“Do you mind if I make recommendations?”
Reid was surprised by her forwardness, but he liked the change.
“I don’t mean to come on strong, it’s just I’ve had nearly everything on here and I bet I can choose something you would like. You don’t have to opt for it, of course.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” He grabbed the menu and stood up, sliding into the booth next to her so that they could view the menu together. She wore a light flowery perfume that caused his nose to tingle. It smelled like jasmine. The waiter appeared just then to take their drink orders. Jovie surprised him again by ordering just a water.
“I like water. It’s pretty much all I ever drink.” She looked a little bashful about it, but Reid was pleased and also ordered water, putting her at ease.
The menu was filled with delicious-looking meals and starters. Reid sat quietly and watched while Jovie pointed out the better ones she had eaten off of the menu. Listening to her talk about food reminded him of Paloma, but he did his best to blot out the thought of her dark beauty.
“Am I boring you?” the question was asked with more concern than anger.
“No, not at all. I’m sorry. I’ve just had a crazy week and there is a lot on my mind. I like all your recommendations. Everything sounds wonderful. How about you go ahead and order for me while I excuse myself to the men’s room.”
Jovie nodded and her smile returned. She pointed him in the direction of the restrooms and went back to the menu, planning out their meal.
In the men’s room, Reid walked directly to the sink and turned on the cold water. Filling his hands, he splashed his face a couple times and smoothed down his hair. “Dammit, Reid, get your shit together.” He grabbed a paper towel and blotted his face dry before returning to Jovie.
“I got us some appetizers. I hope you like them.”
“I’m sure I will. Thanks. I’m really sorry, I’m kind of off my game today.”
“It’s not a problem. You could have cancelled if you weren’t feeling well. I wouldn’t mind. We could reschedule.”
“No, no, no. It’s really just all in my head. I’ve had a hard time focusing is all. I’m actually glad for the distraction.” He grimaced. “Wow, pour choice of words. You aren’t a distraction.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind being a distraction as long as I’m a good one.” She winked one chocolate brown eye at him. He couldn’t help but smile at the coyness of it all. She was flirting with him and he thought it was cute. Maybe this would be alright after all.
“Okay, so, now that I’ve made an ass out of myself, let’s talk about something fun. So, you are into water sports? What kind of water sports?”
“All of them. I think I was supposed to be a mermaid in a past life or something. I absolutely love the water. My dad used to have a sailboat and we would go out on it almost every weekend, riding the waves into the middle of the lake or ocean, or whatever body of water we were near at the time. I love to water ski, windsurf, kneeboard, you name it. Anything that gets me in the water and gets me tan! I really could talk about this forever, so if you aren’t interested, you need to tell me right away.”
“I think it’s very interesting. You are pretty athletic, then? I like that. I, personally, like rock climbing, among other things. It’s so boring to sit in a gym and lift weights when there are so many things out there to do that will keep you fit and healthy. An active life is definitely a better life I think.”
“I totally agree.” Just then the appetizers arrived. Reid’s stomach growled loudly. “Are you that hungry?”
“I didn’t realize I was. I guess I’ve been too busy to eat lately. I haven’t managed to do much of anything really. Like I said, it’s been a rough week.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jovie looked and sounded genuinely concerned.
“No. I think I’d just like to move on past it if you don’t mind. And I’d like to dig in to this food. I’m starving.”
Jovie laughed; a tinkling sound that rang like music in his ears. Cross off another. Reid dug into the appetizers, spooning half the contents of each platter onto the tiny plate they provided. He watched Jovie do the same, unafraid to dig in and eat.
“I’m pretty hungry myself!” she said a little sheepishly. As soon as they finished their appetizers, the waiter showed up with their meals. She had ordered him phat Thai kung, accompanied with sticky rice. For herself she chose a Thai salad with prawns. He had to admit that she had hit his taste dead on. The food was absolutely divine. They ate in silence, each one so into their meal that they didn’t have time to talk. When he finally pushed his plate away from him, he was stuffed to the point of being uncomfortable.
“You were right, that was amazing. I’ll have to keep this place in mind for a quick bite every now and then.”
Her smile was her only reply. When the waiter brought their check, Jovie grabbed for it first, not allowing him to pay.
“You’ve had a rough week. This one’s on me. You can get the next one.”
Reid tried to protest but it was no use. She had already inserted her card into the slot and handed it back to the man.
“I’ll get dessert, then. Is there an ice cream place around here? Or maybe a place for pie?”
Jovie screwed up her face in thought. “There’s a diner a couple of blocks over that serves pretty decent cherry and apple pie and one of those frozen yogurt joints in the other direction, about the same distance.”
Reid glanced at his watch. It was still early yet and he definitely needed to walk off all the wonderful food he just ate. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change. Extricating a quarter from the group he laid it on the table.
“Heads for pie, tails for yogurt?”
Jovie nodded.
Reid picked up the coin showed her both sides of it for good measure and then flipped it up into the air, where it tumbled end over end above their heads. It fell into his palm and he placed it neatly on the table, heads up. “Looks like pie.”
“That sounds amazing. Let’s go.” They left the little Thai place arm in arm and strode down to the diner to continue their date.
