Page 60 of Fierce-Hyde

The girl next door wasn’t usually the type he went for.

But when he went for types, he got himself backed into a corner and doubted everything.

The fact she was doing the same was enough for him to step up and try to take the lead to see where the two of them could land.

“It was still fun,” she said. “Did you want to go to the festival now?”

“I do,” he said. “I’d like to see if I can get my sister a gift. She’s doing so well with her therapy and it’d be nice to give her a little treat. Not sure what yet, but something will catch my eye.”

“Can we get something to eat?” she asked. “Doesn’t have to be a heavy lunch, but I’m hungry again. Maybe I’m still burning calories from last night.”

He winked at her. “You can use whatever excuse you want. But we’ll go wherever you want.”

They passed by a deli on the way back to his car. “How about there?” she asked. “We can grab a sandwich and sit outside.”

He moved toward the deli across the street and they went in, placed their orders and when he pulled his wallet out, she beat him to it. “Why did you pay?” he asked when they were waiting at the table for their number to be called.

“Because I’m all for equal opportunity dating. I don’t expect or want a guy to pay for it all. Are you going to be some macho guy that is all bent if I pay for something?”

“No,” he said. “Just not used to it.”

Women he’d dated before had paid for a few things, but rarely and never in the beginning.

Shana liked he took care of most of the cost of things.

He wasn’t struggling by any means, but he took a cut in pay when he came here since his position wasn’t a project manager like he’d been at his last job.

He’d get back there because he was going to prove he had what it took and wouldn’t let anyone down again.

But he still made good money.

“Get used to it,” she said. “I’ve got a good job, but I know I don’t make what you do.”

“It’s not a competition,” he said. “At least I’ve never thought so. What you do has a lot more meaning than me.”

“That’s not true,” she said. “I guess it just depends on who needs what we are providing.”

He smiled. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“Did you set me up that way?” she asked. “I’m the counselor. Or have the counseling background, not you.”

“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me,” he said.

They called his number and he went to get their order and came back.

“Do you know you haven’t looked at your phone once today that I’ve seen,” she said.

He frowned. “I haven’t,” he said. It’s like that just occurred to him.

“Did you put it on silent mode?” she asked.

He pulled it out and looked. “No. But a few days ago I turned off a lot of notifications that I used to get all the time.”

He’d told himself he had to focus on the people in front of him. When he was working and his phone went off, he just ignored it, but it was sitting on his desk and he could glance over to see if it was a notification for a news article or a sports score, a friend texting, or his parents.

Though he had a lot of pop-ups that he cleared, it wasn’t anything important.

“Did you do it for me or just in general?”

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