Page 29 of Blue Collar Hotties

Back and forth it goes.

I can’t wait to see him again; I hope Monday never comes.

That was the hottest thing ever; I must have looked like such a fool.

He didn’t ask for my number, but hedidpound on the glass and call for me until his voice went hoarse.

Hmm. It’s a dilemma, alright.

I scrub every inch of my apartment until it sparkles and then rearrange my closet, but nothing takes my mind off Gabe. Not even sewing late into the night on Sunday, trying desperately to catch up with my college workload, doing what I can with hand-stitching and my cheap portable sewing machine.

Teasing eyes drift through my brain. Somehow, the buttons I’m adding to this A-line skirt change to be emerald green, just like Gabe’s eyes. Even in my fashion designs, I’m not safe.

“Lord,” I say at last, squinting up at the ceiling around midnight, the pinstripe waistcoat I’m working on draped over my lap. The only light in my apartment comes from a desk lamp, arranged on the bookshelf behind me to shine over my shoulder. My place is so small, it still lights up most of the room. “Please let tomorrow not suck. I’m counting on ya, big guy.”

* * *

The building crew gets here an hour before the office workers, and instinct tells me Gabe is always the first. That’s why I’m here at the ass crack of dawn on Monday morning, clutching a thermos of blackberry tea and hovering by the stone steps that lead up to our building. Counting backward from one hundred under my breath and trying not to panic.

Scrubby lawn fills the gap between the building and the sidewalk, dotted with a few gnarled trees. Their branches are half-bare, the final red and gold leaves clinging on for dear life, fluttered by the wind.

Pigeons peck in the grass, feathers puffed up against the cold. I blow on my tea, stomach churning, but it’s too hot to sip. Too hot to do anything except grip my thermos like a lifeline.

Gabe is coming. He’ll be here any moment.

But what if he doesn’t come? What if he’s so horrified by what I did that he refuses to step foot on this site ever again? Gah!

I’m saved from spiraling even deeper by the sight of Gabe rounding the corner, scuffed work boots thudding against the sidewalk.

His strong shoulders are hunched against the cold, a thick padded jacket zipped up to his chin. When he sees me, his eyebrows bounce up his forehead, and Gabe straightens, yanking his hands out of his pockets.

His steps slow as he comes closer. I fidget inside my blue pea coat, so nervous I can’t speak.

Gabe looks tired. Dark shadows cling beneath his eyes, and his cheekbones are starker somehow than a few days ago. When he smiles at me, it’s cautious.

“Hey, beautiful.”

My breath leaves me in a whoosh. I give him a wobbly smile back. “Hey.”

Nailed it so far. Who knows? Maybe this won’t be the most awkward interaction of my whole life.

But Gabe comes to a stop in front of me, winces and says, “About Friday night…”

So that’s that. Kill me now. Bash my head in with a spade and bury me under that sycamore.

One look at my stricken expression and Gabe groans, digging the heel of one palm into his eye. He shakes his head, looking so miserable. “I shouldn’t have done it, baby. Shouldn’t have pressured you like that. You just looked so beautiful in there and it seemed like you were into it too, and… fuck, I’m sorry. I got carried away.”

Hegot carried away? Gabriel Dempsey got carried away?

I’m the one who sucked two fingers into her mouth then slid them inside her body, holding eye contact the whole time. I’m the one who came harder than a freight train.

My throat aches as I clear it. My tongue feels extra heavy as I force it to form words. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who’s sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done that, and I definitely shouldn’t have freaked out after.”

Gabe looks so miserable standing there, the wind tugging his dark blond hair. His mouth has turned down at the corners, and his eyes seem one thousand years old.

“I liked it,” I offer, in case he got the wrong idea about that. “I… Ireallyliked it.” It was the single hottest moment of my life so far—not that there’s a ton of competition. “But then I remembered where I was, and that you weren’t all that sure about me anyway, and I freaked out.”

Ran away like my hair was on fire. Real classy.

---