from the apartment behind me open.

“Looks like you could use a hand there,” my neighbor Liam said with a chuckle.

I looked over my shoulder and noticed he was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his black leather jacket.

“That smile is not going to work on me,” I said sarcastically.

Liam was a player, but he just brushed it off as doing the ladies a service, whatever the hell that meant. He was good looking with a nice body, but there were no sparks between us. No romantic connection.

Liam shook his head and smiled. He pushed off the frame and reached out to take one of the bags off my hands. “You’re so damn stubborn.”

“Yeah, I know.”

He snickered. “You can always set the bags on the floor.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, but he laughed it off.

Once I had one hand free, I put the key in and unlocked the door. Liam followed me and set the bags down on the kitchen counter, and I began unpacking the groceries.

“You’re making homemade pizza,” he stated, peering into the bags like a kid searching for a toy in the cereal box.

“Yeah,” I replied with a casual shrug as if making pizza late at night was the most normal thing in the world.

“Now?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded, a grin spreading across my face. “Yep. I want pizza.”

“It’s almost midnight,” Liam pointed out.

“I know,” I said, tearing open the packet of pepperoni. “But ignoring my stomach is like almost beating that level in Candy Crush, only to have that sweet victory explode in your face when you lose it all because of one stupid candy that just refuses to break free from its blocky prison.”

He burst out laughing, the kind of laugh that made it impossible to keep a straight face.

“Seriously,” I continued, throwing a pepperoni slice in my mouth. “My stomach is always demanding attention, just like those annoying notifications on your phone.” His phone went off every fifteen minutes when he was around me. It was so freaking annoying. And he knew it annoyed me. That was why he never silenced it.

Liam continued to laugh and shake his head at me.

“Don’t judge me,” I said, returning his grin, trying to sound serious but failing miserably.

“I’m not,” he protested, raising his hands in mock surrender. He leaned against the counter, arms crossed, a playful glint in his eyes. “Okay, fine,” he conceded. “But if this pizza is inedible, what’s your backup plan? Tacos? Chinese? A juicy burger?”

“First of all, my pizza will be the best homemade pizza you’ll ever taste. But you can always go to Taco Bell or Wendy’s since they’re open 24/7, right?”

“True,” he said. “But I think I’ll stick around and take my chances.”

“You have to beg me first,” I countered as I tossed a slice of pepperoni in his direction like a frisbee.

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