We gather up our clothes and get dressed. Cameron has some work to finish, but he walks me to the elevator. We kiss until it arrives. I’m tempted to miss it for round two of what just happened, but I need to get home and get ready for our date.
I press one last kiss to his lips and step into the elevator.
“See you later,” I call as the doors close. His laughing face is the last thing I see before the elevator sinks down to the lobby floor.
Nervous butterflies flutter in my stomach as I wait for Cameron to arrive. I’ve been picking out this outfit since I got home less than two hours ago. I finally settled on a soft, dark green sweater and jeans. The perfect clothes for fall. I pair the getup with fuzzy boots to complete the look.
Cameron knocks on my door. Thank goodness. If I had to wait any longer, I’d have gone crazy. It’s only just five, but still. I’m excited!
“You look great,” Cameron says when I open the door.
He changed, too. Instead of his uptight suit, he’s wearing a black quarter-zip over a deep red shirt. He’s even wearing jeans. I blush, thinking about our earlier romp in his office. Will I get to take this outfit off of him, too?
“I’ve never seen you in anything other than business clothes,” I say. “I like this look.”
He grins. “I thought you might after you made fun of my clothes earlier.”
“I wasn’t making fun of them!”
Cameron lowers his eyes at me.
“Fine, I was teasing you a bit. All in good fun, though, I promise.”
We both laugh and he leads me out to his expensive car. I’ll never understand guys who spend that much on a car. Then again, Cameron is loaded. It was probably a drop in the bucket to pay cash for this loud, obnoxious vehicle.
“You’re judging my car.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
“You totally are. This is the only other thing I own that shows off my money, though. Clothes and cars. That’s it.”
The statement is true, as far as I’ve noticed. His clothes have fancy designers I could only dream of affording someday. This car is probably my salary times a hundred.
“Sorry. It’s a nice car.”
He chuckles. “You’re lying, but I appreciate that.”
Cameron lets me in despite my dislike of his car, so he must not be that offended. He turns down the radio, which was blasting a country song when he pressed the button to start a car. He’s so fancy he doesn’t even need a key!
I’m suddenly feeling very out of my element. I know I went out with Cameron before, but our vastly different social classes didn’t occur to me. It’s the same car, but for some reason I notice it more this time around.
“Are you okay? You seem nervous…”
I shake my head. “Yeah, totally fine.”
“Is it the car? Does it really bother you?”
“No, seriously. It’s nothing.”
He taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “I don’t want you to think that my being rich is like a thing. It’s not. I have a trust fund and a big salary, but that’s not all I am. I hope you can see beyond my money.”
I put my hand on his arm. “I can. It’s just… an adjustment.”
Kyle was the CEO, but he was a broke CEO. He’s not anymore, now that he has breweries all over the country, but when I dated him, he was drowning in student loan debt and driving a used Toyota. It was nothing like dating Cameron, who has real money.
“I can handle that. For now, let’s enjoy mini golf and batting cages, okay?”
I nod, appreciating the change in subject. I also appreciate that Cameron is taking me somewhere casual for our second date. I couldn’t handle another fancy restaurant with him, no matter how delicious the food. At least, not yet. I’m not saying I’ll never go back. The food was really good.
We hit the batting cages first. Cameron keeps track of my hits and I do the same for him. He’s better than I expected for a prim and proper rich boy, but I still beat him by eight hits even on the fastest speed. After I’ve kicked his butt, we move on to mini golf. It’s going well until the sky opens up and rain pours down on us.
Cameron and I run back to his car. Once inside, we’re both soaked and laughing hysterically.
“I should’ve checked the weather before we went out,” he says, shaking out his hair. “You’re probably freezing?”
I shiver. “I am, but it was fun. I had a good time tonight.”
Cameron’s eyes meet mine. “So did I.”
We stay like that for too long, both on the same page.
Our good time isn’t going to end just because of a storm. Cameron drives us back to my apartment for a repeat of what we did earlier.
I didn’t think it was possible, but the sex is even better the third time.
20
Cameron
I wake up with a naked Melody curled up under my arm. There was no way I was leaving after our fun last night. I just got her, and I won’t lose her again.
I extract my arm from under her head and get out of bed to stretch. My shoulder is sore, but I don’t care. I’ll take a sore shoulder any day if it means waking up next to a beautiful woman.
My boxers are on the floor so I slip them on and make my way into the kitchen. Melody has a single-serve coffee maker, so I turn it on to brew a couple of cups for us. She has a bunch of flavors, but the hazelnut is almost gone. That must be her favorite. I make that for her and a regular for myself.
“Hey,” a sleep voice says from behind me. I turn to find Melody wrapped in her blanket. Her hair is frizzy and flying everywhere. She looks gorgeous. “Good morning.”
“Morning.” I hand her the freshly brewed coffee.
Melody takes a deep smell of the brew. “Thank you. I need this.”
My mug finishes brewing so I join Melody at her kitchen table. She stares at her coffee, unable to meet my eyes.
“Hey,” I say. “Don’t get weird on me. Do you want me to leave?”
