Not My Type : Golden Girls 1

by Veronica Adler

  I didn’t want to lose my nerve. It was easier to call him in the dark of night. He would most likely be asleep and I could leave a message. I had written down what I wanted to say to him. It was going to be easy as pie. I hugged my notebook to my chest and brought the ringing phone to my ear.

  My heart thudded wildly in my chest, making me feel like I was going to have a heart attack at twenty-six. I was going to be an anomaly. Dead from a heart attack at twenty-six. Doctors were going to be dissecting my body trying to figure out what went wrong, how a perfectly healthy woman could die of a heart attack and the answer would come back Daniel Reid. Yup, just waiting for his voicemail to kick in was going to kill me. Oh, I sure hoped Madelaine thought of something appealing for my epithet.

  “Eve?”

  I inhaled sharply. Shit, I wasn’t expecting him to answer the phone. Then again, he had told me he always kept his phone on and by his side in case there was an emergency at the hospital. A small flaw, no problem.

  “You weren’t supposed to answer. I had a speech prepared for your voicemail,” I said stupidly.

  “Do you want me to hang up so you can call back and leave the message?” Daniel asked. His voice was flat. He sounded tired, whether it was because I was calling him in the middle of the night, or calling him after ghosting him for the last week was hard to determine. Either way, I was the culprit.

  “If you want to,” I said.

  He sighed and I heard the rustle of sheets in the background. The image of Daniel in bed made my blood run hot. Metaphorically, of course, since blood was already hot. The point was, my body felt hot under the blanket when just minutes ago I was feeling cold.

  “You called me. This is your show.” Ugh, I hated that tone of voice. The flat, almost annoyed tone made him sound like a stranger. I’d done it, and I hoped to undo it if he would let me.

  “Uh, okay, so.” I cleared my throat, tightening my fist around the blanket. My speech was meant to be read by a calm, collected, confident woman. All of that flew out the window the second Daniel answered the phone.

  “I’m going to start by apologizing. I had a long list of reasons prepared that I am not going to tell you now. Well, it’s not exactly a long list of things. It’s just one thing. See, when I talked to Sienna, I thought she would just be upset and I would apologize and beg for forgiveness. Instead, she said all this stuff that freaked me out and I did what I do best which is completely ignore everything that requires an emotional output—”

  “Wait, Eve, you talked to Sienna?” Daniel interrupted. He sounded a lot livelier than he had before.

  “Uh, yeah, the guilt was getting to be too much for me.”

  Daniel exhaled loudly. “You should have told me you were going to talk to her. Look, Eve, I understand she’s your friend and my sister, but at the end of the day, we’re adults. We have nothing to feel guilty about.”

  “I know that. Sienna said the same thing.”

  “If she said that, then what did you freak out about?”

  Right, we were getting to the heart of the matter before I was ready. I needed a distraction.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you told Emily about us?”

  Daniel groaned, the sound making me flush and the blood in my body rush to my nether regions. It reminded me of the night of our third date when he had kissed me. It had happened only a few weeks ago, though it felt like months.

  “I told her so she would stop inundating my phone by sending me messages of women she thought I would like. I’m assuming she told Sienna?”

  “Yeah, which means Sienna has known for weeks and she hasn’t mentioned a word to me. Because she doesn’t care if we date. She just doesn’t want me to fall in love with you because according to her, you’re going to fuck it up.”

  I inhaled sharply as the words left my mouth. Yikes, probably not what the man needed to hear. I would feel terrible if my brother even insinuated that I was unlovable. It might not have been what Sienna said, it’s what her words implied indirectly.

  “Ah, that explains things,” Daniel said quietly. I waited for him to defend himself, tell me Sienna was wrong. He stayed quiet. When he hadn’t said anything for a few minutes, I realized that he wasn’t going to say anything on this topic because he agreed with her.

  “You agree with her,” I said needlessly.

