by CL Collier
Before I can reply to Dax, Laura shows up at my side and grabs my arm. The band starts playing another song, a faster tune, and she leans in to speak in my ear. “Chris is going to buy me a drink. I’ll be at the bar with him.” Then she walks away.
I look back at Dax. “I’d better get back to Krista. She’s all alone over there at our table.”
Dax shoves his hands into his pockets and shrugs. “Okay. I’d really like to talk with you more, though. Will you dance with me again later?”
“Sure,” I say to him, smiling.
When I get back to the table, I find Krista typing something on her phone. “I’m texting Ben,” she says as I sit down next to her. I see the waitress brought another round of drinks for us, too.
“What’s he doing tonight?” I ask her.
She stops typing and looks at me. “He picked the kids up from camp earlier, and they spent the evening at home watching a movie. He just put them to bed.”
Her phone buzzes again, and she looks down at it and smiles.
“What is it?” I ask her.
“Oh, I sent him a selfie so he could see me all dressed up,” she replies, typing away on her phone as she says it.
Okay, so Krista is one of the lucky ones who found her happily ever after. “What did he say?” I ask her.
She finishes typing, then sets her phone down on the table and looks at me with a smile on her face. “That I look so hot he wishes he was here right now so he could mess up my hair and makeup for me.”
I laugh at her and shake my head. “TMI! You guys are too cute.”
“Who is Laura with, anyway?” she asks me, looking over at them at the bar together.
“His name is Chris. Dax is friends with him and says he’s a nice guy.”
“He’d better be. Although Laura is probably just looking for someone to have fun with tonight to help her get over Erik.”
“Yeah, I know. He’s good looking, too. She could do worse.”
“Some guy asked me to dance while you two were out there. I politely let him know I was married, and he left me alone. It made me feel good that I still got it, though!”
We both giggle. “Of course, you do, Krista! You’re gorgeous, in great shape, and are smoking hot in that new outfit!”
We spend the next half hour talking, keeping an eye on Laura, and drinking. I don’t want to overdo it, so I pledge to make this third drink my final one. I have passed the point of being buzzed and feel drunk—although not too drunk—and I’m feeling good. I don’t want to have a hangover in the morning either.
Dax is still hanging out in the corner with some other guys, drinking a beer and playing darts. I keep looking in his direction, and a couple of times, we make eye contact. This time when I look over, though, a woman’s talking to him.
So, naturally, I continue to watch them interact.
I’m ignoring the pang of jealousy that instantly welled up when I saw them together, too. Stupid feelings. I have no right to be jealous.
She looks younger than we are—either in her late twenties or early thirties. Just as I have this thought, it occurs to me that I don’t actually know how old Dax is. Maybe he’s that young, too? Although he looks about the same age as I am.
The woman is standing close to him and keeps talking. She moves her hands to his waist. I notice he doesn’t touch her at all, though. He also doesn’t seem to be that interested in what she’s saying. His gaze keeps darting away from her as if he’s looking for an excuse to get away.
“Hello, earth to Amanda,” Krista says, waving her hand in front of my face.
I blink and turn my attention to her. “What?”
“Are you having a hard time seeing him with another woman?”
I roll my eyes at her. “I hardly know him.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” she says. “His body language tells me he’s not interested in her at all. Unlike when you two were dancing earlier.”
“What do you mean?” I ask her, scrunching my nose as I ask. I have no idea what she’s talking about. Sure, we danced, and I got the feeling he was interested, but what body language is she talking about?
Krista picks her phone up off the table and swipes the screen. She swipes a couple of more times before turning it around and holding it out for me to see. It’s a picture of Dax and me dancing. My back is to the camera, but you can see him. His eyes are either downcast or closed, and he looks … content? Maybe that’s not the right word to describe it, but it’s something like that.
I’m a little drunk right now.
“You took a picture of us?!” I practically screech. “Why?”
Krista shrugs. “I don’t know. You guys looked ...” She looks like she’s trying to find the right word to use. “Content together, I guess. Happy to be in each other’s arms. I wanted to document it for you to see later in case I needed to convince you that he’s interested in you. Just like right now!”
Okay, I guess ‘content’ was the right word to describe how he looked.
She pulls her phone back and looks up behind me. I have a feeling Dax is there. I turn around, and I’m right. God, I hope he didn’t see what was on her phone.
“Hi,” he says. “Would you like to dance again?”
I was so involved in discussing things with Krista that I didn’t even notice another slow song had started playing again. Dax holds his hand out for me, and I take it. He leads us out to the dance floor, and we hold each other close as we move to the music. I look over and see Laura and Chris dancing as well. I scan the room and notice a woman glaring at me. It’s the one I saw talking to Dax a few minutes ago.
“Who was that woman you were talking to?” I ask him.
He looks down at me and smirks. “Were you watching me?”
Shit. I got caught. “Well, I happened to look over and see you two together, and now she’s glaring at me.”
