Page 33 of One Hotlanta Night
I just hope she feels it too.
And if not, I’m gonna make her fall in love with me anyway.
I still might not know her birthday or favorite color, but I know how big her heart is. She’s smart, funny, driven… confidence never looked so sexy on a woman. And having had the full package in my arms only seventy-two hours ago, I don’t know how I’m going to make it til our date in a few days. All I want to do is hold her, kiss her, and get on my knees before her.
Put a ring on it too, but I’m pretty sure she won’t mind me being on my knees beforehand.
I can’t wait to taste her.
“Holy shit, man, you’ve been on the phone for three hours! Goldman’s gonna kill you!” Adam chuckles as he rounds the corner of my cubicle and sees me stretching and cracking my neck.
“That’s why you’re covering for me, man,” I say as I hold my knuckles out for a fist bump.
“Who the hell was that, Michael?” Matt comes up behind him, his smarmy grin wild and crooked. Just what I need.Not.
“That was my girlfriend.” I fix him with a look as I lean back in my chair and lace my fingers behind my head.
“You’re crazy, you know that? Who the hell spends that much time on the phone? You could’ve been to her place, bagged and tagged it, and still got back to work in time for that 2:00 meeting.” Matt shakes his head, cocky-bastard written all over his face as I glare at him.
“First off, don’t talk about my girl like that. She’s not one of your chicks and you’d probably get more action with the ladies if you treated them nicer.” He scoffs at me, but I raise my eyebrow at him. “And second, when you meet the right person—if you can get your head out of your ass long enough to score someone decent—you’ll take all the time you need in order to get to know them. Not just get up their skirt.”
“Wait, are y’all talking about that pretty young thing from the club the other night?” he asks. My fists curl at his description of Vivian, but Adam’s hand pressed against my chest reminds me I can’t afford to screw this job up too.
“Yeah, Michael here just spent the whole morning on the phone with her.” Adam’s casual barb hits the intended mark. He’s not a fan of Matt either; no one is.
Matt’s face flushes, his eyes narrowing as he shoots me a dirty look. “You fucker! You cockblocked me, man!” he snarls, sticking his skinny finger in my chest.
I snort, shaking my head. “Hate to break it to ya, bud, but you never had a chance.”
“I was dancing with her first!” he sputters out, chest heaving.
“No, man, you were bouncing around her, getting in her space, and talking her ear off.” I smirk.
“That’s not what happened.”
“That’s exactly what I saw. Because I was watching her from the moment I stepped in there. And I saw how she was with you. Your obnoxious behavior just made it easier to make a move.” No need to rub in his face that I would’ve taken her from him anyway. He’s already hyped up enough.
“What?” His face is beet red at this point. “Are you kidding? You just swooped in and—”
“That’s exactly what I did.”Because she was always meant to be mine, I think, but don’t say aloud. “Listen, Matt, don’t be a dick about this. You’re not even here for that long; you’ll be leaving in a few weeks to go back to Alabama. And a lady like that needs something more than a quick fling, hookup, whatever you want to call it.”
“Oh, and you think I can’t make it worth her while?”
“I’m saying she deserves more.” She deserveseverything. And I’m the man who’s gonna give it to her.
Matt’s head looks like it’s about to pop off with his tirade so I decide to end it right here. He never stood a chance with my woman anyway, this is all just bluster.
“Have some class and bow out. Vivian ismine.” He looks like he’s about to protest so I decide to divert his attention. Anything to get his stale coffee breath out of my cubicle. “You know, I heard Amy down in marketing was asking about you.” Not entirely true; Janice told me she’d been asking about me. Even if I hadn’t met Vivian, I still wouldn’t be interested. She seemed like a nice, sweet girl, but had none of the fire like my woman had.
My woman. Damn, I loved how that sounded.
So maybe I can steer Matt in Amy’s direction and help both of them out. “I heard she really likes the coffee shop down on Peachtree Street. I think it’s called Starry? Starbucks? Something like that. Why don’t you take her there?” He still doesn’t look appeased, but I’ve had enough of his bullshit. If this is what it’s like to date guys my age, I despair for my younger sister.
He aims one last glare at me, throwing a, “Get fucked, man,” over his shoulder as he stomps off. Down the same hallway as marketing I notice. That guy is too easily influenced.
“Well played, man.” Adam chuckles as he slow claps. “That girl of yours must be something special.” The smile spreading across my face says it all as he starts laughing. “Well, damn. You’ve got it bad. Janice is gonna eat this up.”
“All right, don’t start singing Usher at me, dude.” I smack him on the shoulder as we walk out of my cubicle. It’s past lunchtime and I need to grab something from the vending machine if I’m gonna survive another tedious meeting of why our vendors can’t deliver on this project like they promised. If only people would say what they mean, mean what they say, and then do the actual work, half these problems would be solved before they even began. Just one of the many things Vivian and I agreed upon; finally, someone whogetsit. She didn’t shy away from my intensity and passion, she freakingmatchedit.