  Daniel made a noise in the back of his throat, which could have meant anything.

  “She’s not wrong.”

  “But she’s not right, either?” I asked. I heard it, the hope in my voice. The hope that made me want to reach through the phone and shake Daniel until he admitted that he wasn’t going to break my heart.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Thank you for the clarification.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This puts all my fears to rest. I am so glad I finally called.”

  “Me, too. I’ve been waiting for you to call for a few days. I missed hearing your voice.”

  I flushed with pleasure and kicked a leg out from under the blanket, my body burning. Why hadn’t I had sex with him yet? All he had to tell me was that he missed my voice and it got me going. The only time I had ever felt this way was back in high school with my first boyfriend. That could be chalked up to hormones and the fact that he was super gorgeous and a linebacker.

  “Don’t try to distract me.”

  “Am I distracting?”

  “Yes. Yes, you are.”

  I heard Daniel breathe out and the soft thud of something falling to the floor. I stared at the mountain of dirty clothes on the lone chair in the corner of the room. It was meant as a reading chair and I used it in place of a laundry basket. I wasn’t a slob, just disorganized and the very idea of doing laundry exhausted me.

  “I don’t think I can give you the answers you’re looking for, Eve,” Daniel said softly. “You want guarantees—”

  “I don’t!”

  “You do. You want to know that everything is going to be fine, that the risk you’re taking is going to be worth it. How can I give you the answers when I am still seeking them?”

  “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Do you need help?”

  Daniel snorted. “I won’t say no to spending time with you.”

  I groaned quietly and fell back onto my pillow. I glanced at my clock which told me it was two hours before I had to wake up. I really should get some sleep if I hoped to survive tomorrow. I also didn’t want to hang up on Daniel after finally working up the nerve to call him.

  “I’m sorry. Do I drive you crazy?” I asked.

  “Not yet, but we’ve still got time,” Daniel said wryly.

  I smirked. “I am sorry. Watching my mother struggle through heartbreak time and time again made me wary of it.”

  My verbal filter must be down because I hadn’t intended to say that. Talking about my family made me squirm for some reason. Even on our date, when I had mentioned my parents and how they had saved my life, I had felt squirmy. Talking about them with someone required a level of trust I wasn’t sure I was capable of giving. With Daniel, these things just spilled out without my intention.

  “Eve?”

  “Yeah?” I chewed on my lip.

  “Do you know how amazing you are?” Daniel asked.

  “Of course, I’m a queen.”

  Daniel laughed, deep and husky. “If I ever break your heart, you have my permission to kill me. I’ll put it in writing. Kill me and bury me at sea. Because if I break your heart, I’ll be a despicable human being and I don’t want to be that.”

  His words caused me to giggle.

  “Do you…want to have dinner tomorrow? With me?” I asked.

  “I can’t.”

  “Oh.”

  “No, I mean, I’m in LA visiting my parents. I’ve got plans to visit the rest of the family and Ian. I’ll get in late tomorrow night. How about Monday?”

  “Monday is even better.”

  Monday was a relatively slow day
for me. I could beg off an hour or two early to have dinner with my…boyfriend?

  “Great, I’ll see you Monday night.”

  I told him good night, letting him to go to bed since I probably woke him up. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep and I proved myself right when I spent the remaining hour and forty-five minutes until my alarm rang just staring up at my ceiling. I wished talking to Daniel had eased my worries, well, it had but only a little. I was going to make myself crazy if I didn’t stop thinking about it.

  Anyway, if Daniel broke my heart, I would just kill him. The man had permitted me. Who was I to deny him his wish?

  Chapter 22 – Eve

  “I think I’m having a heart attack.”

  “Evelyn, how many times in the past week have you thought you were going to have a heart attack?” Maddie asked. I scowled. Because she was right, and because she was practicing her American accent for the movie so she sounded weird. Good, but weird.

  “Two, maybe three times,” I admitted. “But this time it’s for real.”

