by Dee Lagasse
I don’t know everything about her, but I can tell that her pride doesn’t allow her to be the girl that sits around waiting for a guy. And she sure as hell won’t chase me either. She would go on and live her life, with or without me. So, it’s kind of on me at this point.
Who knows what this will amount to, if anything? For all I know this could fizzle out as a quick fling, but right now these feelings have me chasing all the time she’s willing to give me until we figure it out.
“Well, I guess this is my stop,” she says, pointing to the door of her apartment. “So, do we hug…shake hands…high five?”
“How about we end tonight with a hug and I’ll kiss you after you let me take you out on date two?” I ask, really wanting to kiss her. “Or is it three? Do we count drinks at Capparelli and Co. as a date?”
“We do.” She nods. “Which means, if we’re keeping up with tradition, I take you out next time.”
“I didn’t realize we had a tradition,” I smirk, opening my arms wide and motioning for her to come closer with my hands. “Come on. Bring it in.”
I swear time stops and goes faster all at once when she wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head on my chest. The slight uplift of her body and the small exhale of a happy, content sigh perfectly depicts this moment. It’s completely baffling how I already feel so much with her.
I don’t believe in love at first sight, and we still don’t know much about each other, so I can safely say it’s not love…it’s just different.
“Or, you could kiss me tonight?” she offers, slowly pulling herself back while still holding on to me. Her voice is shaky. She admitted to me over dessert this was the first date she had been on in four years, she has to be terrified putting herself out there like this.
Not needing to be told twice, I pull my hands from her back and slowly slide them up until they settle, cupping her jaw with my hand. My fingers instinctively tangle in her blonde hair. Putting just the slightest pressure on the back of her neck with my fingertips, I guide her head up to face me and meet her almost all the way, but I stop before our lips connect.
The trusty 70/30 rule. And sure enough, leaving just enough space between us, Cole makes the connection. I’d never understood the whole comparing kissing to fireworks…until now. The moment her lips touch mine, I feel a charge of emotions flooding through me. If there’s anyone else in this world, they don’t exist right now.
Espresso. As her lips barely part, inviting more, it takes every ounce of willpower not to consume every trace of the cappuccino left on her lips. This whole being a good guy, wanting more is new to me. I’m probably going to regret this in about ten minutes, but I pull away, breaking the contact between us.
“Whoa.”
One word. Cole just effectively summed it up with one tiny word. When she doesn’t pull away, I press my lips to her forehead, letting go of her as I pull back.
“Goodnight, Just Cole,” I say before walking over to my door.
Reaching into my pocket for my keys, I pull them out, but instead of unlocking my door, I turn around to make sure Cole gets in hers. Beaming, she rummages through her clutch, holding the small key ring that holds six or seven color-coded keys.
Unlocking the door, she pushes it open, and steps into her apartment, turning around in the doorway completely to face me. She doesn’t say anything, but I can feel her eyes on me as I unlock my door. Replicating her, I push open the door and turn to face her.
Pressing her hand to her lips, she puckers her lips and blows me the shortest kiss. As she begins to close the door, I stay locked on her blue eyes until I can’t see her anymore.
It might be time to readjust my plans.
Chapter Eleven
COLE
When the click of the door latching snaps me out of my trance, I turn and lean against the door. Tipping my head back against the wood as a smile begins to spread across my face, I unzip my clutch and pull out my phone to see if there is anything from Ellis.
Finding not only a text from her, but from my mom and my sister too.
Ellis: Hopefully you’re across the hall banging our hot neighbor, but you’ve got the apartment to yourself tonight. Already stopped in to get clothes for work. COME TO THE SALON FOR LUNCH.
Mom: A little birdie told me you’re at Phantom with Paxton Callaghan. Call me in the morning. Love you.
Kinley: I’m dyinggggg here. Mom just called me asking if I knew about your date. You owe me every little detail tomorrow. I’ll get strawberry frosted donuts.
My family and their damn donut bribery.
