Page 15 of Love Out Loud

His eyes narrowed as he studied her face. “Point well made, and you most certainly won your bet.” After an uncomfortable moment of eye contact, he said, “Can the loser buy you a cup of coffee or something?” He nodded to a bagel shop across the street.

Oh, God. Was he asking her out on a date? No. Of course not. Why on earth would he do something like that? He was just being nice and doing what outgoing people do—being polite and not just saying bye and taking off.

“Uh, no.” She glanced at him, and a brief flash of disappointment crossed his face. She supposed a guy this good-looking was rarely turned down even when only being polite. “Thank you, though. I’ve got appointments scheduled for the rest of the day.”

“Share a ride, then?” he offered. “Since your business is in the bottom of our apartment building.”

Man, oh, man were those trees interesting. Far more interesting than the prospect of being alone in the back seat of a cab with him, or that freckle under his bottom lip, or her heart beating out of her chest.No.No way could she be in a car with this guy right now without saying something ridiculous and making a total fool of herself.

“Thanks for the offer, but no,” she said in a voice far calmer than she felt. “I have some errands to run on the way back.”

She half expected him to offer to go along with her out of extrovert pride, but to her relief, he only nodded and opened his ride app.

What should she do? Wait for his cab to come while inevitably engaging in disastrous chitchat, maybe even about the dreaded speech, or head out like she was dying to do? Instead, she avoided making a decision and continued her avoidance tactic of staring at the sunlight flickering through the branches.

“Nice trees in this park,” he said.

Busted. “Yeah.”

God, she wished her dogs were here to give her something to focus on other than trees or that freaking freckle. A few more moments of silence stretched between them, but he seemed calm and happy to stare at the park beside her. She hated the awkwardness that had fallen over her like an itchy blanket. This was how things always were with people she wasn’t close to, but for some reason, she and Jake had seemed to bypass this kind of weirdness. Well, until now. What had changed?

She studied him as he stared out over the park, and it dawned on her that it washer. She was starting to think of him as a friend despite his not meeting her three requirements. Her stomach flipped over. She’d been seduced by a freaking freckle.

“So, how about a coaching session in my office?” he suggested. “No group. Just you and me.”

The words made her heart jump into her throat. She glanced over, and her eyes focused on his mouth like a laser scope. What was wrong with her? Considering the idiotic way she was acting, being alone with him was hazardous.

“Sure. When?” she asked, staring at the streetlight straight ahead on the other side of the crosswalk, acting like she didn’t feel like she was falling off a cliff.

“I’ll check my schedule and text you. It would be helpful if you could outline the main points you want to cover in your speech, and we could work from there. Is that acceptable?”

“Sure.” Fantastic. Homework. This was a perfect time to leave. “I should go, so I make my appointments on time.”

“Okay.”

She stared at the trees, then back at him, hating that she sucked so bad at being normal. “Okay, well, bye then.” She turned to leave and only got a couple of steps before he spoke.

“I would say thanks for the adventure this morning, but, uh…” His voice drifted off, with the obvious unfinished words hanging between them. Again, she felt like a jerk for putting him through that, but hey, all was fair in life and self-improvement, right?

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Okay, bye for real this time.” Then she dropped her gaze, because that was a super ridiculous thing to say, and again, that freckle was acting like a tongue beacon. Before she said something else inane, she turned and headed off toward home.“Okay, bye for real this time.” Seriously?

She decided to go to the next subway station over instead of the closest one. A longer walk would give her time to get her head together. Though she seriously doubted there was a walk long enough for that. Something about this guy got to her, and she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. She pictured that delectable little freckle again and fought the urge to look over her shoulder to check him out.

Yeah, definitely not a good thing.

---