“Want to come in for a while?” I asked Natalie as we walked back toward my house.
She scowled at me. “No. You and I are in a huge fight.”
I laughed. “Why?”
“Because you shouldn’t have said that stuff to my family. I didn’t want them to know about Dan yet.”
“Hey, I didn’t tell them about the breakup, you did.”
“I had to! You were running your mouth about me going on a road trip with you this week. Girls with boyfriends don’t take road trips with other guys.”
I shook my head. “That is why no one should be in serious relationships. Everyone should be free to take road trips with random people any time they want.”
“Well, I still haven’t decided if I’m taking one with you, so you better behave.”
“I’ll try. So what about tonight? Want to hang out?” I sort of hated how desperate I sounded to be with her, but I had all her attention for the first time ever.
She sighed. “I do, but I should go home. I have to get ahold of Michael and make sure it’s OK to take tomorrow off.”
“Ask him if he can cover ’til Thursday on his own.” She groaned, but I took it as a sign she was coming around. I slung my arm around her shoulders. “Come on. It’s gonna be fun! I can show you where I live.”
She looked up at me suspiciously. “Your apartment doesn’t have a sex dungeon, does it?”
“No, smartypants. I wasn’t even thinking about sex.” And I wasn’t—that was crazy, wasn’t it? That I’d have her to myself for three days, and I wasn’t planning on holing up in my loft and banging her endlessly? I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for banging too, but it wasn’t the only reason I wanted to get her to myself. I actually wanted to be with her.
Wait a second.
Just wait.
I slowed my steps as the harsh realization sunk in.
Was I…growing? Like…maturing? Emotionally?
No. That wasn’t possible. Guys like me took decades to grow up and have Emotions, didn’t they? One night of mind-blowing sex with the girl next door hadn’t turned me into an actual adult with Feelings, had it?
Maybe I should slow down.
“Just kidding,” I added quickly, taking my arm from her shoulders. “I’m always thinking about sex.”
“I know this about you. And yet I’m still considering your offer. What does that say about me?”
“That after years of suffering and deprivation, you are finally ready and willing to enjoy yourself.”
She sighed. “OK fine. You win. I’ll ask about taking three days off. But I need to go home. Do you want to drive me? Or should I take your car?”
“I’ll drive you. Pack up while you’re there, too. Then we can leave whenever we want.”
“Slow down, cowboy. I haven’t talked to Michael yet.”
“Sorry. I’m just excited to get you all to myself.” Oh, shit. “You know, for all the sex.”
Rolling her eyes, she thumped me on the chest. “You’re an animal,” she said. But she actually looked happy about it.
• • •
On the way to her house, she called Michael, her pastry chef, who was back from his long weekend and more than happy to manage the shop for her the next three days. She double-checked with both waitresses scheduled to work this week, and each said she would be glad to pitch in with extra hours if needed.
“See? Everything is under control,” I said.
“Seems like it.” She chewed the tip of her index finger. “And they can always call me if they need to.”
“Exactly. But they won’t. And you know what? This tells me you’re an awesome boss. You’ve trained them well.”
“Thank you.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m actually taking a little vacation. I haven’t—oh shit.”
“What?” I glanced at her and followed her gaze down the street. Daylight was just starting to fade into dusk, and I easily made out the red Mustang in her driveway and the burly douchebag in a suit getting out of it. “Oh, shit. What do you want to do? I can keep driving and we can pretend we never saw him, I can wait for you in the car, or I can walk you in. Your call.”
She eyed me. “If I say come in with me, can you manage not to get in a fight with him?”
“Possibly.” I pulled alongside the curb, noting unfriendly stance of said douchebag, who looked like he was ready to throw a punch. “But unlikely.”
“Oh, God. Please don’t, OK?”
But Dan was already stomping across the lawn toward us, chest first. In general, I’m a lover not a fighter, but I have a big enough mouth that I’ve gotten myself into trouble a few times. I took off my glasses just in case, popping them into the glove box under Natalie’s worried gaze.
Dan yanked open the passenger door. “Can we talk?”
“Not right now,” she said breezily. “Dan, you remember Miles. Miles, Dan.”
I leaned over her and smiled. “What’s up?”
He ignored me. “I really want to talk to you.”
“Well, give me a call at the end of the week.” She got out of the Jeep. “I’m going out of town tomorrow.”
