Page 114 of Champagne Fizz

“Fuck you, man,” I growl. “Go ahead and let Arie find us in here. I’m not telling you anything you don’t have a right to know.”

“Okay, so you’re in love with her,” Connor concludes.

“I didn’t say that!”

“You didn’t have to.” Connor motions to the room, and then my whole rigmarole in defending her honor. “So is the problem that you told her you’re in love with her and she didn’t feel the same way?”

“No.” I frown at him. “I don’t know how she feels, and I didn’t tell her how I feel. Our arrangement isn’t about that.”

“Arrangement?” Connor’s eyes light up and I realize I’ve revealed too much. “Is there some kind of transaction happening between you two?”

“No!” I cross my arms over my chest. “Well, kind of. I don’t know what to call it.”

“So you’re in love with her, but there’s an arrangement that makes it not okay to be in love with her?” Connor asks, trying to put the pieces together.

“It’s a mess,” I admit, “and I don’t like messes. And frankly, I’m not interested in talking about it. So if you’d let me leave the storage closet, we can forget this conversation ever happened.”

“I don’t work that way.” Connor settles in against the locked door like he’s happy to let us run out of oxygen before he opens it. “Explain what’s so complicated. Use your words, nerd boy.”

“You realize I’m your boss, right?”

“Uh huh,” Connor says dryly, “and you realize I’m the buffer that keeps you and Arie from burning this place down and going under, right?”

“Arie’s the one who’d burn the place down,” I reply haughtily.

“AndI’mthe one who keeps her from doing it,” Connor says through clenched teeth. “So, explain what’s so damn complicated. Does Kendall have a husband or a boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Is she into girls?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re turning into Mason.”

That comment makes Connor’s eyes darken.

“Then what is it?” he pushes. “She’s too kinky? Not kinky enough? She keeps stringing you along?” He lists several more things, and all I do is shake my head. “What is she, a fucking virgin or something?” he gripes out of frustration, and I feel the blood drain from my face. Clearly my poker face sucks, because Connor’s eyes widen when he realizes he’s hit the nail on the head. “Oh fuck. Seriously?”

Connor’s face falls like evenhedoesn’t know what to do in that situation: yes, Connor, the god of getting women into his bed. I can only imagine he’s bedded more than one virgin in his lifetime, yet his whole demeanor implies that’s a stick of dynamite he’s learned not to play with. And he doesn’t even know the hard part—her condition.

“From your lack of witty comebacks,” I say, motioning to his uncharacteristic silence, “you obviously realize that reorganizing the stock room is probably the best way to work off my frustrations.”

Connor tilts his head to the side like he’s bound to agree, but then he tilts it back up, not that easily convinced. He’s about to dive into his cross examination. Sometimes I really hate that he used to be a lawyer.

“But if you’re in love with her, then this is the ideal situation,” he says. “Get out all the candles, the rose petals, and romance that shit. That’s what virgins want anyway, especially one that’s still waiting when she’s—how old is Kendall?”

“She’s twenty-five.”

“Damn!” Connor says in surprise, then he shakes himself realizing how insensitive his reaction was. “Right, so Don Juan that shit. Make it unforgettable. That’s obviously what she wants.”

“Probably,” I admit, “but—”

“No buts,” Connor interrupts. “You own fucking Flambé. You know how to make things sexy. And if you don’t, you have a best friend who’s a jedi master when it comes to sexual aphrodisiacs.”

“A best friend who’s not supposed to know I’m fooling around with her nemesis,” I point out.

“True,” Connor nods. “Like I said,afterthe wedding would make this a lot easier.”

“This is all moot,” I remind him, starting to reshelve the cans on the floor. “Kendall and I are over. We aren’t happening, not now, and not after the wedding. So this doesn’t matter. Plus, the wedding is in a few days. Why don’t we focus on Olivia and Ned.”

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