by Parker, Ali
Last time, the stakes had been so low because both of us had walked in expecting this to be over with quickly. We hadn’t actually counted on liking one another. But this date came with the pressure of the two of us knowing for sure that we actually enjoyed each other’s company, that there was more than a flicker of attraction there.
That was scary. At least for me.
I had picked out the outfit, and I was comfortable in what I had chosen. It was better than the scrubs that I had worn to the dinner he’d invited me to after everything had happened with Tink, right? Did that count as our second date? I had no idea. Because if tonight was our third date, then I knew just what that meant.
“Raina?”
A voice caught my attention, and I glanced around to see a woman that I hadn’t seen in far, far too long standing there waiting for me.
“Rita!” I exclaimed, and I waved at her from my spot next to the angry pregnant cat. “I’d hug you, but I’m all cat germs right about now.”
“I just wanted to let you know that I’m here,” she replied. “I’ll be outside, all right? I think we need to talk.”
“Sure,” I said happily. I hadn’t seen her in so long, actually getting to lay eyes on her again was a treat.
“And be nice to that momma,” she told me. “She’s probably feeling crappy right about now. I know I was when I was in that state.”
“Yeah, but I’ll bet you didn’t try to bite any of your doctors,” I said.
She grinned at me. “That’s what you think,” she replied, and with that, she left the room and allowed me to finish up.
I took my time, knowing that she wouldn’t want me to rush, and then headed out to join her.
“Oh my God, it’s so good to see you,” I told her as I pulled back from a huge hug. Her baby, Tommy, was in a stroller behind the counter, fast asleep. “And to see this little guy too.”
Since he had come along, time had been running double-time, it felt. Last time I had seen him, I could have sworn he was about half the size that he was now.
“It’s so nice to be back,” she said with a sigh, looking around the place fondly with a smile on her face. “I’ve missed it so much, you know? I mean, you know I love motherhood, but I don’t think I was meant to spend all my time at home.”
“And does that mean...” I asked hopefully, raising my eyebrows at her.
She grinned widely. “If you’ll have me, I’d love to come back.”
“Oh my God, yes!” I exclaimed, and I lunged toward her and wrapped her in another big hug. I couldn’t believe that she was going to be coming back. Running this place without her had never been the same, and I had thought that was just the way it had to be now that she was a mother.
“You might have to go a little easy on me while I get used to everything again,” she warned me. “I don’t know how much muscle memory I have left over.”
“I’ll train you up myself if I have to,” I assured her.
She gave me another smile. “I really didn’t think I’d be back so soon,” she confessed. “But I miss this, you know? I miss us.”
“I miss us, too,” I replied. “It’s not been the same here without you.”
“Well, you best get used to having me around again,” she said. “I’m all controlling and motherly now. I’m not going to take any shit.”
“You’re swearing in front of him?” I teased her. “Already a bad influence on your own baby.”
“Yeah, well, I think he’s heard enough of it in the last few months to last him a lifetime.” She chuckled, glancing over at her son with adoration in her eyes. It made me so happy to see her beaming with such joy. She deserved it.
“So, what’s changed?” I asked. “Are you guys hiring help, or...”
“No, actually, Michael’s going to stay at home and take care of Tom while I’m at work,” she replied. “It took a lot of negotiating, but I actually think it’s the best choice for us. I know how much he loves the hands-on stuff about being a father, and he’s never been totally committed to his job anyway.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said, delighted for her. “And you’ll start back here?”
“Part-time at first,” she explained. “I don’t want to jump in too quickly in case I find that it’s too much for me to be leaving my little guy behind all day, you know?”
“Honestly, having you around at all is going to make such a huge difference,” I said. “You know how much Hannah and I have been struggling to keep on top of the day-to-day without you around?”
“Oh, don’t say that,” she said, waving her hand. “You’ll make me feel bad. You know I’ll do whatever I can to make it easier around here.”
“It’s going to be so good to work with you again,” I told her. I knew that I kept repeating myself, but I didn’t much care. I hadn’t imagined that I would get news as good as this today, not after the way that my day had been going. But my best friend in the world was going to be working with me once more. It didn’t get much better than that.
“You want to go out for a drink tonight to celebrate?” she asked, and I was about to agree when I remembered that I had a date to look forward to that evening. I had completely left Rita out of the loop when it came to what had been going on with Harry, and I knew that I didn’t have time to catch her up on all of it now.
“I would love to, but I actually have a date tonight,” I confessed.
Her eyebrows shot up. “A date?”
“A date,” I said, and I smiled to myself. I couldn’t believe that I actually had a real date to go on tonight. I could hardly wait.
“Well, then, don’t let me keep you,” she replied, and she gestured for me to head to the door. “You get out there and get ready!”
“I have to lock up, and—”
“I can take care of all of that,” Rita said, waving her hand. “Trust me. After so long away from this place, even the little stuff is going to seem like a treat.”
“If you’re sure,” I replied.
