Page 25 of How to Deal

Saturday morning, I’m staring at my iPad drinking my coffee and waiting for Casey to get out of my bathroom. I have to work this morning, and then we’re heading to the bridal expo, but it’s nice with the warm sun coming in through my window and the fresh aroma of black coffee, puppy on my lap. . . . Makes me want to sit here all day.

Just as I’m contemplating ways I might be able to fake a sickness and not do a damn thing today, someone knocks at my door.

Oliver’s ears perk up, a soft growl emitting from his tiny body. “Shhhh.” I pat his head softly, trying to calm the crazy little bugger. “No need to get all worked up.”

Leaving Oliver on the couch, I open the door and come face-to-face with Tathan once again. The moment I see his face, his photographs flash in my head and that damn friend request. Goddamn you, Casey.

I want to shut the door in his face, but I can’t. I simply stand there and stare like a freaking idiot.

It’s his appearance I can’t shake—dressed in black slacks with a matching black button-down long-sleeved shirt. Of course, the top few buttons are undone, and my eyes are drawn there. There’s no denying how sexy this man is, unfortunately.

Hello, Johnny Cash.

I have half a mind to lean forward and smell him. I bet he smells amazing. Not doing this comes from my impeccable restraint against him. There’s just something about a man who looksthatgood I can’t quite resist.

Tathan grins, looking over my dress. “You look hot.” He licks his lips, leaning into the doorframe, his hands in his pockets. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

He always ruins it by talking. “What do you want?”

“You.”

I roll my eyes taking a step back. “Funny.”

“I try to be.”

I start to close the door in his face, but his foot stops me. “You forgot this.” He hands me my power bill I must have dropped last night in his apartment.

I meet his eyes, and I regret it simply for the fact that they draw me in with their tenderness. “You know. . .” I clear my throat when I realize how scratchy my voice sounds. “I’m fully capable of retrieving my own mail. How do you even get it? My mailbox locks.”

“I have connections. And how else would I annoy you?” he asks, leaning closer to me, as if he’s waiting for me to invite him in. I don’t because Casey is in there and she will make it awkward by saying something in front of him.

“You look good. Where are you heading?” His eyes rake down my body again. “I thought you had to work today?”

“I do have to work,” I tell him, avoiding where I’m going after work.

“Ah, come on,” he whispers, “give me something.”

Don’t talk like that. Don’t alter your voice to a whisper around me because it weakens my hatred for you.

“Give you what?”

“You never answered my question.” Without any shame, he looks at my tits.

“My eyes are up here, dude. What question?”

He nods at my dress, and I remember he asked who the lucky guy was.

I choke on my own spit, which by the way, is embarrassing when you do it in front of Tathan. “No one.”

What’s even more embarrassing than choking on your own spit is biting your tongue in the process in front of quite possibly the hottest male on the face of the planet.

“Okay, so if there’s no one, then why is it that you keep saying no?”

I want to shove him against the wall and kiss him so badly. His lips remind me of pillows, so soft and I bet they’re warm, too.

Folding my arms over my chest, I try not to stare at him. “Because I don’twantto go out with you.”

“Why?”

---