Page 730 of Love Bites

She wasn’t expecting anybody to show up on her doorstep, certainly not Math, because they were supposed to meet at the restaurant an hour and a half later. There was no way that he would show up at her messy apartment while she was still fresh from the shower and wearing nothing but a towel tucked under her armpits. She shouldn’t have opened the door like that at all.

But just then, her mind was whirling—analyzing every word that Math had ever uttered, all the choices of dresses or slacks in her closet to wear on the date that night, what type of makeup she should put on like demure natural pinks and peaches or smoky eyes and scarlet lips, whether she should put on perfume or whether he might be allergic to it, and the fact that she really should pick up her small apartment in case she was hit by a car and killed while she was on the date with Math because Bethany wouldn’t want her mother to see her clothes strewn over the furniture or the paperbacks straddling every arm on every chair but she wasn’t going to conjure some apparitions to do it because her spell might summon another glitterbomb—so she just grabbed the doorknob and flung her front door open.

Math stood outside.

He wore dark, slim pants that clung to his long legs and muscled thighs and a white shirt, open at his throat.

At least two dozen red roses filled his arms, wrapped in paper.

He looked at her from over the top of the flowers, his golden eyes wary. “I couldn’t wait.”

Bethany stepped back, grabbing the towel wrapped around her naked body just in case it loosened because she was breathing too fast. “I’m not ready yet.”

He glanced down at her skinny legs sticking out of the dingy towel, and then looked right back at her eyes. “I don’t mind. I’ll wait in the car or something. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”

“Don’t you have spreadsheets to look at?”

“I don’t care,” he said.

“Don’t you have thieves to stop from stealing your hoard?”

“I don’t care.”

“Doesn’t the very important Chief Financial Officer have important places to go and people to see?”

“I couldn’t wait until tonight. I just wanted to see you.”

“Well, you’d better come in, then.”

Math walked inside her apartment, his eyes locked on hers. At first, Bethany was impressed that he hadn’t ogled her in the towel even once, but his eyes staring into hers were becoming more predatory by the minute.

Math held the enormous bouquet of red roses out to her. “I thought you might like these. You’re not allergic, right?”

“I love roses. You’re not allergic to perfume, are you?”

“I love perfume. On girls, I mean. But it’s not like I’m running around sniffing women, looking for perfume. But I’d like perfume on you. I mean, no, I’m not allergic to it.”

Bethany took the bouquet from his arms and asked him, “Are we both really nervous?”

Math laughed. He laughed so hard that he leaned over and braced his hands on his knees. “I knew coming over here so early was a bad idea, but just like every bad idea, it sounded like a great idea at the time. I knew it would be crazy to show up at your apartment when we were supposed to meet at the restaurant. I knew it would be worse to get here two hoursbeforewe were supposed to meet at the restaurant. But I couldn’t help myself. It’s like I watched myself walk to my rental car, get in, buy the flowers, and drive over here, howling at myself all the way that this was a terrible idea and you were going to think that I was stalking you. Do you think I’m stalking you?”

Bethany carried the roses into the kitchen area, over to one side of her tiny apartment. “No, but the night’s not over yet.”

“That’s encouraging. At least I haven’t scared you off yet.”

Bethany felt like she should pursue this, at least a little. “Do you have a problem with scaring off girls?”

“I’ve never done anything like coming over to a girl’s place two hours before a date before. I mean, I show up for dates. I wouldn’t stand someone up or ghost on them. I’m not a jerk. But I don’t do stuff like this.”

She hunted in the cabinets for a minute, just in case her kitchen had grown a huge vase, and then snapped her fingers to summon one out of the ether, already half-full of water. She stuffed the rose stems into the vase. There were so many of them, they barely fit. “Okay, if it gets weird, I’ll tell you.”

He walked around behind her, probably perusing her small and messy apartment. “Deal.”

Bethany was a little steamy from the hot shower and a little warm from seeing Math in clingy, casual clothes instead of a more concealing suit. “You know what is weird? Me, standing here in a towel. I think I’ll get dressed and put on some makeup. I’ll get ready as soon as I can.”

When she turned, she expected to find that Math had walked past her and was heading for her living room.

She had kind of hoped that he would be standing right behind her, so that when she turned, he would take her into his arms. Her towel might fall off. Things like that could happen.

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