BRADLEY

The diner is all her. Completely, one hundred percent Lexi Monroe.

From the second I walk in the door, I’m surrounded by it. Her scent, the bubbling happiness, the eclectic decor. There’s an old timey feel what with the bar, the counter stools, the thick scent of coffee and frying bacon mixed with syrup and pancakes.

I inhale, my stomach growling as I realize I haven’t had a thing to eat this morning. This must be how Lexi felt the other day in the elevator. Hangry. Except, I’m not all that angry. I’m just ravenous.

Lexi’s nowhere to be seen, which gives me a moment to get my bearings. Pops of yellow, blue, and red add a shock of bright to the room. It matches her personality.

One wall appears to be completely constructed from photographs. Aged and new, familiar faces and strangers. Lexi’s beaming face is on the wall more than a few times, as are Sasha’s and Kitty’s. Also pictured are groups of policemen, firemen, old ladies huddled around a game board, and men holding decks of cards.

I have no clue how Lexi isn’t doing astronomically better financially than she says she is. The place is buzzing this morning. A group of women sit around one table, all of them looking like they came from the pool—wet hair, towels, the works.

Families are scattered throughout, children laughing and coloring the menus on the tables. The stools along the counter are over fifty percent full, and it seems everyone’s struggling for a piece of Lexi’s attention.

As she strides out from a door near the back, a smile fills her face as she moves from one end of the counter to the next greeting an alarming number of the clientele by name.

“She looks good there, doesn’t she?”

I try to keep it together. The voice startles me, but I recognize it. Sasha—Lexi’s friend from last night. The one who kept staring at me like she’d seen a ghost.

“Yes, she does,” I cross my arms and glance casually in her direction. “A natural.”

“I’m guessing you want to eat?” she chirps. “You have to try the waffles.”

“You don’t say,” I mumble, following her across the room.

Lexi doesn’t notice us until we’re standing behind the seats. Sasha scoots onto a stool first, and Lexi glances over toward her with a quick smile. She falters when she sees me, the smile freezing on her face.

My heart races, and I suddenly doubt everything. Maybe her invitation wasn’t sincere, and I shouldn’t have come at all. Maybe—

“Brad! I didn’t expect you here so soon.” Lexi’s smile unfreezes, then brightens. “Quick business meeting? It’s hardly quarter after ten.”

“Yeah,” I say, sliding onto the stool next to Sasha’s. “Things didn’t work out as planned.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Lexi bustles around, grabbing two mugs. She pours one for Sasha, slides it over, then fixes one for me. “Want to talk about it?”

“Nah. You seem really busy.”

“Part of my job is actually being a psychologist,” Lexi whispers with a conspiratorial wink. “There have been many tears shed over this bar.”

“Some of them came from me.” Sasha raises her hand. “It’s a good place to talk.”

“Really, it was just a business venture that didn’t work out.” I grasp the mug and take a sip of the piping hot liquid. It burns. So hot. I try not to wince because nobody else seems to be dying.

“Everything okay, Bradley?” Lexi watches as I struggle to stifle a grimace. “Is it too dark?”

“Really hot,” I say. “And it’s Brad.”

“Brad. Right.”

“I’ll take the waffles. Please.”

“I thought you were supposed to be tough,” Sasha says. “I’ve seen you play before, and you looked tough on the ice.”

“Yeah, well,” I say. “I’m not on the ice anymore, and this coffee is boiling hot.”

All mentions of the ice brings the conversation to a halt as I make eye contact with Lexi. We hold there for a split second, then both look away.

“Sorry,” Sasha says. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”

“I have to check on my customers,” Lexi says. “I’ll get those, uh, waffles for you, Brad.”

She scurries away, leaving Sasha and I in our own little bubble despite the bustling diner.

“Did I say something wrong?” she asks. “I thought you two were in love again.”

“Nope.”

“Sounded like I did.”

“Well, you didn’t.”

“Why’d things get awkward?”

I raise my eyebrows at her, trying to look past the love word. “Things got awkward?”

Sasha sticks out her hand. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Sasha from Sasha’s Sweets next door.”

“Brad Hamilton,” I say, extending my hand to meet hers. “From across the hall at Lexi’s apartment complex.”

Sasha giggles at the joke, which helps to dispel any lingering awkwardness. Until she speaks again in a low mumble, and I can’t quite make out the words.

“Sorry?” I say, leaning closer. “I couldn’t hear you.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she says, a little too sweetly.

“It sounded like you said something about poisoning your cookies.”

