Page 58 of Best Man
“Why?”
I nudge him. “Were you an unusually curious child, Zebadiah? Because all the signs are pointing that way.” He opens his mouth to answer, and I hold up my hand. “We are doing this so we can get to know something about each other. This is how people date.”
He shakes his head. “It’s howyoudate. I’m not sure about anyone else. What happened to dinner and drinks?”
“Zeb, Zeb, that’s other people, baby.”
“Please don’t call me baby,” he says in a slightly anguished voice.
“What shall I call you, then? Bunny? Pet? Lovie? Princess?”
“No,” he says in a revolted tone of voice.
“Anyway, Mr Evans,” I say loudly. “That sort of boring date is not for us.”
“It isn’t?”
“Nuh-uh. No. We are going to do dating a different way.”
He folds his arms and grins at me. His smile is wide, his eyes very blue, and for a second I lose my train of thought.
I shake my head to clear it. “I was thinking about this last night, and I came to an executive decision.” I wink at him. “I put the word executive in there. You should be thrilled.”
“Ecstatic,” he drawls, and I snort.
“Okay, you dated Patrick for five years during which you no doubt alternated periods of being extremely bored with the odd bit of wanting to murder him.” His mouth twitches. “You probably did lots of really boring stuff. While you were doing that, I didn’t so much date as just try to keep up with whatever criminal impulses my dates had towards my money.” He straightens, looking cross, and I wave my hand. “Never mind,” I say airily. “The point is that you and I are different.”
I sober quickly.Are we, though? Are we different or am I just an amusement and he’ll go back to what he knows?
“We are different,” he says quietly, his eyes steady on mine. “Don’t ask me how, but we are.”
I smile gratefully at him. “So, we’re each going to come up with dates that are different. Something a bit quirky. Something that shows the other person something about us.” I wave my hand at the bookshop, its windows shining in the sun. “This is mine. I love travelling. I’ve been all over the world, usually on a very small budget. This is always my first port of call.” I pause before looking hard at him. “But absolutely no sex tonight.”
He blinks and an old man huffs disapprovingly as he walks past us.
“Thank you for broadcasting that to the entire street,” Zeb says dryly. “You know I live to share my personal life with complete strangers.”
I smile somewhat nervously. “I don’t think we should have sex while doing these dates,” I say softly.
“Why?”
The bald question surprises me, and for a second I fumble with an answer. “Because we know we’re good in bed together.” I pause. “We’re actually epic in bed.” He smiles slowly with heat in his eyes, and I shake my head. “But if we’re trying this, I don’t want to get waylaid by that. Because otherwise that’s all we’ll ever be.” I look at him nervously. “What do you think?”
He’s silent for a long second, his eyes examining my face as if he’s thinking of picking me out in a line-up. Then he smiles. “I agree.”
I sag. “You do?”
He nods. “I want to get to know you, not just your arsehole.”
There’s a horrified gasp behind him and he sighs and closes his eyes.
I laugh and grab his arm. “We’d better go inside, Zeb,” I say in a loud voice. “You really need to learn some discretion.”
I usher him into the bookshop, inhaling the scent of the books greedily and looking for the wall of globes which has always fascinated me. When I look at him, he’s doing the same thing. When he meets my eyes, we smile at each other in perfect accord.
“Okay,” I say. “We’re going to split up to make our choices. We’ll meet when we’ve chosen and discuss our books.”
“You’re so bossy,” he murmurs.
