Page 54 of Give Me a Chance
“How about you? How’s dating going?” Natalie asks me, her voice is playful.
“Oh, you know. It’s fine. Nothing to write home about.” If by fine, I mean I haven’t opened a dating app in weeks. But I sure as hell don’t plan to freak her out by telling her that.
“Good. I mean good that it’s fine.” She quickly recovers, but my heart decides she meant it’s good it hasn’t been going well.
She drops her container into the recycling and heads towards the door.
“I guess I’ll see you later.” Her smirk is pointed, but she’s quite a mystery to me.
“You’re done for the day?”
“I have some meetings outside of the office, and I’ll head to yoga straight after.”
“Enjoy yoga.”I’ll surely enjoy imagining you in the painted-on yoga pants.
Eight o’clock rolls aroundquick as I FaceTime with Sarah and the boys. I throw on a black Henley paired with jeans and head out.
Anne’s the only one there when I arrive, which isn’t unusual since I managed to arrive five minutes early.
“Long time no see,” I joke, giving her a small hug.
“Ha-ha. It kind of is, since you spend your days at the office focused on someone else.”
“Ooh, is that jealousy I hear, Annie?”
“Envy, to be precise. It’s sickening to look at you shoot heart-eyes at Natalie, while the best date I had in the last month ended in a high five.” She groans.
“Don’t worry. My eyes might say different, but I’m not in a much better situation with ‘Ms. I Don’t Do Commitment’.” I clink my beer bottle to her gin glass.
The others join soon after. Natalie sits across from me, acting as if nothing’s going on between us, so I follow along. She’s in a tight, short black dress and heeled boots. At least three men are checking her out as I speak, not including me. My cock is standing on business, ready if she decides to look our way twice.
Connor is saying something to Noah and me, but I have a hard time focusing while she’s telling a story to Anne and Rina. Her voice and laughter fill the room, even with the music going. Connor smacks the back of my head, pulling my attention back.
“Sorry.” I flinch.
“Try to keep the drool inside.” He smirks, making Noah laugh.
“You were saying?”
“I was talking about how my latest project is ahead of schedule. And for my next one, I have a special idea.” His voice lowers. The girls are still laughing at their own stuff, not bothered by us. “Well, you’re now a part of them, but I guess you’ll stick to the guy code first.” He regards me with caution. “So, for my next project, I want to make the BYC a building.” My sip catches in my throat, so I cough out.
“What?” I whisper, while Noah lets out a low whistle.
“I want to make a new office space for BYC, but not only that. I plan to make space for different programs of theirs to take place. Of course, an ice rink isn’t in the plans, but you know, for regular programs, I think it would work. What do you think?”
“I think we would have a weeklong party at the office if that happened,” I say, still in shock. It would change so much for us. We struggle to take count of all the volunteers and the kids because our programs are scattered around the city. It’s also a problem finding spaces to rent out where our programs can take place. This would be a game changer.
“That’s pretty sick,” Noah adds, nodding his head.
“Of course, the BYC would need to pay some kind of rent, but I’d be the landlord, so you know it would be lower than it currently is. Rina still doesn’t know. I plan to make it a surprise, so don’t you dare tell her.” Both of us agree.
The girls join our conversation, and soon we’re on the topic of skiing.
“We’re thinking of renting a cabin in Stevens Pass. Connor wants to teach us to ski,” Rina says.
“Ooh, sounds fun. I’ve never been skiing,” Natalie responds, her lips wrapped around the straw of her drink.
“Neither have I.” I shrug. With a single mom, skiing was not in the yearly budget.