She shakes her head. “I’m really glad you stayed, actually.”
“Good,” I say with a grin. “Because I didn’t want to leave.”
I lean over the table to give her a good morning kiss. Her lips meet mine and I have to pull away quickly to avoid getting carried away.
“As much as I’d love to stay in bed with you all day, I told Emma to meet us at the office at ten. We should get going if we’re going to beat her there.”
She glances at the clock on the stove and sighs. “You’re right. Let me get dressed.”
“Great. Do you mind if we stop at my place so I can change?”
Melody grins. “You don’t want to do the walk of shame into the office?”
“Ha, ha very funny. I just don’t want Emma to see my jeans and think it’s going to be a regular thing.”
Melody leans down to give me a kiss. “You should make the jeans a regular thing. I like them a lot.”
My cock stirs. “Talk like that and I’ll have to cancel on Emma.”
She laughs. “Don’t do that. We need to talk about Jack. I’ll be dressed quickly and we can make it to your apartment. Where do you live?”
“Right next to the office.”
Melody stops in her tracks. “You mean that really fancy apartment building?”
I cringe. “Okay, so there are three things in my life that show off my money. Car, clothes, apartment. But that’s it, I mean it this time.”
“I won’t hold it against you.” She starts back towards her room but stops again. “Shit, I forgot I have to go to my parents’ house at noon. As much as I like you, I think it’s too early to bring you home, no offense.”
“None taken,” I say. I wouldn’t take a girl home after two dates, either. “We should probably drive in separately then, though. I have some business to take care of so I won’t be able to get you back here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured. You can get a head start to your apartment, then. I’ll meet you at the office.”
I kiss her one more time an
d head out. At my apartment, I change into a more appropriate outfit of slacks and a button-down shirt. I’m tempted to wear jeans just because Melody said she liked them, but Emma would definitely call me out. I’m not afraid to tell everyone I’m with Melody, but I don’t want Emma to think I’m changing my ways entirely. I’m still not comfortable working in jeans. I’m not sure I ever will be.
I beat both Melody and Emma to the office, which makes sense considering how close I live. I wait in the conference room for them to get here. Emma arrives first, followed shortly after by Melody.
I’m not sure how to act around Melody. I don’t want her to think she’s a secret, but I’m not sure she’s comfortable with PDA. I settle for a smile, and she seems to appreciate that.
“Okay, we need a plan for real this time,” I say. “I’m keeping my proposals locked away. Is that enough?”
“I’ll ask Jack to show me his work tomorrow,” Melody says. “He trusts my opinion at the very least. I’ll tell him I want to make sure he wins so I want to go over it before your dad takes it.”
“That’s good. You can tell us what’s in the proposal and recognize it if it’s my work.”
Emma nods. “That works for tomorrow’s proposal, but what about Friday? That’s when the big one is due. Jack is going to try to steal yours somehow. We need to prevent that.”
“She’s right,” Melody says. “There’s no way Jack is even close to prepared for Friday. Your dad isn’t going to postpone, either, if he wants the new CEO in place by November first.”
“But what do we do?” I ask.
We continue to talk and work through different schemes to ensure Jack loses. We’re not going to sabotage him. That’s his game, and we’re not trying to play it. Instead, we’re making sure he sabotages himself. At the very least, he won’t be stealing my work. He’s going to lose on his own merits. Nothing would make me happier.
The time ticks closer to noon and I know Melody has to leave. We agree to chat about Jack’s proposal after Melody talks to him about it tomorrow.
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” she says to Emma. I squeeze her hand as she leaves and her eyes linger just a bit longer on me than on Emma.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Emma. She smirks at me, and I follow Melody out to the elevator.
“Hey,” I say. “Is it okay if I tell Emma about us?”
Melody smiles. “Yeah, of course. I wasn’t sure… I mean, I know you said we weren’t going to be secretive, but I didn’t know how that translated to your assistant.”
“I want everyone to know that we’re dating, Melody.”
“Okay. I want that, too.”
I give her a kiss, slow and lingering. “I’ll see you later. Have fun at your parents.”
“Thanks,” she says. “Good luck with your work.”
The elevator arrives, so I kiss her again and send her on her way. The second the doors close I miss her. This is not a normal feeling for me. Melody has taken over my heart in a way no one has before. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make me a very happy man.
Back in the conference room, Emma is giggling like a schoolgirl.
“You like her!” she says.
I blush. “I do. A lot. We went out on another date last night.”
Emma claps her hands together. “Yay! I knew you two would hit it off. What’d you do?”
I tell her about the date, including the disaster of a rainstorm that cut our mini-golfing short.
“That sounds romantic,” Emma says with a sigh. “What’d you do after?”
I focus on my hands. “We went back to her place.”
Emma squeals. “You slept with her? You move fast.”
I’m not sure how much Melody wants me to share with Emma, but I’ve never been able to hold things in. “We slept together that first date,” I admit.
“Oh my God, Cameron!”
“What? You were all happy that I slept with her last night!”