  I placed my phone on top of my dresser and walked into my closet to put on my dress. I had spent all night yesterday going through my clothes and found I didn’t have a single dress that I liked. Finally, I had called Maddie and she told me to check in her closet. It was full of clothes, colorful dresses that still had tags on them. We weren’t the same size; she was taller and curvier. After rummaging through her closet, I’d managed to find one dress that I liked, that I hoped Daniel would like on me, like it enough to take it off me, too.

  “What are the symptoms?” Maddie asked.

  “There are none. So far.”

  “You’re overreacting again. What a surprise,” Maddie said wryly.

  I walked out of the closet, looked in the full-length mirror that I had hung behind my door.

  “I can’t wear this dress,” I cried, yanking at the hemline so it would cover more of my thighs. No wonder Maddie had never worn it. It was too short and my best friend preferred clothes that revealed none of her gorgeous body.

  “Why not? I thought the whole point of this evening was to have Daniel undress you at the end of the night. If he doesn’t want to rip that dress off you, you may need to find a new boyfriend.”

  I turned around and looked over my shoulder. Now I knew what the phrase ‘hugged her body like a second skin’ meant. The dress was clingy, curving over my breasts and bottom to accentuate their roundness and firmness. The straps were so thin that one good yank from Daniel will have the dress falling off me. Oh, boy, it was getting hot in here.

  “Now, I know I don’t need to say this, but be safe. And by safe, I mean, protection. During sex,” Maddie said.

  “Yes, I know what you mean!”

  I looked at the clock; I had no time to change. I’d spent two hours this afternoon getting plucked and waxed and manicured and pedicured. My whole body was smooth. The bottom line, I couldn’t cancel, no matter how nervous I was.

  “Don’t you think I’m a little overdressed for dinner at home?” I asked. Daniel had texted me earlier in the day to say he was running late at work and would it be alright if he had dinner at his house instead of going out?

  “Evelyn, stop behaving like a demure virgin who doesn’t know a thing about the male anatomy,” Maddie said. “You are a brilliant, confident woman, and any man would be lucky to celebrate your body. Ew, I can’t believe I just said that. Please strike it from your memory.”

  I frowned at my phone. “The part about me being a brilliant, confident woman?”

  “No, the part about Daniel celebrating your body. That is incredibly cheesy. We’ll call it what it is. Sex. He should be glad to be having sex with you.”

  “Right, of course. Consider the cheesiness stricken.” I picked a thin gold chain off my dresser and held it against my neck. Maddie was sitting against a backdrop of a floral mural that covered an entire wall. Her face was clear of make-up, her glasses were on and I was willing to bet there was a cup of tea in her vicinity. What wouldn’t I give to join her instead of stressing out about tonight?

  “Necklace or no necklace?”

  “No necklace. Fewer things to take off.”

  I dropped it back on the dresser. “How do you know so much about preparing for sex? You haven’t had any in…how long has it been?”

  “Three and a half years. Since a few months before my twentieth birthday. Now, what cupcakes are you bringing?”

  I was still focused on the fact that Maddie hadn’t been in a relationship for three and a half years. You don’t need to be in a relationship to have sex, not unless you’re Madelaine Guillaume. Who, now that I was remembering, had declared on the eve of her twentieth birthday that the next man she had any carnal relationship would be the man she was in love with and planned on marrying. I had thought her drunk at the time; clearly, that had not been the case.

  “Raspberry meringue tart,” I replied in answer to her question.

  “Good choice. Listen, be—” Someone called for her and whatever she was about to say was lost. Maddie huffed a breath.

  “Mama’s here. We’re about to have dinner. Have fun, and send me a very brief message to let me know if you enjoyed all the sex,” she said instead. She was distracted and I would never know what she was about to say. Maddie blew me a kiss, then I was looking at the home screen of my phone. I had no excuses left that I could use to stall.