Chapter 16
Reid woke in his own bed the next morning. The night before he had had a wonderful time with Jovie, but had decided not to get too enamored too quickly. It hadn’t worked out with Paloma, after all.
After pie, they had walked back to their cars and he had given her a chaste good night kiss. It was hard to tell if she was disappointed or not by the way the date ended but she took it well enough. He watched her drive away and got into his own car.
The drive home was filled with thoughts of both Jovie and Paloma, who he just couldn’t shake. As soon as he had made it inside, he texted Jovie to tell her that he had a great time and ask her if she would like to go out again. She readily agreed and they set a date for three days from that day.
He was excited about this one because it would be a day date. They had agreed to go walk the pier, even though it was still chilly outside. They wanted to go somewhere they would both enjoy and the pier offered them a chance to people watch as well as an opportunity to do some moving instead of the typical sit and eat date.
He rolled out of bed and into the shower. He decided that today was the day to get his shit together and get back to work. After dressing, he called Tori and told her to round up a number of the files he had been working on because he was coming into the office today. She sounded surprised but thrilled.
“Wonderful, sir. You’ve got a number of calls to follow up on too.”
“I’m sure I do. I’ll go through the entire stack when I get in there. Can you call out to the diner and—”
“Have your bagel with cream cheese and your whole milk protein shake delivered? You bet.” He hated when she cut him off but she really was a proficient assistant.
“Great. I’m headed out the door now.”
***
The office was as it should be—in fu
ll swing chaos that morning. He was greeted a number of times, some of them ironically, by his co-workers and underlings. When he was finally able to make it to his desk, he found the programs he had asked Tori to round up, a stack of phone messages, and his bagel and shake. Smiling, he grabbed the shake and took his seat.
She gave him exactly fifteen minutes before she barged into his office. Her timing was never off. “Okay, sir. I’ve got it all sorted by priority, in both the projects stack and the phone call stack. I wasn’t sure which one you would like to start with. Might I add that you look particularly happy this morning.”
“It’s all a ruse.” She looked puzzled. “I’m happy enough. It’s been a hell of a week, and no, I don’t want to talk about it. I had a good night last night and have a good date lined up later this week. All I want to do now is throw myself into work and clear this desk.”
Tori nodded and turned to the clock on the wall. “You’ve got a meeting scheduled, or shall I say rescheduled, for 2:30. If you buckle down, you may be able to get all of this caught up by lunch, or at least far enough into it that I can take care of the rest. The lesser things have been handed down to Roger, and the spam phone calls and emails have been sorted into separate folders for you to peruse at a later date.” Roger was the second-in-command at his company. The guy was a mess but he got his work done. Reid still liked to keep the more important tasks for himself.
“Who is the 2:30 meeting with again?”
Tori let out a small exasperated sigh before she caught herself. “With Turk and Thomas, the contractors who are building the new tower downtown.”
“Right. I remember now. I’ll have to get some notes on that before I go so I can review them.” Tori handed him a small binder. “You’ve done it already.” She nodded. “Remind me to give you a huge raise.”
“I don’t think you can afford to pay me anymore.”
“Is that a challenge?”
Tori smiled and turned on her heel, leaving the office.
“That girl is something else.” He shook his head with a grin on his face. Time to get busy.
By the end of the day, Reid was exhausted. He had managed to drag himself through everything Tori had set aside for him. He had even had a fairly successful meeting with the double Ts, as he liked to call them. He knew they hated it but they were pretty stuck up so he didn’t really care.
He decided to hit the gym and climbing wall on his way home, just as a way to exhaust his body to go along with his mind. He was going to sleep like the dead.
***
Meanwhile, Paloma was actually starting to feel a bit like a stalker. She had stopped by the corporate headquarters twice that week but had been told that Reid wasn’t there. She was unable to decide if he really wasn’t there or if he had left explicit directions to have them tell her that. Either way, she always opted to not leave a message and her visit wasn’t recorded.
She had also frequented some of the building sites he had shown her on their date. She couldn’t find his home address, and maybe that was for the best. She scoured her computer, looking for any other places she could check, anyplace she could run into Reid. Nothing came to mind. She had completely lost her will to do anything but search for him.
“You know that what you are doing is actually punishable by law, right?” Kit sat at the couch, her back to Paloma, who was sitting at the kitchen table tapping away.
“Shush, you. I have to tell him the truth. He deserves at least that much. Plus it will clear my conscience.”
“Are you doing it more for you or for him?”
“I don’t know,” she whined, closing the laptop and moving to plop down next to Kit.
“Look. I’m off on Saturday. Let’s go do something fun. No bars.”
Paloma was glad there were no bars involved. The last couple times they went hadn’t gone over well for her at all. “What do you have in mind?”
“I dunno yet. I don’t do much during the day, but I think we need to go out and get some sunshine. With the exception of your stalking in the shadows and my going to work, we haven’t left this place in days. Let’s go window shopping or something. We can go try on all kinds of expensive clothes and then just say we don’t like them. It could be like something out of Pretty Woman.”
“Have you even seen Pretty Woman? That’s not how it worked out.”
