Page 19 of Love Redesigned
“You do?” I picked up my phone and glanced at the time. It was getting late, but notthatlate.
“I promised a friend I’d stop by her party.” He looked at Rizzo. “You want to come? There might be some company that interests you, if you know what I mean.”
I rolled my eyes at the subsequent exclamations of machismo, but it could have been worse. He could have included Alex in his invitation. And while the thought of my brother party-hopping in search of women was bad, thinking of Alex alongside him was enough to make me feel like I’d eaten curdled cream and rotten tomatoes.
I followed Isaac and Rizzo out of the restaurant, Alex behind me, feeling suddenly deflated. It had been months, years even, since I’d spent any time with Isaac that hadn’t felt strained and uncomfortable. The dinner had definitely held moments of tension, but the last few minutes when we’d talked about growing up, laughing at old stories, had felt good.Reallygood. Like maybe it was possible for us to actually figure out a way to actually get along. But then he’d ended the evening so quickly, and in a juvenile way that reminded me of all the reasons why I found him so irritating.
Isaac stopped when he reached the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and turned to face me. “Will you get home okay?” he asked.
I stared. “I live here, Isaac. I know how to get myself home.”
“Right. Okay. I was just checking.” He looked to Rizzo. “Ready?”
Rizzo nodded.
“I’ll see you back at the hotel?” Isaac said to Alex, who nodded in response. Almost like an afterthought, Isaac turned to me one more time, wrapping his arms around me in a vice-like squeeze. “Bye, Dandi. You know I love you, right?”
I shrugged out of his grip. “Fine, fine. Goodbye.”
I watched Isaac turn the corner and disappear out of sight, then looked at Alex, still standing beside me. “He’s something else, isn’t he?”
“He is...the most entertaining person I’ve ever worked for. I’ll say that much.” Alex pushed his hands into the pockets of his suit. “Do you want to walk for a bit?”
I hesitated. Did I?
Curse his deep brown eyes. If he hadn’t looked so handsome standing in the glow of the dim streetlight overhead, I might have had the courage to say no.
Instead, I shrugged my shoulders. “Sure,” I said. “Walking sounds good.”
Chapter Six
Alex
We walked side by side for half a block or so, my hands shoved into my pockets, her arms folded tightly across her middle. We probably looked like a walking argument to anyone observing from the outside. I wasn’t all that sure myself why I’d asked her to go for a walk. But I wasn’t ready for us to part ways. I’d been bitter over the comment she’d made about Sasha, but as dinner had progressed, I remembered more and more of the things I’d loved about her. Maybe we had different opinions about LeFranc, but I’d hurt her. Abandoned her. And my integrity wouldn’t let me forget that. If there was a way to make it right, I had to at least try.
“Thank you for the flowers,” she said without looking up. “They were beautiful.”
Relief flooded through me. It wasn’t like I’d been dwelling on the flowers all night, but knowing she’d appreciated the gesture and not felt weird about it was no small thing. “It felt like the least I could do. Is your dress going to be okay? It was one you made, right?”
She looked at me, surprise evident on her face. “You could tell?”
I shrugged but couldn’t keep myself from grinning. She’d made a lot of her clothes while we’d been dating; the dress she’d had on that morning had looked particularlyDani.“Is that such a surprise?”
Heat crept up her cheeks, barely visible in the dim light cast from the streetlamps above us. “Chase is getting it cleaned for me. He says he knows a guy.”
“Like a guy that isn’t just a dry cleaner?”
She smiled at the question. “This is Chase we’re talking about. An ordinary dry cleaner would never do.”
I chuckled. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s perfect, as always,” Dani said.
“I’m glad to hear it.” Silence stretched for several paces before I tried another topic. “I don’t think I realized just how different you are from your brother until I started working with him.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Tonight was actually better than it usually is.”
“I don’t remember you guys fighting all that much.”