  I pulled up to Daniel’s house thirty minutes later. He didn’t live that far from Maddie’s house—mansion—in La Jolla. I found that oddly convenient and disconcerting. His house was a beautiful two-story, the front door and window shutter looked freshly painted, the paint gleaming in the light of the setting sun. Bougainvillea’s and hibiscuses bloomed in the garden. The grass was bright green and freshly mowed because the scent of it still hung in the air.

  I took a deep breath, clutching the wine and cupcakes I’d brought to my chest, and walked up the pathway that led to the front door. I climbed the two steps to the porch, took another deep breath, and pressed the doorbell. It was too late to turn back now.

  From inside, I heard footfalls as Daniel walked to the door. It was pulled open to reveal Daniel in black dress pants, a white shirt, and his hair wet from a shower. Looking at him was like a punch to the heart and I knew I was in trouble and I was just fooling myself into believing otherwise.

  “I was half expecting you to call and cancel, feigning a baking emergency,” Daniel teased. His mouth tilted up into an always sardonic half-smile that was quickly becoming my favorite thing in the world.

  “I hate that you know me so well,” I said. “Maybe I’ve been too forthcoming.”

  “Trust me, Eve, no one can ever accuse you of being too forthcoming.”

  Just for that, I poked him in the ribs where I knew he was ticklish. He made a sound between a groan and a yelp. I laughed and stepped into the house, handing him the wine and the bakery box. He set both down on the entry table before turning back to me.

  “Can I take your jacket?”

  I swallowed nervously, putting down my purse before pulling my jacket off and handing it to him. Except he didn’t reach for it. He was too busy looking me up and down, taking in the long expanse of my legs, accentuated with strappy black sandals, and bareness of my shoulders. When his eyes met mine, the heat and desire I saw in them told me I had not made a mistake in picking this dress. I expected him to compliment me or kiss me or suggest how much he wanted to take this dress off me and ravish me right here in the entryway. Although, he probably wouldn’t say ravish because he wasn’t a Duke in a historical romance novel.

  He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he cleared his throat and took my jacket from me, turning around and hanging it up in the coat closet. I frowned, pulling at the hem of my dress again. It was fine, perfectly fine. I had ignored him and he had every right to be upset with me. What did I think was going to happen? Right, the sex. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. I can’t even recall why I thought we would
be having sex tonight. All I know is that when Daniel asked if I was okay with our date being at his house instead of a restaurant, my mind immediately—or the more likely culprit, my hormones—thought we were going to have sex.

  Daniel must have seen the disappointment, or embarrassment on my face because he came to me, his hand curving along my jaw and tilting my head back so I would look at him. In my heels, I was only a few inches shorter than him. He looked at me, my forehead, my eyes, my nose, before his eyes finally stopped on my mouth. I licked my lips instinctively.

  “Evelyn,” he breathed. Chills raised down my spine. It was the first time he had ever said my full name, but it was more than that. It was the way he said it, all smooth and rough at the same time.

  I made a questioning sound in the back of my throat. Daniel brushed his lips against mine and it sent shockwaves all over my body.

  “I’ve been thinking about kissing you for weeks. Hell, I’ve been thinking about getting you naked and under me and over me with my hands all over your delectable body. And then you show up here in this dress that’s begging to be taken off and I am having a really hard time remembering that tonight was just about talking,” he whispered against my lips.

  He kissed me once, a quick peck before he pulled back.

  “I thought we were kissing?” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

  Daniel pecked my lips again before taking my hand.

  “There will be plenty of time for that later,” he said, pulling me along to the kitchen.

  “You only make it to later if you’ve got the patience of a monk. Which you do,” I grumbled.

  Daniel chuckled and asked me if I wanted wine. Alcohol would dull my senses and I didn’t want to miss out on any moment of the sex part. Then again, if I wanted to get to that part without freaking out, I would need the alcohol. I told him, yes, and he poured me a glass of rose and handed it to me.