Page 28 of His Perfect Woman

“Not yet,” I replied, trying to sound as casual as possible. “But I’m starving.”

“Save your appetite then. I’ll pick you up and take you out.”

“Out? Uh...Lucas, I don’t know….”

“Don’t fight me on this, Vic. This is kind of a surprise, so your cooperation would be appreciated.”

I finally agreed and hung up, thinking to myself...Oh, trust me. You’re the one who’s in for a surprise. As for me? I’ve had enough of them for one day...

16

Lucas

Victoria looked stunning with her dark hair and eyes gleaming against the glow of our candlelit dinner. I made reservations at one of the nicest spots in the city, hoping it would be the perfect backdrop for me to confess the secret I had been keeping from her since we were teenagers.

“Damn, you look gorgeous, Vic.” I grinned as we ate. “You’re glowing tonight.”

A strange look flashed across her face. Not what I was expecting. “Thanks. You look good, too.”

I cleared my throat and continued eating. It had been like this all night. Me trying to set the mood and gear up to tell her everything...while she seemed like she was a million miles away.

“Is everything alright?”

“Um, sure. Well, I mean...I do have something I need to talk to you about,” she replied slowly.

“I needed to talk to you, too.”

“You go first,” she suggested.

“No, you go ahead.”

Her lips parted, but she seemed to get lost in my eyes. We were in a face-off, neither of us saying a word.

“About us moving in together…,” she said finally.

“I didn’t mean to pressure you about that, by the way. I’m sorry. But...did you have a chance to think it over some more?”

“I did.” She nodded, taking a sip of water. “I think you were right about us looking for another place. A bigger one for both of us.”

“That’s great. I’ll contact the agent I know tomorrow and get some showings lined up.”

I was excited about living with her, but it only piled on the pressure for what I needed to say. She had agreed to that much, but if she didn’t feel the same way about me as I did about her...it would scare her away from moving in together.

“I was thinking something with a mother-in-law apartment in the back and three bedrooms,” she continued. “That way we could have separate rooms and a private place in the back for...you know. Other relationships we may have.”

I wiped my napkin over my mouth in an attempt to hide my disappointment. “Oh. I see.”

“Anyway. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

This was it. As good of a moment as I was ever going to get. Even if it did scare her off from living together, it needed to happen. If this whole thing was going to blow up in our faces, specifically mine, then better now than later.

“I was going to say…” My chest and throat tightened, making it hard to speak. “That...I was going to say the same thing. Separate bedrooms and all that.”

I chickened out. I told myself I might have a chance to recover at some point in the evening. After dinner, we took a long walk by the river, but she was so busy discussing strategies for Heartstring’s marketing and public relations that it wasn’t exactly as romantic as it should have been. I decided what I really needed to do was force myself to sit down and watch a rom-com marathon. Surely there had to be some fail-proof way to tell your best friend you were in love with her. Some grand gesture that would melt her heart and make it impossible for her to be angry or shut me out.

But if this was going to happen tonight, like I planned, I had to find some way to get her in that kind of head space. And fast.

“Don’t you ever stop thinking about work?” I quipped.

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