Score! I thought, hopping out and following her up the front walk. Now please, please ask where she’s going and with whom.
Dan walked on the grass to get ahead of her. “Out of town where?”
“None of your business,” she said, pulling her keys from her purse.
We reached the front porch, and Dan stepped in front of the door. “Where were you last night? I came back to talk to you, and you weren’t here.”
She shrugged. “That’s none of your business either.”
Goddamn, I was proud of her. If he tried to touch her, I was going to move in, but as long as she could hold her own, I thought it was best to let him see her stand tall without any help.
Dan flicked his beady douchebag eyes at me. “What’s he doing here, anyway?”
“He’s my friend. Now get out of the way so I can go into my house.”
“Not until you agree to talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say right now, Dan.” Natalie threw a hand up. “Go be free! Enjoy your space! You were right. We need a little time apart, a little distance to reevaluate what we want out of life.”
Dan looked nervous. “You’re reevaluating your life?”
“Yeah. I am.” She sounded just as surprised as he did. “Just because you had a plan doesn’t mean you should follow through with it, right or wrong. There’s dedication, and then there’s blind stubbornness.”
“But…” He ran a hand over his hair. “But what if the break was the wrong plan?” He lowered his voice. “I couldn’t sleep last night at all.”
“Sorry to hear that. But you know what? I didn’t get much sleep either.”
I snorted. I couldn’t help it. But then I thought Natalie might kill me, so I tried to turn it into a cough. She gave me a nasty stink-eyed stare over her shoulder before shoving Dan out of the way. To my surprise, he gave up, standing there slump-shouldered and dejected while Natalie opened the door and gestured for me to go in. “Go on, Miles. I’ll be in in a minute.”
Reluctantly, I slipped past her into the front hall and eavesdropped on their conversation through the partly open door.
“You’re punishing me. I deserve it,” said sad sack Dan. “I know I do.” I rolled my eyes and gave him the finger through the door.
“You cheated on me, Dan. That hurts.” Her voice was like steel.
“I’m sorry.”
“Was it more than once?”
I didn’t hear anything so he must have nodded or something, because she laughed coldly. “I should have known. God, was I just stupid?”
“No! Look, it happened but we can put it behind us now, Natalie. I don’t want anyone else.”
“Until the next time.”
“There won’t be a next time. I promise.”
“I’m not interested in your promises anymore, Dan. What are you even fighting for? It’s time we admit things between us haven’t been good for a while now—they’ve been forced, and that’s partly my fault, because I didn’t want to face it. Now we have to.”
“I don’t think it was forced,” he said, his tone defensive. “I think it just got comfortable, and I took you for granted.”
“Whatever it was, Dan, there has to be something better. I’ve decided I’m too young to settle for comfortable.”
God, I wanted to tackle hug her for that so hard.
“But I love you, Natalie. I still want what we had planned. I just didn’t want it so fast.”
“I get it. And I’m glad you were finally honest with me. It’s giving me a chance to take a closer look at what I want now. To figure out what’s really going to make me happy.”
“I hope it’s still me.”
It’s not you! I felt like shouting. You don’t even know about her G spot, you fuckwad! Unexpected rage curled my hands into fists and flared my nostrils when I thought about him having sex with her. About his mouth on her, his hands on her, his stupid lazy dick. And if she went back to him, he’d get that spectacular body to himself. He’d get to eat that sweet little muffin. He’d get to glaze her buns.
That was fucking unacceptable.
I wanted to glaze her buns.
Molten fury rose in my chest, and I clenched my fists at my sides.
“I don’t think it’s you anymore, Dan. I’m sorry. We’ll talk next week, OK? Goodnight.” She came in the house and shut the door, leaning back against it, breathing hard.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe I just did that.” She put her hands over her stomach. “I broke up with Dan. For good.”
It was dim in her front hall, and I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t read her expression too well. “Are you OK?”
She nodded, her eyes wide. “Yes. But I’m in shock. I think I just drastically changed my life.”
I smiled. “Fuck yeah, you did. How does it feel?”
“Good. Liberating. I’m filled with all this…” She waved her hands around frantically. “Insane energy right now.”
I leaned toward her, boxing her in against the door with both arms. “Want some help burning that off?”
“Yeah,” she breathed, running her hands up my chest. “I think I do.”