Page 11 of Honey, Honey
My shoulders dropped and I nodded in approval. I was relaxed, dry, had a cup of tea brewing and my apartment was semi-warm. It didn’t really get better than this after a lackluster day. I picked my cup up and made my way to my couch where I settled, balancing the cup on the arm of the couch while I picked up my phone and began scrolling mindlessly through sites and social media I didn’t keep up with in the slightest.
It was here that I was hit with a little shock that popped the bubble of relaxation I was weaving around myself.
“She’s my girl.”
Lawson Sokolov makes records with newest acquisition. Will he continue to defy the odds?
I swallowed hard, staring at the screen I held. Right there on my phone was a picture of the man in question. It was a good photo, capturing him in profile with his gaze to the side. My eyes moved along the strong line of his nose and over his full lips, and down to his jaw. The man had a great jawline, sharp and strong, just the kind that made me weak in my knees. Again, I swallowed, fingers moving away from the screen of my phone to grip the tea mug beside me. I could see Lawson’s jaw, plain as day, clenching in anger in the coffee shop before he turned to face down the blonde woman that had gone after me. I sipped from my tea, the hot liquid burning down my throat because I hadn’t bothered to wait to let it cool.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the tea induced ache in my throat. Anything other than think about him, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed in anger, the morning sunlight glinting off his hair that was a mix of brown and gold, the sides shorn short with a peppering of gray adding silver to his profile. He’d been on the warpath when he’d told off the woman, but then...but then he’d been there defending me, making up a lie about me being his fiancée to save me. God, he was absolutely beautiful, even when he was angry. Then there had been the way he’d looked at me when he’d turned to me.
“I’m really sorry about that.”
He’d spoken to me in a gentle tone, his voice a sharp departure from the way he’d talked to the blonde. This was intimate as a whisper between lovers and he’d come close, one big hand resting on the counter between us. His eyes had been soft on me. Dark hazel with ocher flecks in them that I kept seeing everywhere I went. Under normal circumstances that would be pretty stupid, but under these? A made up fiancé? A swooping in and saving my ass like a knight in shining armor? It was absolutely ridiculous and cringe worthy, but god, if there wasn’t a woman alive that wouldn’t understand me and what my imagination was forcing on me.
I kept seeing his beautiful face everywhere I went. Anytime I saw a man in a dark suit with a slightly rumpled air, I wondered if it was him and I felt my heart rise up in my chest, forcing its way up and up until it was lodged in my throat. I knew that if it was him, I wouldn’t fucking know what to say. I’d just smile and blush, the words getting all confused and twisted in my mouth while my brain spun furiously, trying to put my feelings in the right order. Things like that never came easily to me. I’d been shaking when Lawson had left the coffee shop, the words I had managed to get out to him a blessing. But then the man would turn my way and it wasn’t him. Never Lawson. It was just some man. Not Lawson, larger than life and calling mehis girl.
His girl.
Why the fuck did I like that so much? I didn’t even know the man.
“Because I’m borderline pathetic and don’t own any furniture,” I muttered, taking another sip of scalding hot tea and wincing. I had even taken another shift at A Different Brew just yesterday, a whole two days since I’d first seen Lawson, which was honestly huge for me. I didn’t take repeat jobs in the same neighborhoods in the same week, let alone the same shop, but there I was working the espresso bar with Tiff while I hoped I would run into Lawson again. I sighed, letting my head fall back against my couch because I’d watched the front door the entire day like a hawk, but each and every time someone entered the shop it hadn’t been Lawson. It was so bad that Tiffany had taken to teasing me about “having it bad for my man,” but I couldn’t really say much in my defense, because it was obvious that I was looking for him. And besides, she thought he was my fiancé, so why would I even try to rebuff something like that?
The short answer was that I couldn’t, so I did what any self-respecting modern woman did when faced with such a situation: I continued to lie.
I didn’t like lying, especially to someone that had the potential to be a friend. A real and honest one at that, but there was really no way to tell Tiff that I’d lied the first time when she asked. I could have come clean then, but I hadn’t. My bed was made and now it was time for me to lay the hell down in it and figure the rest out.
I huffed out a laugh. “What the hell was I thinking?” I asked the empty room, but there was no answer. Only the tapping of the rain against my windows and the rumble of thunder. I took another quick drink of my tea, eyes going back to the phone in my lap, back to Lawson’s photo.
The man really was gorgeous. There was no way anyone was really reading this article to learn how he was making deals, not when they could look at his face. I sighed, ready to settle in for a night of staring longingly at Lawson’s photo when my phone buzzed in my hand with a message.
See you at eight tonight. Bring your stretchy pants.
I laughed seeing the message from Tiffany and swiped up, opening it so that I could answer her. Messaging Tiffany was good. If I was doing that then I wasn’t staring at the article on Lawson like it was the latest Teen Beat. I’d agreed to dinner at Korean barbecue earlier that week and today was the day. Even if it was pouring outside I was up for braving the storm for a chance to see Tiff. The woman made me smile, genuinely made me happy, I knew that a night stuffing my face with her was the thing to get me out of lingering over Lawson for too long.
Consider it done. See ya then! :)
I sent the text, closed the browser with Lawson’s stupidly handsome face and saw that I had exactly enough time to get dressed, finish my tea and get my ass in gear to meet Tiffany. The place she had picked was just down the block from me and it wouldn’t take me very long to get there, which was a blessing considering the storm that was still raging.
I hopped off the couch tossing my phone behind me and made for my bedroom with my cup of tea in hand. I sipped at my tea, my mind already skipping ahead to dinner while I dressed. When I was done getting ready and yanked on my rain boots, Lawson Sokolov was the furthest thing from my mind. I made sure to double check my phone, keys, wallet, the routine of it working to further center me in the now. Once I was sure I was good, I left my apartment already feeling lighter. I waved at Juana, who was on her way home for the evening.
She raised an eyebrow at me when we passed but waved back all the same. “Where are you going in this rain? And at night too,” she asked, and I grinned at her question. Some people might find it nosey, but I didn’t. It felt nice to have someone looking out for me while I was coming and going in the city. I didn’t have family to do it, which made a nosey neighbor more than welcome.
“To dinner with a friend. Just over at Sik Gaek,” I told her, stopping at the top of the stairs.
Juana hummed, a hand going to her hip. “Is it a date?” she asked, not even trying to hide her curiosity. She was always wanting me to find a “good man to settle down with,” so her question was one I wasn’t surprised to hear in the slightest.
I grinned and shook my head at her. “No, it’s a friend, I swear. A girl I work with.”
“Girls can be more than friends too,” Juana insisted, apparently not willing to give up on her hopes of me finding myself someone.
I laughed. “Not this one. She’s just a friend. Pinky swear, Juana.”
She sighed at me and then waved a hand at me. “Come here.”
I walked forward without hesitation but still asked, “Why? What’s up?”
“You need an umbrella,” Juana pointed out, already moving into her apartment.