She blows out an exasperated sigh. “I said, don’t mess this one up.”

“Or you’ll poison me?”

“Figure of speech.”

“You didn’t sound joking,” I say, watching her with alarm.

“Well, then don’t mess this up.”

“What is it with you ladies and threats?”

Sasha laughs. “Kitty said something too?” When I nod, she purses her lips. “Ah. Well, we are just a close-knit group.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Seeing as how you’re threatening me with murder if I take one misstep.”

“I didn’t say the poison would kill you,” she pouts. “Anyway, I want to get to know you. Tell me the story of Bradley Hamilton in three minutes or less.”

“Are you serious?”

“Two minutes and fifty-two seconds.”

“That wasn’t eight seconds!”

“You’re at three seconds now, so get talking.”

The woman is relentless, and she’s also one of Lexi’s closest friends. I have some groveling to do, seeing as I screwed things up pretty badly after my injury. So, grovel I will do.

“I moved next door to Lexi and Lucas when I was ten. She was nine.”

“You’re a year older than her?”

“You’re good at math.”

She rolls her eyes, but there’s amusement behind them. “Fine. So, you’re twenty-eight. What happened after you moved in?”

“Not a whole lot. We played together like any neighbor kids for the next few years. Lucas and I were inseparable. Lexi wanted to be Lucas’s best friend. We fought for the title, her and I, and then I suppose we all three agreed to be a triangle of friends.”

“A ménage,” Sasha says with a wink.

“I would definitely not put it like that.”

“How would you put it?”

“Three best friends,” I say. “Nothing romantic about it.”

“When did you know you’d fallen in love with Lexi?”

I think for a moment, looking back over the years. I sense I’m smiling, even though I have no memory of telling my face to do any such thing.

Glimpses of years past bubble up, and I comb through them one by one. Our first night at the drive-in theater. The first time we drank beer together. The first night Lexi slept over at my house after fighting with her parents and running away—one door over. I had slept on the floor.

It’s a few seconds later before I return to the present and realize Sasha has trapped me with the question. I look up, scan her over, and shake my head. “You sneak.”

“You thought about it for a very long time.”

“This isn’t love.”

“Really? Because it looked like you were trying to pinpoint the exact moment it happened.”

“I can’t pinpoint it because it hasn’t happened.”

“You’ve been pining after her this whole time,” Sasha says. “Admit it! Why else would you stay in those apartments?”

I have no answer to this because she’s right.

“That’s what I thought,” Sasha says. “So, you can sing to yourself about it not being love all you want, but you’ll thank me someday.”

“How do I owe you a thank you?”

“Because I’m hoping that I knocked some sense into your head. Maybe you’ll go home and think about it and realize what Lexi means to you.”

“I know what she means to me. I don’t need you to tell me.” I realize this comes off a little harsh, so I tack on an ending. “With all due respect.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sasha says with a wave of her hand. “Why haven’t you taken her on a date yet?”

“Because.”

“Great answer,” she says, heavy on the sarcasm. “And here I thought you didn’t want to mess this up.”

I debate another flippant response, but the part inside of me that’s desperate to take Lexi out on the date she deserves fights back. Finally, I swallow my pride. “Look, I've waited all this time. Lexi’s giving me a few months, and I need to prove to her that I’m not going anywhere. That not only is a relationship between us possible, it’s inevitable. I have one date to try and make her feel the same way.”

“Oh, you silly boy.” Sasha takes a long sip of coffee.

Her response has me dying inside a little. Patience isn’t my strongest suit. “What’s so funny?”

“Falling in love with someone isn’t about a single date. Especially not with the history between you two.”

“Yes, but—”

“Look around you!” She throws her hands open and gestures to the diner. “This counts. Last night, whatever you did with your magical penis—”

“Hold on.” I stop her right there and lean in closer. “Why do you guys keep saying that?”

“What?”

“About the magical...”

She waits. Patient. “Magical?”

Sasha is going to make me say this aloud. “Magical penis.”

“Because she very nearly hated you when the two of you went to the roof yesterday,” Sasha says with a flippant wave of her hand. “Then she came down with her hair all mussed and a glow on her cheeks saying she’s in love.”

“She didn’t say that.”

“She—” Sasha stops abruptly.

I watch her face change from the person who has the upper hand in this conversation to an expression of regret and, dare I say, embarrassment.

“She did!” I lean closer. “She said love?”

“Shut up,” Sasha hisses. “She’s coming over here. She’d kill me if she knew I’d let that slip. You know it’s just a figure of speech, right? It’s not actually love.”

