Page 21 of Studious
“Well, thanks.” I hope he’ll get the hint and leave, but I can almost predict his next words.
Yep, here they come: “But it was so good.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t do more than one night.” Which I told him.
Alden’s watching us with the sort of fascination usually reserved for60 Minutes—it’s not something you were planning on watching, but you got sucked in, and you won’t want to tell your friends because it’s not at all cool, but it’s kind of absorbing anyway. Iaminteresting, but this is embarrassing. Or it will be, if I don’t turn this encounter around.
“Look,” I say. “Thanks for the compliment, but it’s not going to happen again.”
“Actually,” Alden says, “he’s with me.” He scoots over to my side of the desk and stands next to me.
I force myself to maintain my best courtroom demeanor—no unplanned reactions, ever. But inside, I’m grinning. Thanks, Alden, you’ve made my day.
“Then what were you doing with me the other night?” Earl sounds indignant—it seems like it’s on Alden’s behalf, which is both surprising and cute—and his eyes are wide as he looks at Alden. “Does he cheat on you?” he demands. I’m grateful Earl seems to have not picked up on how my “one night” rule applies in this context. I decide to roll with it.
I get up and put my arm around Alden’s shoulder, kissing the top of his head. He smells like shampoo. “Nah, we’re new. When you find the one, you know he’s forever.”
“He’s decided to hang up his belt for the last time,” Alden says, sliding an arm around my waist and giving me a squeeze. “Now that we’re together.” He looks up at me and smiles, and it hits me somewhere weird. It’s a sweet smile, and his eyes sparkle with intelligence and good humor.
Earl’s face drops, and I’m almost sorry I’m hurting him. Almost. He knew the rules. “Okay, well. It was worth a shot.” He shoves his hands into his pockets and makes his way out, escorted by Shelby, who magically appears, leaving Alden in my office. Hastily, I take my arm off him and look down, resisting the urge to run my fingers through his messy hair. “Sorry you had to see that. Thanks for your quick thinking.”
“It’s okay,” he says. “I’ve never done anything like that before. That kind of situation is new to me.”
“Not for me, although usually they don’t show up at work,” I mutter.
Alden’s still standing next to me, and I can feel the heat from his body. Now that I sorta hugged him, I’m aware of his compact form underneath those clothes.Which I should definitely ignore.“You didn’t come in here to rescue me. How can I help you?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says, setting a file down before me. “Do you mind taking a look at this prebill before we finalize and send it to the client? Noah asked if this entry was an error.” He points, and I notice his long, slender fingers. “It looks fine to me, but it might be a duplicate of this other one?”
Alden isn’t the typical guy I pick up who knows the score.
Nevertheless, I find him very intriguing.
CHAPTER5
Alden
Ifloat back to my office and settle into my chair, touching my hair where Danny kissed it. All I can think is,I had my arm around Danny Villaseñor. Like it was natural. Like I was meant to fit there.
Today’s the best day of my life.
I blink. Okay, I need to calm my wishing-I-had-a-guy self down. I have a crush on a man who, by definition, isn’t one I should have a crush on, because it can’t go anywhere. He doesn’t give guys more than one night. And even if I got lucky on one night, I’d have to see him the next day, and that would be as awkward as that one time—okay,multipletimes—I waved at someone only to realize they were greeting the person behind me.
I need to distract myself. I enter search terms on my computer for a report, but it’s going to take a moment to compile, so I pull out my phone. Before I know what I’m doing, I enter “Danny Villaseñor”—oops—and find his social media. I look at his profile picture. He’s such a hottie.
The icon’s still spinning as my computer gathers the data, so I click around a bit. He’s got a smaller social media following than I expected, actually, although it’s more than I have. To be fair, I have no following, because my accounts are private, I don’t post anything, and my only social media friends are people I know IRL. That’s not really a recipe to go viral, so obviously I care not about social media success.
In the public photos and the ones Danny’s tagged in, he looks really, really, really good. Damn crush. I put my phone away without adding him as a friend or following him anywhere.
My report is ready, and I go back to work, but I smell his lingering cologne and feel the phantom weight of his arm around me all morning.
* * *
After lunch, I hear footsteps, then Danny talking with another attorney, who I think is named Charlie. They pause near my office, likely making copies at the copy machine next door. Even though Noah told me they want the firm to be paperless, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done with original signatures.
“Damn, dude,” Charlie says. “He really came into the office? Talk about a hookup gone bad.”
Danny sighs. “Some guys don’t want to believe the rules apply to them.”
