BRADLEY

The sound of knocking pulls me from sleep. I dozed off on the couch watching a movie, and my neck is cricked all sorts of awkward. I massage it as I leap off the couch, glance down at my sweats. No shirt. But it’s my house, and I’m alone, so I don’t bother to change that.

I rest a hand on the door and, at the last second, look through the peephole.

“Open up!” Lexi yells. “I heard you twist the knob. You’re not sneaky.”

I hide a smile, then fling open the door without further fanfare. “Good morning.”

She tries to look at my eyes and falters. Her gaze drops down to my chest. Lingering there for awhile, and then slowly trailing back up to my face.

“If you haven’t heard,” I say, pointing two fingers at myself. “My face is up here.”

“Ha, ha,” she says, but her pink cheeks give away a hint of sheepishness. “Good morning.”

We watch each other for a long minute. She’s dressed in her tight jeans and blue t-shirt. Significant cleavage. I lean against the door and try to keep things moving so we don’t have an awkward moment here in the hallway. I’m wearing sweatpants.

“What brings you around this morning?” I ask. “Would you like to come inside?”

“No, I have to get to work. I just wanted to extend an invitation for a ride.”

“A ride...?”

“To the diner,” she says, then backtracks just as quickly. “I mean, if you weren’t planning to come today, that’s totally fine. I shouldn’t have even stopped by. Sorry, I don’t know why I said anything. Just thinking you could ride with me, walk back—”

“After I eat everything on your menu, I’m sure I’ll need a walk,” I say with a smile. “Unfortunately, I can’t join you for a ride. I have a business meeting first, and I’ll be there a little later.”

“Oh. Absolutely. Um, of course! Well, I’ll be looking forward to it.”

I glance at my watch—nine forty-five. “Will you be available around noon? This shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. A friend is picking me up at ten.”

“Ah.”

“Business friend.”

“You can go with whatever friend you’d like,” she says, glancing down at her shoes. “You don’t owe me any explanations.”

“Lexi, stop.” I step closer, and the scent of her hits me. She smells like honey and flowers, and if I hadn’t kissed her last night, I wouldn’t be able to hold back now. Just standing so close to her has me intoxicated.

“What?”

I smile. Her eyes are huge, a beautiful jungle green, and full of sunshine. When she breathes out, her mouth puckers into a surprised frown, and I can’t resist. I lean forward and kiss her.

It’s short and sweet, almost chaste, and I pull back quickly. To cover up the sweetness of the moment, I give her a look. “Don’t make things weird, Lex.”

“I’m not making things weird,” she snaps. “You’re making them weird.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” I exhale, give her a faux-annoyed stare. “Then I didn’t do it right. Let me try again.”

“Try what—”

My arm finds it’s natural fit behind her back, my thumb playing over the edge of her jeans. I want to dive below, find out more, but I hold back and focus on plying her lips open with mine.

This time around, it’s not so sweet, and it’s definitely not chaste. Especially not after a moan slips from her mouth to mine. She’s got my engine revved, for lack of a better analogy, and when she arches her hips to meet me, I nearly overflow with desire.

Pulling her into my apartment, I brace an arm over her shoulder and press my fingers against the wall to give us balance. She reaches a hand up, holding onto my arm as she rises to meet me, urging the kiss deeper. One of her legs comes up, wraps around mine, joining us in a mess of limbs.

“I have a friend coming at ten,” I manage to murmur. “But I’m happy to cancel.”

“I have to get to work,” she says.

“Work?”

“Screw work,” she says, and kisses me again.

I pull her deeper into the apartment. We make it as far as the couch before I wrap her in my arms and bring the pair of us tumbling to the couch. I cradle her as I shift into position underneath her. She wriggles until she’s comfortable lying on top of me, peppering my lips with little sweet kisses.

Her fingers explore my bare chest, and the edges send tingles to every zone in my body. Muscles I didn’t even know I had clench. My brain is screaming for release.

Even more, I’m desperate to see her face. To hear my name slip from her lips in the most intimate of moments.

“What about—”

“Work can wait,” I tell her. I’m well aware this isn’t logical. The thing is, my brain isn’t operating on logic at the moment. In fact, I doubt my brain is operating much at all. “I’ll buy everything on your menu if you stay here with me.”

“But—”

“The dessert menu, too.”

She pauses, as if to consider this offer. Then, reluctantly, wrinkles her nose. “You still haven’t taken me on a date.”

“We’ve known each other since... well, ever since I can remember.”

“Since I didn’t even like boys,” she says. “I didn’t wear a bra, and I didn’t have boobs, and...”

“And look at you now, all grown up. How about my offer?”

“You couldn’t afford to buy my whole menu. It’s long.”

Money is one thing I’m not particularly short on. Sure, I live in a mediocre apartment in downtown St. Paul, but half the reason I haven’t left yet is because that would take away all excuses to talk to Lexi Monroe.

I’d never tell her, but the days I’d run into her in the hallway had kept me going. The day we’d been trapped in the elevator together? It’d made my year. The brightest day in a string of dark ones.

“You’re taking me on a date,” she says, sitting up and adjusting her shirt. “We already agreed to this. I stopped in here to offer you a ride, not to...”

Her cheeks blush at the innuendo, and I laugh. I sit up, too, nuzzle against her for a second to drink in the scent of her, and then pull both of us to our feet.

“Thanks for the offer of a ride,” I say with a wink. “I hate to pass it up this time. But count me in next time.”

She stares at me, then turns on her heel and marches out of the room.

I think that went well.