Dax turns his head to look at her. Shit again. Now she must know I told him she was glaring at me. Her demeanor changes as soon as he looks at her, though. She smiles slightly, then turns around and walks away.
Dax turns back to me. “That’s Cat. She’s had a crush on me since high school.”
“Oh,” I say, then remember the thought I had earlier. “She looks a lot younger than you. How old are you, anyway?”
He smirks at me again. “That’s because she is a lot younger than me. She was still in middle school when she had a crush on me. It’s a small town. Small schools. You pretty much knew everyone. I’m thirty-seven. She’s thirty-one.”
“Oh,” I say again. I look down from his face, which means I’m looking directly at his neck. I have the urge to kiss him right there.
But I don’t.
Dax speaks low in my ear then. “I’m not interested in her at all. But I am interested in you.”
I quietly gasp and look back up into his beautiful blue eyes. He’s being serious. I’m speechless.
We continue dancing. I can’t handle just looking into his eyes, so I shift my gaze to see how Laura is doing. She looks like she’s having a great time with Chris. I’m happy for her even if this does just end up being a rebound hookup. She deserves to have a good night out.
Dax doesn’t let me escape from whatever is going on between us, though. He moves his head closer to mine and talks low in my ear again. “Can we go talk?”
I look at him again and can’t resist his charm, so I nod. I might as well just enjoy my night even if that means spending it with a guy I will probably never see again. At least he’s nice to look at.
He stops dancing, takes my hand, and leads me off the dance floor. He keeps walking to the back of the bar, and I wonder where he’s taking me. I look over at Krista, still sitting at our table, and she sees Dax leading me away. She shrugs her shoulders and gives me the “what are you doing?” look, so I just smile and shrug back to her. Then I see where Dax is going. An open door in the back leads out to a patio area. We walk out there, and I find several tables to sit at
and see a few people out here talking and drinking. There’s a firepit in the middle of the patio. We can still hear the music inside, but it’s much quieter. Dax leads me to a table in the back corner of the patio, and we sit.
“I hope you don’t mind coming out here. It’s just easier to talk without the music being so loud.”
“Do you bring a lot of women out here?” I ask him.
“No,” he replies. He must think I need more convincing. “I really don’t, Amanda. I don’t date anymore. I pretty much got fed up with the dating scene around here.”
“Why is that?” I ask him, curious.
“It’s a small town. Everyone knows each other, and everyone talks. After my last relationship ended, I just decided I was done.”
“When was that?”
“My last relationship?”
“Yeah.”
“Two years ago,” he says. “We had been together for about a year, and I almost proposed to her, but then I found out she hadn’t been honest with me about a few things, and I couldn’t commit myself to someone I couldn’t trust.”
“So now you’re done with dating or done with relationships?” I ask him for clarification.
He smirks. “Both, really. I haven’t dated anyone since then, either.”
I’m stunned. Someone as good looking as Dax must have women knocking down his door! I witnessed Cat hitting on him tonight. How could he just say no to dating altogether? I don’t know any guy with that much self-control. “What’s your definition of dating?” I ask him, wanting to know more about him.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“I mean, have you not been out with any women at all in two years? Or did you just swear off taking women out on actual dates?”
He looks at me skeptically then smirks. “You want to know if I just sleep around?”
I nod my head. I can’t believe I really just asked him that, but I want to know what kind of guy Dax is.
He shakes his head. “No, I don’t do that anymore. I haven’t taken a woman out in any sort of way in two years.”
I’m still in disbelief, but then I wonder why he’s here with me right now? I’m leaving tomorrow. I decide just to ask him. “Then why me? I live over a thousand miles away. Is that why you’re interested in me? You know I won’t be around after tomorrow?”
His face falls, and he shakes his head adamantly. “No, that’s not it at all.”
“Then why?” I ask him again. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
He looks away from me for a minute and then looks at the fire. He’s not sure what to say to me, and I wonder why that is. When he finally looks back at me again, his facial expression tells me he’s nervous. “This is going to sound really weird to you,” he says, “so just let me explain it all before you say anything.”
Now he really has my attention. I nod my head to let him know I’m listening.
“Well, when I first saw you at the auto shop ... I can’t explain it, but you just intrigued me. I thought you were pretty, but it was more than that. It felt like I had a magnetic pull to you or something.”
I feel myself blushing. This was not what I expected him to say. This is borderline romantic. What the hell?
Dax continues. “My dad told me who you were when he came back into the shop to help me with that truck. He also told me you were going to his house later that night, and I knew I had to see you again. So I went over there, too. I had never seen pictures of your mom until that night at my parents’ house. When I saw some of the ones of my dad with her, it shocked me, really. I look so much like my dad, and you look so much like your mom ... it was like I was looking at pictures of you and me together. Then Krista made that comment, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who saw it.”
Is this guy for real?
I must look shocked because Dax says, “I realize how corny that sounds.
And it wasn’t supposed to make me sound like a stalker, either. I just wanted to see you again.”