Kit shrugged and took a bite of the sandwich she had in her hand. “The point is,” she said through her food, “we need to get out and do something, just the two of us. I know you are gonna say, ‘But I can’t afford it, lawdy me, I’m so po’ but come on Paloma, we have to get out of this sad shack.”
“If you weren’t my best friend, I would be incredibly insulted by your racist betrayal of my people.”
Kit gave her a side long glance. “Alright, suit yourself. This chica is going out. Maybe I’ll go to the beach. You do what you want, secret agent gal. See if you can find your man, you know, the one who threw you away.” Her words hurt Paloma, just as Kit knew they would, but she was right.
“Alright.”
“Alright?”
“Yeah, alright. You got it. Let’s go do something fun. You are completely right and are just looking out for me. He is the one who cut off all communication. He didn’t even give me a chance to tell my side of the story. So, you know what, it’s time to cut him off. I’m done with him.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” Kit whooped and jumped off the couch, flinging jelly from her sandwich all over the place. “Go get your computer and let’s get to planning!”
Paloma wiped a bit of jelly off her blouse and grabbed her laptop on the way back from the kitchen where she picked up a few paper towels. “Girl you are a mess, and coming from me, that’s saying something.”
“Don’t judge me. Someone has been out all day for the past few days. I’ve had to fend for myself in the kitchen. I’ve run out of ramen.”
Paloma looked sad at the idea of leaving Kit hanging, and decided to give her friend a break. “You’re right. Let’s figure out what we are gonna do on Saturday and then I’ll whip us up some good old fashioned fried chicken and biscuits with some white gravy on the side and a big ol’ pot of mashed potatoes.”
Kit’s eyes grew wide at the thought of yummy homemade food. “You’re on. I’ll look, you cook. Get back in the kitchen!”
For the first time in weeks the apartment was filled with good smells and laughter as the ladies talked and planned. “Hey, they are having a strongman competition on the beach this weekend. That could be fun to watch. I wonder if I could get one of them to lift me.”
Paloma hardly heard Kit. She was lost in her cooking, the feeling of the food in her hands, the smells, the textures, the mixtures, all to create a wonderful meal for someone. She had nearly forgotten how peaceful and relaxing cooking could be. The chicken sizzled in the pan, her family’s own special batter.
“Looks like they might be doing some kind of boat races too, it’s hard to tell. I don’t know much about water other than its chock full of creatures I never want to meet.”
As she cooked, she let her mind wander. Though she was trying to keep Reid out of her mind, he kept circling back to the forefront of whatever she thought about. She shook her head, trying to concentrate on Kit’s words, but she couldn’t shake the thought of him. Was it weird that she missed him? Because she did. A lot.
“P! Paloma!”
Paloma turned around at the sound of Kit’s voice, nearly knocking over the pan of frying chicken.
“Girl, are you with me?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. I just spaced. Was thinking about something else.”
“I think the beach is the way to go. They are having some kind of festival or something near the pier. That’s what all these different events are for it looks like. We can make a day out of it and bring a couple bucks for great, terrible fried food. Funnel cakes, Paloma, funnel cakes. And those little Greek burritos. Man, those are good.”
“Gyros.�
��
“Eh?”
“The Greek burritos, they are called gyros.”
“I don’t care either way as long as I get one in my mouth. Those things are amazing.”
Paloma merely chuckled at her friend as she poured milk and butter into her potatoes and began mashing. The movements were calming and peaceful and when the potatoes were whipped to perfection, she took the chicken from the pan and started on the gravy. It wouldn’t be long and they would be having a meal to write home about. She wished Reid could try it. Stop it, Paloma! She shook her head to clear it while she whisked at the gravy.
“That smells awesome, Paloma. I’m ready to eat.”
“It’s mostly done. I’m just finishing up the gravy. Come on and get you some chicken.”
Kit nearly flew into the kitchen, despite having just eaten. She loaded up her plate with food and was ready and waiting when the gravy got done. Paloma spooned gravy all over her friend’s plate and then made one of her own.
“This is heaven, P. Absolute heaven.”
At least she was able to get something right.
Chapter 17
It was finally Saturday. Kit was up early, banging on Paloma’s door. “Come on, girl, let’s go!” Her friend was like a little Chihuahua, bouncing up and down and from foot to foot.
“Okay, sheesh. Let me get dressed alright. Gimme a second!”
“None of that beauty queen stuff. Grab some jeans and a t-shirt, let’s hit the beach. It’s so nice outside. I might change. I’m gonna change. I need shorts.”
Paloma sighed. She hadn’t realized how excited Kit was about the whole thing. She was so into it that even Paloma was starting to get a little hyped. She pulled on a pair of shorts, strapped on a bikini top, and covered it with a long, thin t-shirt that allowed the breeze and the warmth go right through it.
She pulled her braids back into a tight tail and let them hang down her back. Digging through her dresser, she finally found her sunglasses. She hadn’t needed them in a while, but today was a good day to employ them. She had barely slipped on her sandals when Kit was back at her door.
The Billionaire's Mistaken Match ( A BWWM Romance) Page 7