Page 51 of Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor 2)

So what was she doing? They didn’t have any chemistry. Not even friend-chemistry.

“So what do you like to do outside work?” See? Steve was trying.

She thought about it. “You know what? If I’m being honest, I’d have to say that what I do outside work is look at real estate ads. Go to open houses.” She winced, facing the fact that she was a one-trick pony. “I’m sort of working on developing new interests.” She fiddled with the stem of her empty wineglass. “Wait! I did recently go stand-up paddleboarding. I loved it! I think I’ll be doing more of that.”

“Dax is into that.”

“Yeah. He’s the one who took me.”

Steve cocked his head. “I thought you two hated each other.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve come to a truce of sorts.”

“Amy, can I ask you a serious question? And you answer honestly, even if you think I’m not going to like the answer?”

She sat up straight, startled by the abrupt question. “Okay.”

“I have no chance with you, do I?”

She blinked and could feel herself starting to flush.

“Please tell me the truth.”

Steve really was a good guy. Tall and dark, he had pale skin, probably from all the time he spent inside coding. But the effect was nice—kind of vampiric, but in a good way. And he was nice. Polite and interested in her. She owed him the truth. “No. I’m sorry.” But then she rushed to soften the blow. “It’s not you. It’s me. I’m just out of this long relationship, as you know.” Heck, he’d been at the wedding and so had witnessed her humiliation. “So I’m not even sure what I want right now.”

“Maybe what you want is Dax.”

“What? No!” Why was everyone always trying to push them together? “Dax is a total player.”

Steve shrugged. “I guess so.” But the way he said it made her think he didn’t really believe it. “We should probably go.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again, wishing she had a gaggle of girlfriends so she could set up Steve with one of them.

He smiled then and offered her a hand. “Don’t be. And don’t be offended when I tell you this, but getting you to go out with me also won me a bet with the other guys.”

“What?” She was wary, not sure she wanted to know any more.

“It’s nothing gross. Just that we had a little pool. Everyone put in ten bucks, and the pot was for the first guy who could get you to go out with him. They were all concocting elaborate schemes. Abdul was programming a video game in which the player shoots Mason look-alikes. Ken was trying to run into you in the kitchen so much that he pretty much set up a mobile workstation there.”

“I have seen Ken a lot lately!”

“Yeah, well, don’t take offense.” He ducked his head as if he was embarrassed. “We all just…really like you.”

“I’m not offended. I’m flattered!” It was the truth. It was also a shot of self-confidence that might serve her well on her date with the Tinder guy. “And you.” She took his arm as they started strolling toward the subway. “You just asked, no gimmicks!”

“Yeah. I thought maybe the direct way was best. More efficient.”

“You were right.” She shot him a grin. “But I have to say, I would like to see that video game of Abdul’s.”

Date number two was a whole different deal. Amy was nervous. She and her friends in college had gone on a few pub crawls where she’d ended up going home with a guy she’d been flirting with. Okay, twice. And then there’d been Mason. But she’d never gone out with the explicit aim of ending the evening…getting it on.

Gah, she couldn’t even say it in her head. She was going to have to work on that because she suspected that if she couldn’t say it, she might have some problems putting it into action.

Sex. She wanted to have sex with Dax.

No! She wanted to have sex with Mr. Tinder.

Mr. Tinder who had a name, which was Greg. Greg Lewis, with whom she did not work. Greg Lewis, who had never made a speech about how she didn’t owe him anything and then made out with her in an elevator.

---