I know Ellis is probably busy doing other things…like, Tucker Merrimack (BA DUM TSSS) and that my mom has been in bed for a while, so I only respond to my sister. Kinley is probably sleeping too, but I let her know that’ll I’ll grab coffees on the way into work in the morning.
My easy day tomorrow is suddenly looking a little bit like chaos, but that’s okay. I can make it work. I always do. Office set-up with Kinley in the morning, lunch with Ellis at the salon, back to the office to do two back-to-back interviews, and then it’ll be Capparelli and Co. from six to ten.
And then, sometime in between all that, I have a date to plan. Pax went big. I need to make sure my date is just as amazing and as personal as tonight was. I’ve got my work cut out for me.
But first, I need to take these damn heels off. As cute as they are, my feet are fucking throbbing right now. Peeling off the layers, I toss the blazer, the blouse, and my bra into my hamper before pulling an oversized t-shirt and a pair of gray cotton “boy short” style underwear from my dresser. Unbuttoning my pants, they’re next in the hamper.
Naked as the day I came into the world, I sprint the few feet from my bedroom to the bathroom. Despite Ellis saying that she wouldn’t be home tonight, the fear of getting caught in my birthday suit unexpectedly causes me to shut the bathroom door behind me.
Coming in here, I only had the intention of jumping in the shower to wash the product out of my hair, but instead of turning on the shower, I test the water temperature on my hand and pull up the drain stopper for a bath – something I haven’t done since I was a kid. After lighting the lavender candle on the counter, I turn the light off. The room is small enough that the light from the candle is just enough to dimly light the entire space.
Sifting through Ellis’s basket of bath stuff, I grab a bath bomb. Stopping at the mall to replace it would have to go on my to-do list for tomorrow. Not that she would care that I used it, but I’m not about to tarnish my almost eight year “perfect roommate” streak with petty theft.
Bending down, I place the bath bomb, the towel, and my phone on the gray plush bath rug outside of the tub. As the tub continues to fill, I ease my body into the hot water. Taking a deep breath in, I exhale as I slide down, allowing my legs and hips to get used to the almost too hot temperature of the water. Just before I’m about to turn the water off, I reach for the bath bomb and drop it in, immediately pulling up the camera on my phone. Letting my black polished toes pop out of the water, I quickly snap a picture as blue, pink, and yellow spreads over the bathtub.
Once my eyes readjust from the burst of light from the flash, I open the Instagram app and tap on the plus sign on the bottom of the screen to add a picture. Quickly captioning, “Perfect way to end the perfect night,” before hitting post.
Scanning my music library, I find the “acoustic playlist” and press play before dropping my phone next to the towel outside of the tub. As Max sings about lights down low, I lay back on the inflated bath pillow that clings to the wall. I haven’t felt this relaxed in a long time. Maybe Ellis is onto something with this bath stuff.
For the next twenty minutes, I decompress in the silence. Once the water begins to chill, I push the drain stopper down and take a quick shower to rinse off and wash my hair. While still in the tub, I reach for my towel, doing a double take when I see my phone light up with a text from “Just Pax” on the floor next to it.
Be
ads of water fall off my hair and my body into the bathtub as I quickly dry my hands off so I can read what he sent me.
JUST PAX: So, I went on a date with this amazing girl tonight. I really don’t want to come off as desperate, but I was thinking I should send her a message before she changes her mind about another date with me.
Be still my fucking heart.
COLE: Huh. That’s funny because I was just thinking about what I would do if the handsome fella across the hall really wanted to go out on another date with me. Because, you know, it’s my turn to plan/pay.
COLE: Are you still planning on coming Sunday? No pressure. I was going to ask if Monday night would work…but I don’t want you to get sick of me.
JUST PAX: Monday night works for me. I’m down for Sunday as long as you want me there.
JUST PAX: Also, would it be weird if I followed you on Instagram? I was just scrolling through and you popped up in the suggestions, weirdly enough.
COLE: It’s probably because I’m in your contacts.
COLE: And yes to Sunday.
JUST PAX: You’re really not going to let me pay on Monday, are you?
COLE: No sir. I am not.
JUST PAX: I’m not going to lie, I’m still going to try.