Page 30 of Sexted By Santa
He rubbed at the back of his neck. “It was nothing.”
“Not to her. It meant a lot.”
Christian shifted a bit uncomfortably. “So, you’d come to this party with me as a thank-you?”
“Exactly. Consider it me returning the favor. One good deed in exchange for another.”
It wasn’t entirely true. I’d be getting something out of the party too. A chance to get a little closer to Christian and suss out whether there was any potential between us. We’d clicked too well on the app to entirely dismiss the possibility. But I wasn’t sure Christian would be open to the idea just yet.
He hummed, looking thoughtful. “My department head does think my relationship is, uh, not new. I could find another date, but they’d be a stranger. I know you a little better, I suppose…”
Once again, such a flatterer. But for Tori, I’d put up with Christian’s oblivious rudeness.
“Nothing says serious like a boyfriend with a daughter.”
I should know. Very few people wanted to be that serious. That was one of the reasons I’d started seeking out only casual hookups. I got tired of opening myself up to more, only to have people nope out on me when they realized a child was more responsibility than they wanted. Being a single dad was hard, but I’d rather rely on myself than be let down by yet another person.
“I’m terrible with kids,” Christian said, right on cue.
“I’m not surprised.”
Christian looked affronted. “Notthatterrible.”
I smirked. “You did okay with Tori this morning, but that was a five-minute chat. If you really want to prove it, it’ll take more than that.”
Like a date to a holiday party Tori will love.
Christian finished off his wine, then drew in a deep breath. I could see that he wanted to take me up on it.
“It wouldn’t be real,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow. “The date, you mean?”
“Right. It’s just a fake date to appease my boss.”
“Sure.”
“Just the one date and we part ways and never speak of it again. I don’t want things to get too weird. We’re neighbors.”
I thought we’d passed weird a mile back, but I didn’t argue.
“So we pretend we’re dating for your boss, but we don’t hook up.”
“Right.”
“And during this…date, will we need to kiss?”
He shifted on his chair. “Best not.”
“Hold hands?”
He hesitated. “Maybe? I do need to be convincing. But no one will be surprised I’m not into PDAs.”
That sounded about right. It should be okay to bring Tori along then. She understood the concept of a date. If it was friendly but not too serious, she wouldn’t be confused.
“So, no kissing. No sex. Just a totally platonic, totally fake date.”
“Correct.”
