Page 39 of Break My Heart
‘I can’t tonight,’ I say. ‘But maybe some other night.’
‘What’s wrong with tonight? Did you already make plans?’
‘Tonight just doesn’t work. I’ll call you later this week.’
‘Um, okay. Bye.’ She sounds disappointed, but she shouldn’t be. We agreed to keep this casual. It was her idea. And I alreadymade plans with Gina. I’m still shocked she agreed to come over, especially late at night, when things tend to happen. I don’t think anything will, but I’d like it to. When I’m around her I keep getting the urge to kiss her, but I know I can’t.
I need to keep my relationship with Gina strictly professional. Maybe we could be friends, but only casual friends. I can’t confide in her, and I can’t let my guard down. I need to remember that tonight and not be distracted by those beautiful brown eyes or those huge tits or that round little ass.
Shit, I’m in trouble.
Chapter 9
Gina
‘What time are you leaving?’ Lexi asks as she waits for me to fill a glass from the tap.
‘In a few minutes.’ I hand her the glass. She adds it to her tray, then takes off to a table with four guys.
‘You said you were leaving ten minutes ago.’ Aria comes up beside me as I wipe down the counter. ‘Just go. I can finish up here.’
‘I shouldn’t leave when we’re still open.’ I could, but I’m not ready to. I never should’ve agreed to this. Sawyer’s really hot and I’m starting to like him, which makes having dinner with him a bad idea. We’ll be alone together, in his apartment, late at night.
‘I can handle it,’ Aria says. ‘We’re not that busy.’
We are, but not compared to opening week. Since the beer special ended, we’ve had a steady stream of customers, but it’s nothing like last week when the place was filled to capacity.
‘Did you at least text him to let him know you’d be late?’ Aria asks.
‘No.’ I gather up the empty glasses from the bar. ‘This isn’t a date. It doesn’t matter if I’m a few minutes late.’
‘You should still text him. What if he has dinner waiting?’
‘Then I’ll eat it when I get there.’ I set the glasses in the sink.
‘It’s really sweet of him to make you dinner,’ Aria says. She keeps insisting this is a date even though I’ve told her at least ten times that it’s not.
‘He wants information. That’s why he’s doing this, and why I agreed to it. I’m going to prove to him that his charm doesn’t work on me. He can make me dinner, buy me flowers, but it’s not going to make me tell him anything.’
She gets in front of me. ‘You think he’s charming?’
‘No, buthethinks he is.’ I go around her and continue wiping counters. ‘Sawyer’s a player. He does and says whatever he has to in order to win a girl over, or in my case, to get me to spill my secrets.’
‘Which are what?’
‘My hard cider recipe. Beer recipes. Who knows? I just know I can’t trust him.’ I notice a man at the end of the bar holding up his empty glass. ‘Another Lucky Lager?’ I say to him.
He nods.
‘I got it,’ Aria says, grabbing a glass and going over to the tap. ‘Gina, just go. I’ve got this. If I need something, I’ll call you.’
I sigh, setting my bar mop down. ‘Okay, fine, I’ll go and get it over with.’
Even though I’m pretending to dread this dinner, I’m actually looking forward to it. I hate to admit this, but I like hanging out with Sawyer. He’s fun and cute and he smiles a lot. He has good energy, the kind that draws people in. I bet he was one of the popular kids back in high school, one of those guys who ignored girls like me, a loner who wore all black and pretended not to care what people thought or if they liked me.
Sports are the only reason I had friends back in high school. I was on the track team, the volleyball team, and the swim team. Spending all that time with my teammates, a few of them became friends, but we weren’t really close. I’m not good at opening up to people, probably because I was raised by two men who’d rather die than share their feelings.
Aria brings the guy his beer then walks back to me. ‘You could act a little more excited. The guy’s making you dinner.’
