Page 13 of Abduction
Smarter than to blow up my relationship just because I’d met someone who happened to be kind of hot.
“Josh,” he replied, and he stuck his hand out to me. I took it. The moment our skin connected, I felt a little flush of blood to my cheeks and pulled my fingers away immediately.
“So I’m guessing you don’t live in the suburbs?” I asked, and he shook his head, snorting with amusement, as though the mere thought of it was funny to him.
“I don’t think the suburbs would suit me very well,” he replied.
“Why not?”
“I like to be places where things actually happen,” he shot back, raising his eyebrows at me.
I laughed, then protested, “Hey, plenty of things happen down there!”
“Like?”
“Like...uh, local council meetings?” I offered, and he laughed. He had a nice laugh, genuine and full.
“Yeah, not exactly my kind of thing, trust me,” he replied, and I shrugged.
“More room for me, then,” I replied.
“You’re welcome to it,” he shot back, as he leaned back in the bench and draped his arm over the back of it. Okay, he was—he was sitting pretty close to me right now, I had to admit, and I didn’t mind at all. It had been a long time since I had had a man pay attention to me like this. Most of the time, they’d take one look at the engagement ring and think better of it, which I knew was what it was there for, but still—sometimes, there was something kind of fun about having all this attention aimed at me personally.
“You lived in Chicago all your life?” I asked. It was nice, being able to talk to someone about something that didn’t revolve around my studies. This guy clearly didn’t know a huge amount about the law, and I was sure he had better things to do than listen to me go into the minutiae of it.
“Yeah, I have,” he replied. “What about you?”
“No, I grew up in Ohio,” I admitted.
He laughed. “So you’re a bumpkin?”
“I guess you could say that,” I agreed. It was something Aaron said from time to time, when I did or said something that made it clear I wasn’t exactly used to this kind of place. Even now, after years of living and studying here, sometimes I felt as though I would never truly fit in. I liked the city well enough—even if I was still on the outskirts of it—but sometimes, I craved the peace and quiet of my home state. I figured it just wouldn’t make sense for me to go back, not after everything that had happened, not after how much I had changed. Besides, there wasn’t a huge call for real estate lawyers down there, and if I was going to be able to repay Aaron for all the support he had shown me, I needed to be somewhere work was plentiful.
“No wonder you like living in the suburbs,” he replied, grinning at me. “Probably the closest thing you have to home right now, huh?”
“Yeah, probably,” I agreed, smiling fondly. It was strange—even though I had lived in that place with him for years now, it still didn’t entirely feel like home to me, not in the way I expected it to. I knew I should have been more comfortable there by now, but there was a part of me that still felt like a guest stopping in.
It had gotten worse since I had started to suspect him of cheating, my mind running at a million miles an hour as I tried to put it all together. I still didn’t know for sure what was going on with him; he hadn’t been there in the morning when I had gotten up, and I guessed I was going to have to wait till I got home today. So maybe it was all right for me to spend a little more time than I technically should have with this man, even if he was looking at me in a way I knew Aaron wouldn’t have been too happy with.
We chatted a little about Chicago, about how long I had been here, his apartment in the city—he dodged my questions about his family, and I figured it wasn’t my business to hear about them anyway. People had their secrets, and I wasn’t about to go delving too deeply into his. I didn’t want to push my luck. I was enjoying his company too much to start asking for more than I deserved, and besides, it wasn’t as though I was spilling everything to him, either.
As the sun started to dip slightly in the sky, I sighed and glanced at my watch.
“I should be getting home,” I remarked. “I need to catch the train...”
“All the way out to the suburbs, yeah, I get it,” he agreed, and his eyes lingered on me for a long moment. I felt a little heat rising in my chest and did all I could to push it down.
“When can I see you again?” he asked me as though the two of us had just been on a bonafide date. I parted my lips in surprise, furrowing my brow.
“Uh, I—I’m engaged,” I reminded him, and he shrugged.
“I know.”
He didn’t seem bothered by that part of it. I wondered what was going through his mind right now. All of this, and he was just sitting there opposite me, waiting for me to tell him when the two of us were going to be able to see each other again? I wished I had an answer for him, but, in truth, I wasn’t sure what the hell I was supposed to say.
“I—I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I told him, trying my best to keep my voice as steady as I could. I didn’t want to offend him or anything, but I would have been one hell of a hypocrite if I had been paranoid about my fiancé cheating on me and then accepted a date from this man I had only just met.
I realized my heart was pounding and my palms were sweating as he looked back at me coolly. His hand traced over my scarf, the heat from his fingertips emanating to reach my skin. I closed my eyes and tried not to focus on it. I needed to get out of here before I did something I was going to regret. I wanted to grab him and kiss him right now, but I knew I would have been insane to make a move. I didn’t know this guy, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I would blow up a relationship with the man I loved just because someone hot was paying me attention.