“Holy shit.”

“I know,” Sasha says. “That’s why we’re wondering if you have magical appendages. Words don’t make a woman glow like she did last night, so we were thinking it had to be something else.”

I glance over my shoulder to survey Lexi’s progress. She’s called over by a family across the room, so I take my chance and press ahead. “If it’s not a single date that will win her over, what will it take?”

“This. That. Whatever you did last night. Showing up here like you are today. It’s all of the things you do outside of the date,” Sasha explains with patience. “You’ve gone three years letting her wonder what you think about her. She’s been wondering if you care at all, or if you’ve forgotten her. If you hate her guts or—”

“None of that!” I interrupt. “It wasn’t that at all. I was embarrassed. Still am embarrassed. I don’t deserve her.”

“We know,” she says with a smile. “But then again, nobody does. Lexi’s the full package.”

“I know it.”

“She didn’t know it, and that’s the problem. You had her thinking she’d done something wrong. That she wasn’t good enough for you or wasn’t... fill in the blank. Pretty. Smart. Rich enough.”

“That can’t be further from the truth.”

“Fine, but if you let a girl wonder for too long about these things, her mind can scamper toward dark and scary places.”

“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Then don’t let it happen again.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’ll figure it out.”

By some twist of fate, the door opens to the diner and no less than twelve gentlemen appear, all of them in some level of police or firefighter dress, t-shirts, or uniforms. I’m as straight of a male as they come, but even I can tell these guys aren’t hard on the eyes.

Judging by the way they hug and greet Lexi, they know her quite well, too.

“It’s uniform day,” Sasha whispers in explanation. “Wear a uniform in here and get fifty percent off your meal.”

“No wonder she’s not making money,” I grit out, watching in pain as Lexi pats a few officers on the back. “These assholes are coming in here to abuse Lexi’s generosity.”

“They’re just coming in here because the food is good and the service is better,” Sasha says. “Everyone’s gotta eat.”

“Then they should pay full fucking price.”

“Relax, Rambo. They tip well. It makes up for the discount.”

My fingers clench and unclench. I have no right to feel any possessiveness over Lexi, not after all this time apart, but it rears up in me regardless. I’m brought straight back to high school when one of the football players would ask Lexi for her number, and I’d want to behead them. Yes, I realize it’s illogical.

Now I understand why those instincts reared up. Lexi’s a scorching hot woman, and it’s easy to see how she draws natural attention. But beyond her looks, she is, as Sasha put it, the full package. Funny, smart—a conversation with Lexi is never dull. Witty and kind and generous, and...

“Screw it.” I stand up. “This sucks.”

“Where are you going?” Sasha pulls on my arm. “Don’t interrupt. This is her place of business.”

I hesitate because she does have a point. Not only is this her business and livelihood, it’s none of my business what she does here.

We shared one smoking hot kiss last night, and the rest of this is my magical stupid penis talking. I want her, and I don’t want to share. But I haven’t done any of the work to get her or keep her. I haven’t even planned a damn date.

“I’m an idiot,” I mumble.

“Seriously, relax,” Sasha says. “These guys have been coming in here for years. They’re friends. If Lexi wanted to be with one of them, she would’ve been married by now.”

That thought sends my blood pressure through the roof. As if that’s not enough, another wave of firemen walk through the door. The old ladies in the corner hoot and holler, and it grates on my ears. Obviously, these men are the main attraction for the day.

“What is this place, Chippendales?” I grumble, not missing the fact that Sasha is snorting in the background with laughter.

“Didn’t take you for the jealous type.” She giggles. “Well, I guess you’ll have to work quickly then, so she knows how you feel.”

I barely hear this last part because I’m too busy watching Lexi meet and shake the hand of one of the newest firefighters. She’s laughing, then slaps her forehead as if embarrassed. Finally, she points over toward me, and the fireman looks my way, too.

I get it. It hits me.

This is the goon who ‘rescued’ Lexi and me from the elevator. The one who asked her for her number. I wasn’t supposed to overhear that, but I’d been standing right there, and I’m not deaf.

I’d also heard her decline. It had brightened my day.

But it doesn’t brighten my day to see our mutual friend back again, especially when nobody needs rescuing, least of all Lexi Monroe. If anybody’s going to make her smile today, it’s going to be me.

“I don’t like the look on your face,” Sasha says. “You look like you’re going to kill somebody.”

“Nope. Not today,” I say, and Sasha looks mildly alarmed. “I have a different plan.”