Page 55 of The Lessons

And with that, she left.

“Sorry about that,” Brad offered once she was out of earshot.

“Old girlfriend?” Strangely, I didn’t feel that threatened.

“Hardly. Just a bad mistake.”

I nodded. The whole one-night-stand deal was still a foreign concept to me. I really didn’t understand how people could meet someone for the first time and an hour later go to bed with them. I didn’t think I’d ever get to that point, no matter how good I got at this sex thing.

“You nervous?” Brad asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry. No, not really.” I plastered a smile on my face and tried to pep up.

Brad took another sip of his drink. “It’s okay, you know. You’re kinda cute when you’re nervous, Natalie. I don’t get to see much of that at the office. You’re normally so cool and collected in there.”

“Oh?” My throat ran dry, and I took another sip of my drink.

“Which reminds me...” He lowered his voice. “I heard about your idea.”

“What idea?”

“The idea you had in the marketing meeting. About the forbidden?”

He’d leaned in even closer by now, and I found myself doing the same, hanging on his every word. “Right,” I whispered, immediately remembering my conversation with Paulina. I knew without a doubt she was the one who had told him about it. “So?”

“So…I guess I was wondering…were you talking about me?”

About him? Oh. Because we worked together? I looked across the table at him and knew he was expecting a yes. I stalled, trying to find my words. “Did you want it to be about you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want you to think I’m off limits.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

He sat back and smiled. One of those big, Hollywood, perfectly white, straight-teeth, eye-crinkling smiles. “This is—”

My phone buzzing interrupted him. I couldn’t help glancing at it. It was Paulina texting me, probably something about our date. If Paulina was a moth, office gossip was her flame. She couldn’t resist.

“Sorry. That’s Paulina. Probably asking me about how our date is going.” I smiled weakly.

Brad chuckled. “And how do you think it’s going?” he asked before sucking down the last of his Frappe. Dang, the guy demolished that drink. I never would have thought I’d be turned on by watching a guy drink a Strawberry Frappe, but there you go…

“I think…it’s goingwell, don’t you?”

“Yes, I’d agree. Perhaps I’d even say it’s goingvery well.”

The phone buzzed again. Paulina. I put it in my purse. “Sorry.”

Brad grinned. “It’s okay. Just do me a favor, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Watch that girl, would you? There’s something—I don’t know?just a little off about her.”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about? She’s harmless.”

He leaned back and stared down the street. “You know she applied for your job.”

I cocked my head at him. No, I had not known that, but I tried to play it off. “Oh, really? Well, Cathy said there were a lot of applicants…”

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