We bid our farewells, and she caught my hand before I made it to the door.
“And just so you know, I’m fully expecting all the details as soon as you get back,” she told me.
I grinned. “Hope I have some details to share,” I replied.
I headed out to my apartment and wondered just what the rest of this night was going to bring.
I was so freaking nervous. I wondered if he was feeling the same way. I doubted it. He always seemed so cool and calm and collected. I wished that I could have found my way to some of his confidence, but for the time being, I would just have to hope that I could sell it, even when I wasn’t feeling it.
I dumped the dress that I had been going to wear and replaced it with something a little looser. I wanted to be comfortable more than I wanted to look sexy. There was nothing less sexy than someone having to loosen the zip on the back of their dress because they’d eaten too much, right?
I showered, wrapped up the bite mark on my hand, and hoped to God that he was going to be there on time. I was nervous enough as it was, and if he was running late, I was pretty sure that I would find some way to talk myself out of this whole thing.
But then there was a buzz on my apartment intercom, and I jumped to my feet. He was here. He was here! This was really happening. I checked my hair in the mirror next to the door one last time and then let him in.
When I opened the door, he was standing there with a smile on his face and a bunch of flowers in his hand.
“You didn’t need to bring me those,” I blurted out without thinking.
“Yeah, but I wanted too,” he replied, and he greeted me with a kiss on the cheek.
I smiled. It was nice to be romanced, to be treated like this. I went to grab a vase for the flowers and carefully arranged the beautiful collection that he had picked out for me. Sweet peas and peonies mingled together, all delicate pastels and vibrant green stems.
“I hope you’re hungry because I have the best Greek food in the city
for you tonight,” he told me.
I linked my arm through his and nestled into his side. “Then let’s get out of here,” I replied.
And suddenly, everything about the hard day that I’d had so far just seemed to fall away.
Chapter 21
Harry
“Oh, yes, I love this place!” Raina exclaimed as soon as she saw where we were going to be eating.
I glanced over at her. “You know, you don’t have to say that just to spare my feelings—”
“No, I love it,” she promised me. “They have the most amazing vegetarian gyro here, seriously. This is just what I’m craving.”
I was glad that she seemed to like the restaurant I had chosen for her. I could have gone somewhere a little fancier and more expensive, but I knew that the food wouldn’t even come close to how good it was here, a little family place, hole in the wall.
It made me happy to think that she already knew that she loved it. She spoke with such effusiveness, it was hard not to get caught up in what she was saying. I loved to hear her talk like that, so excited and ready for what came next.
We took our seats at the table, and she tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear as she looked over the menu.
“I don’t even know why I’m pretending to look. I know what I’m going to get.” She giggled. “What about you?”
“Yeah, same,” I said, and we waved the waiter over and ordered our food.
As soon as he left, I looked at the woman sitting opposite me and wondered what in the hell I was meant to do now that I had her on an actual date. And not just a date that we had been thrown on together by people who thought that they knew what was best for us. A date that I wanted to be on, with a woman I wanted to be near.
“So,” I began, figuring I had to start somewhere. “How was your day?”
“About this kind of shitty,” she replied, holding up a hand with a bandage on it that I hadn’t noticed before. “Seemed like all the animals who came in today had it out for me.”
I laughed, already beginning to loosen up a little bit. “That must be pretty standard issue, right? In your line of work?”
“This was a particularly bad day for it,” she explained. “I feel like they had passed a memo around to make sure that they all got me.”
“So, not the best?”
“Well, actually, despite all that, it wasn’t bad,” she said before taking a sip of her wine. “My business partner, Rita, came by today and told me that she wanted to come back and work at the clinic with me. She had a baby, you see, and she was away for a long time, but her husband’s going to be staying at home to take care of their little guy while she comes back to work with me.”
The way she was gushing, I knew it had to be good news. There was a huge smile lighting up her entire face, and it was good to see her so animated.
“Speaking of kids,” she continued. “How’s Winnie? Got over the trauma of Tink eating a sock yet?”
“I think she’s just about recovered,” I said. “Thanks to you, though. I was freaking the fuck out when you came around that morning. I don’t know how you managed to stay so calm.”
“A lot of practice,” she replied. “And maybe some kind of psychic vision that he was just being a dramatic little princess.”
“Maybe so,” I said with a chuckle. “Either way, I’m glad you were there to help. We owe you one.”
“Consider this my payment,” she replied flirtatiously, and I felt a heat beginning to grow between us.
Every time that I had seen her, I had done my best to keep the way I really felt away from my brain. But I liked talking to her, being with her, being close to her, and we had the whole night to spend together. I couldn’t deny my feelings any longer. More importantly, I didn’t want to, not anymore.
We chatted as we ate and drank. She told me about how she’d started the clinic, where she’d grown up, and how she’d met Rita, her partner. She asked about Winnie, and I was glad that she was actually thinking about my little girl. I knew that anyone that I invited into my life was going to have to care for her, too, and I had a head start there, given that Raina and Winnie already seemed to get along pretty well.