“Yeah, but this means you’ve slept with her both times you’ve gone on a date.”
Oh, shit. Emma is right. I don’t want Melody to think this is just about sex, because it’s not.
“It just happened,” I say. “It wasn’t like I went into either date thinking I was going to end up in her bed afterwards.”
Emma buries her face in her hands. “It doesn’t matter. You need to fix this. Like, right now.”
“How? She’s at her parents’ house.”
“I don’t mean right this second, but tonight for sure. Go on a date. Just dinner or something. No sex afterwards. Can you handle that?”
It’s going to be hard, not going to lie. The sex with Melody is that good. But I know Emma has a point. I can’t keep sleeping with Melody every time we go out or she might get the wrong idea. I want her to know I’m in this relationship for real, and not for sex.
“Okay,” I say. “I’m going to take her out tonight.”
I send Melody a text immediately. She’s still driving, so she doesn’t respond right away, but when she does, she agrees to the date.
Hopefully, she’s okay with it ending with a kiss at her door.
21
Melody
“What are you so smiley about?” My mom asks.
I blush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dad laughs. “I know that look. Our girl has a new boyfriend.”
“What? I do not!”
That’s true, at least. Cameron and I are dating but we haven’t used labels yet. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, especially not with my parents.
My mom and dad met in high school and have been hopeless romantics ever since. They’ve never shied away from talking to me about boys and relationships and sex. It drove me crazy as a kid, but it’s nice now that I’m an adult. I don’t feel like I need to lie or hide from them.
“We’ve just gone out a few times,” I admit.
“You’re being safe, right? You know birth control doesn’t prevent STDs.”
“Mom,” I groan. “I know. You taught me that in like third grade. I’m being safe. I always am.”
Her and my dad both smile triumphantly. Any time a lesson hits home, they look like they won the lottery.
“So, tell us about him. When do we get to meet him?”
“I don’t know, Dad. We literally have been on two dates.”
Mom laughs. “But you like him a lot?”
“I do,” I say. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Relationships are mutual, remember? You taught me that in like second grade. If not earlier.”
“We raised a smart girl, Trudy,” my dad says, wrapping his arm around my mom’s waist.
Mom beams. “We did, Jacob.”
“Whatever, you two.” I walk towards the kitchen to get myself a drink.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook, young lady!” Dad shouts after me. “We still want to hear all about him!”
I sigh. Once I’ve gotten a soda from the fridge, I make my way back out to the living room. Mom and Dad are sitting on the couch, so I take the chair across from them. We’ve got Scrabble set up on the coffee table, but no one has played a word yet. They’re too distracted by my love life. It’s my own fault for smiling at the most recent text Cameron sent me, verifying our date for tonight.
“Cameron is one of the CEO’s at my job,” I tell my parents. I may as well share with them. They won’t stop until I tell them everything. “He’s not my boss, his brother is.”
“Is he cute?”
I laugh. “Yeah, Mom, he’s cute. And really nice, too. We’ve only been out twice, but I do like him a lot. We have another date tonight.”
Mom claps and Dad asks a million more questions, which I answer as best I can. My parents are nosey, but I love them for it. I’d rather have parents who care than parents who don’t, even though I’m twenty-five years old.
After twenty-questions is over, we play our game of Scrabble, eat dinner, and my parents finally let me leave for my da
te. I make it home just a few minutes before Cameron comes by to pick me up.
We opt to just go to dinner tonight since it’s Sunday and we both have work tomorrow. We got to a less fancy restaurant than our first date, but it’s still higher class than I’m used to. The food is good and the conversation flows easily, thank goodness.
When we get back to my apartment, Cameron seems nervous.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah, fine.”
I wait for him to continue, because it’s clearly not fine.
“I told Emma about us,” Cameron says. “And I let it slip that we slept together both times we went on dates. She pointed out that maybe we should try a date without the sex.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Is that why you look like you’re freaking out right now?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I don’t want you to be mad or offended.”
“I’m not!” I assure him. “Emma has a point. Besides, we have to work tomorrow. If you come in, we won’t get nearly enough sleep.”
Cameron chuckles. “You’re right about that. So it’s cool if I walk you to your door?”
“Of course, Cameron.”
He gets out of the car and we head for my door. Once there, Cameron kisses me slowly. When he pulls away, we’re both smiling.
“Goodnight, Melody,” he says.
“Goodnight.”
I slip into my apartment while Cameron heads for his car. Behind the closed door, I do a little happy dance. Cameron cares enough about me to go on a regular date without sex. It hadn’t occurred to me that we were sleeping together every date, but I’m glad Emma pointed it out. A relationship has to be more than the physical. My parents taught me that in elementary school.
When I climb into my bed, I’m feeling lonely. It was so nice having Cameron next to me last night. He made for a great pillow.
I ignore the loneliness and allow myself to drift off to sleep knowing I’ll get to see Cameron in the morning.
There are roses on my desk when I get in. The note beside them is from Cameron, wishing me a good day. He truly is the sweetest.
Cocky S.O.B. Page 12