I crack a smile, and he smiles back at me.
“Well,” he continues, “as we hung out with my parents, I started to realize I liked you. You were nice, smart, and you had a good sense of humor. You seemed like the whole package.”
I blush again and look down at the ground. Then I realize it doesn’t matter if he’s saying the most romantic things a guy has ever said to me because I’m still leaving tomorrow. This will never work out.
I look up at him and decide I need to remind him how ridiculous this is. “But I live in Seattle, Dax. I’m leaving town tomorrow. Nothing can happen between us.”
“I know it sounds impossible,” he says, shaking his head. “I just thought we could get to know each other better. Be friends. With technology these days, it’s not impossible.”
“But then what? We text each other? Become Facebook friends? It still doesn’t change the fact we live so far apart.”
“So we’ll see where it takes us. Maybe we’ll discover we hate each other, and it can be the easiest breakup ever,” he says, smiling at me. God, he’s handsome. “I just can’t ignore this feeling I have toward you. And I realize how creepy that might sound to you, so I hope you know I’m really not a freak.”
I let out a laugh. “It is a little freaky to have a guy say such nice things to me. I can’t remember the last time a guy was so truthful and forthcoming.”
“When was your last relationship?” he asks me. “I mean, I told you about mine, so tell me about yours.”
I sigh. “Well, like you, it’s been a long time. It’s been a few years. I just decided to focus on myself and my career and forget about men. They all seemed to let me down in some way, and I’m fine on my own.” He nods in understanding. “I mean, not all men have disappointed me in my life.” I decide to explain more to him. “I have a great relationship with my dad. Even after he and my mom got divorced, he’s always been there for me. It’s just the men I dated in the past have always ended up disappointing me. They either lied to me or became total jerks. I discovered I was happy just being by myself. My job is rewarding, and I have my friends.”
“At least in a big city, you probably never have to see your exes again. That’s the worst part about living in a small town. After you break up with someone, you still see them everywhere, and everyone hears the gossip about what happened between you. My ex, the one I almost proposed to, is now engaged to a guy I’ve known since kindergarten. It’s still weird to see them together even though I have zero feelings for her. That’s why I gave up on relationships and dating.”
“I never thought of that,” I reply. “That would be hard.”
“And then there’s the situation like I have with Cat,” he continues, nodding toward the door to the bar. “I’ve never had any sort of relationship with her, yet she feels like she has the right to hang on me as if she owns me. I don’t want to be rude to her, but I really hate it.”
“I bet a lot of girls try to knock down your door like Cat,” I say to him.
His eyebrows knit together. “Why do you think that?”
I blush again, but I force myself to just say it. “Because you’re so attractive.”
He gives me a full-fledged smile, and he goes from good looking to insanely hot.
“So you admit you’re attracted to me?”
I don’t know if I can blush any more than I already am, but if so, I just did. “Well, you’re not ugly,” I say in a joking tone.
He laughs. “Aww, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me!”
I laugh with him. I suddenly realize I’m having a really great time talking with Dax. He’s so easy to talk to. I wouldn’t normally say these kinds of things to a guy right away, but I’m so comfortable with him.
We continue talking outside on the patio for quite a while. We learn a lot about each other and discover we have a lot in common.
Krista walks out onto the patio, looking for me. I wave so she sees me, and she walks over to us. She looks slightly concerned.
&n
bsp; “What’s wrong?” I ask her when she reaches our table.
“Laura just left with Chris,” she says. Then she looks at Dax. “He is a good guy, right?”
Dax chuckles. “Yes, trust me. He is. He just got divorced a few months ago, and he hasn’t gone out with anyone since then. He thought Laura was pretty the moment you guys walked in tonight.”
“Well, maybe that’s why they hit it off so well,” I say. Dax looks confused, so I clarify. “Laura is going through a divorce right now. They have that in common.”
“That makes sense,” he says. Then he looks back at Krista. “Trust me, he’s a good guy. He’ll take care of her. He hasn’t been in a hurry to get back out there, so this is a big deal for him.”
“Okay, well, that makes me feel better,” Krista says, and it makes me feel better, too. I know Laura has been looking forward to moving on, but I wouldn’t want her to hook up with an asshole for her first time since Erik.
Krista looks at me. “I think I’m going to go back to the hotel now.”
“What time is it?” I ask her. “Do you have my phone and wristlet?” I had left them at the table with her when Dax asked me to dance since my dress doesn’t have any pockets.
She holds out her hand, and I see our new wristlets hanging from her wrist. She takes mine off and hands it to me. “Your phone is inside it. And it’s about eleven thirty.”
Krista hands it to me, and I set it on the table. “I can go back with you,” I offer.
“No, no,” Krista says. “I’m fine. I’m just the old married lady who’s tired and wants to go to bed. You should stay and enjoy yourself!”
“Are you sure?” I ask her again. “At least let me walk you back to the hotel. You shouldn’t walk alone.”
Dax chuckles. We both look at him.