But there was something that I hadn’t told her yet. Something that I knew I shouldn’t have been holding back for so long. And it wasn’t that I was trying to lie to her or deceive her. It was just that I was fearful about what she would think of me when she found out. But I had to come clean about it one way or another. And sooner rather than later was better, I supposed.
“There’s something I have to tell you,” I said as the waiter cleared away our plates and brought out another glass of wine for us both. She stared at me over the table, those striking eyes burning into mine. I wanted to kiss her and just forget about everything that I knew I had to tell her, but it didn’t work that way. Honesty. Honesty was what I needed right now.
“It’s... it’s about who I am,” I continued.
She widened her eyes at me. “Are you actually a super-secret spy on a mission to infiltrate all the vet clinics in the city?” she asked playfully.
“Well, if I was, I wouldn’t come out and tell you about it,” I said.
She shrugged in agreement. “So, what’s going on?”
“It’s about my family,” I told her. I didn’t know how to approach this without sounding like I was just trying to show off about where I was from and the life I had lived. Everyone else in my world knew that this was just a part of me. Coming clean about it felt new. Odd. Different.
“Might it have something to do with the fact that you’re actually a billionaire and your family has a super big tech company?” she asked.
I cocked my head at her, confused. “You been doing your research on me?”
“No,” she said and smiled a little sheepishly. “Nothing like that. Just, when you came to pick up Tink, that girl had such a reaction to you, and then when I found out about the donation that you had put through to the shelter, I figured you must have had some decent money. My brother and his fiancée, they’re both lawyers. They know the ins and outs of this stuff pretty well, and I got the scoop off them.”
“And you decided not to tell me?”
“I feel like that amount of background research is a little creepy,” she said with a shrug. “I didn’t want to scare you off.”
“Well, you saved me actually having to go through with that conversation, so you saved my ass there,” I assured her. “You really knew all that stuff about me already?”
“I knew that someone who donated a big chunk of cash to the shelter couldn’t exactly be doing badly for money,” she said.
I nodded. She had a point there. In a lot of ways, I supposed, I had hardly played it subtle.
“You didn’t mention it before,” she said.
I shook my head. “I honestly didn’t want you to think of me as some rich asshole. I know that people like me don’t really have the best reputation for being decent human beings.”
“Well, you gave that money to the shelter,” she said. “So you’re fine by me. Seriously, everything you did for us, it was amazing. You have no idea how much that money is going to change things around there.”
“I was hoping I might be able to make it a recurring donation,” I said. “If that’s something that you think would benefit them.”
“I know it would,” she replied warmly. “And think of all the dogs you’ll be helping, keeping them out of kill shelters. You couldn’t be giving your money to anywhere that would use it better.”
“That’s good to hear,” I replied, and I fiddled with my wine glass. I didn’t know how to come out with this without sounding entitled, but I knew that I had to tell her what had been going through my mind.
“And I guess I just wanted you to know,” I began, speaking slowly, “that the money doesn’t really matter to me that much. I’m not going to be throwing it around all the time. Most of it, I’m just putting away to take care of Winnie’s future so she can do
anything she wants to.”
“Yeah, I figured that,” she said, smiling.
“I mean, I love my family. Don’t get me wrong, but I’m not going to be going on about my grandfather unless it’s to talk about how he’s taking care of Winnie for me, right? And I’m still living in that house that my sister had. I don’t want to go anywhere else, not after everything Winnie’s been through.”
“I get that,” she said. “I do. Trust me.”
“You’re not disappointed?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
She shook her head at me at once. “Why on Earth would I be?”
“I know that some people, when they find out about the family money, they just want a piece of the lifestyle they imagine that we must have,” I explained. “And I don’t really have much of that lifestyle. Not really.”
“And what makes you think that I came into this looking for that?” she asked gently. “I’ve been to your house, remember. I’ve seen you and Winnie and Tink. And everything you have. It looks perfect to me. It really does.”
The way she said it, I knew that she wasn’t just feeding me what she thought I wanted to hear. I had been so nervous to tell her this, but I shouldn’t have been. She meant this. Every single word of it. And I was so grateful for her in that moment, I could hardly think straight.
I had held back from the very notion of dating for such a long time, fearful that it would end with one of us getting hurt, scared that someone was just going to come searching for my money and nothing more. But she was right. Even before she had known a thing about it, she had liked me. We’d had that chemistry together.
Our attraction was something that nobody could deny, no matter how much they might have wanted to. It went past the mere physical and into something profound, something that had me unable to take my eyes off her, off the way she laughed and talked and smiled at me when she was listening to me speak.
The rest of the evening was about as perfect as it was possible to be. I loved spending time with her. In fact, by the time that dessert came around, I knew that I didn’t want this evening to be over so soon. Yara was taking care of Winnie, and I knew that there was no great rush to get home to her anytime soon.