I was so sure that I would never forgive Michael for the way he’d treated me these past few days, but I suddenly couldn’t resist his charm. He was the same seductively attractive man I had met that first night at MacCauley’s again. I knew I shouldn’t even have been sitting on the bench. I shouldn’t have entertained any conversation. Instead, I was sitting beside him, shaking his hand and feeling those electric waves jolt through my body from his touch.

“Good. So maybe we can actually talk now,” Michael said.

He looked different today. I’d never seen him in casualwear before. He was wearing a pair of running pants and a tight t-shirt that stretched over his wide chest. He couldn’t hide it anymore — he had a chiseled muscular body. His big biceps bulged under the sleeves of his flimsy t-shirt.

“Do we have anything to talk about?” I asked. I hadn’t completely forgiven him yet, neither had I forgotten.

“Yes, Aria. Lots,” he replied and turned to me fully. I faced him too, surprised by his sudden enthusiasm to talk.

Michael hadn’t struck me as the kind of man who would want to just sit down and talk with a woman. I always thought his main agenda was to figure out how to get into a woman’s pants. That was how he had been with me.

“For starters, I want to clear up what happened that night. I know you were offended, and rightly so. You see, Aria, I don’t know Liam Bloom well. At all, in fact. I misjudged him. I didn’t think he would go so blatantly for you. I wouldn’t have invited you to the meeting if I’d known he would act like such a pig,” he explained.

I was listening to every word he said. Tried not to stare at the dark curl falling on his forehead. The way his green eyes glowed.

“What’s going to happen to that account? He didn’t look happy when I left,” I said.

Michael breathed deeply and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t think I’ll be hearing from him again,” he replied.

“I’m sorry,” I squeaked, and he smiled at me.

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Aria. I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn’t have put you in that position,” he continued.

The more he talked, the more I realized I was seeing a different side of him. The entire time that we’d been talking, Michael hadn’t once tried to seduce me. Sex was not on his agenda today. When he apologized to me, it seemed genuine. I didn’t think he was capable of feeling sorry, but here he was . . . I had no choice but to believe him.

I’d been lying to myself all these days. Of course I wanted something with him. I felt beautiful when he looked at me. I wanted him to see me. I wanted to please him. I wanted to see the man he was under that suit – the part he kept hidden from everyone except his family.

“Do you forgive me, Aria?” Michael asked, crossing his brows with worry.

Why did he care so much if I forgave him? He’d said it himself – I was nothing more than his secretary.

“I don’t want to be in that position again,” I told him.

He was nodding his head. “Absolutely. I’m very sorry. I shouldn’t have done that to you, and I won’t be doing that to any of my employees ever again. You were right when you said that I should recognize your worth in my company. Being a pretty face at a meeting isn’t what you’re worth.” He spoke calmly with a soft smile on his face.

He thought I was pretty? I was blushing again.

“Okay, I think we should move on from that night. I don’t want to talk about Liam Bloom anymore,” I said.

“Neither do I,” he added.

I couldn’t help it. We were smiling at each other. We fell into silence and he breathed in like he was breathing in the fresh spring air. I watched him as he looked around the park.

“It’s crazy, but I’ve never been to this park before. I don’t think I’ve been to any park in Chicago. Can you believe that?” He looked at me, fixing his green eyes on my face again. He’d caught me watching him, but he didn’t comment on that fact.

“That is crazy, but I’m not surprised. Lots of people get caught up in their own lives in a city like this, forgetting about nature or that they just need some fresh air from time to time,” I mused and smiled at a dog on a leash who crossed our path.

I could sense him watching me now, and I said nothing. It was like we were both stealing glances at each other. This wasn’t just about forgiveness regarding what happened at the cocktail bar . . . This was about something else, too. We’d brushed a key element of our relationship under the rug, and I wondered if it was time for it to come out.

“I grew up in a small town in the Midwest,” he told me, and I looked at him with a jerk. I knew that already, but I couldn’t tell him I did. I was surprised he was even choosing to tell me.

“What was it like?” I asked, and Michael smiled.

“A much simpler life,” he replied and looked around the park at the children playing with their parents, young couples sitting on the grass close together. “An easier life than the one I lead now,” he added.

“Happier?” I asked.

Michael looked into my eyes. He licked his lips and his face had taken on a serious expression. I was worried I’d asked him the wrong question.

“Yes. I’m just realizing that,” he replied and sat back, sinking into the bench like he was embracing the peacefulness of the park around him.

***

I didn’t know how it happened, but Michael and I were having a real conversation.

“Sometimes, when I think of the life I left behind in Spring Green, I want to just drop everything and go back,” he said in a dreamy voice.

I could feel my heart tightening. I never thought I would hear him say that. “How often do you think about that?” I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Pretty often these days. Think I’m getting old,” he said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes and reached into one of the bags of groceries. “Chocolate bar? It’s nothing fancy. Pretty standard.” I offered him one and he eagerly plucked it out of my hand.

“This is the kind I had to share with Amy when we were kids!” He ripped the packaging open enthusiastically. “Glad I don’t have to share it with her right now!” he added and laughed.

I smiled as I watched him eat the chocolate. He was like a little kid. Right then, he could have been anybody. Just a regular guy sitting there on that bench in the park instead of Michael Sole, Chicago’s own playboy.

“My parents were recently divorced, and even though I’m all grown up, it still devastated me,” I told him, staring down at the chocolate bar in my hands. I didn’t know why I told him that. Why I was spilling out such a private thing to him . . . He was still my boss, but I couldn’t take it back now.

I could sense him watching me.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Aria. If my family went through that, my sister and I would be pretty devastated too. I don’t think that changes, no matter how old you get,” Michael sympathized with me, genuine emotion in his voice. Like he could feel my pain.

I looked at him and smiled weakly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to burden you with that,” I apologized.

He reached for me, gently grabbing my hand and squeezing it, the way he would do a friend’s. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It’s good to get these things off your chest.” His voice was low as he spoke.

I nodded my head. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I felt like I was melting. He was casting that spell on me again.

“Aria, I feel like I should say something about it because I can’t just forget about what happened between us. That night, at your place . . . I know I acted like a dick. You were right to kick me out of your apartment.”

He was still holding my hand as he spoke. My breath was caught in my throat. “It wasn’t your fault. I mean, you didn’t force me to take you back to my place. You suggested it, but I was the one who led you home. I led you on. I should have known from the beginning that I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it.” I was struggling with my words.

Slowly, he reached for my cheek and brushed his fingers against it. Goosebumps covered my skin. “Because you’re not that kind of girl,” he murmured. He was staring at me, searching my eyes, and I could barely meet his gaze. I was afraid he’d be able to see how desperately I wanted him.

“I can’t sleep with someone I don’t know . . . or have any feelings for,” I confessed.

He drew his fingers away from my face. “And I should respect that,” he commented.

In the next moment, Michael was standing up again. I was panicking, fearing that the moment had ended. Our conversation was over, and now we were back in the real world again. We were going back to being employer and employee. I craned my neck to look up at his looming height. Surprisingly, he was smiling down at me.

“So, I don’t know how to thank you for that delicious chocolate bar you gave me back there,” he said, and I crossed my brows in confusion.

“You don’t need to. That was nothing,” I protested.

“I’m serious. That was amazing. Made me really nostalgic for my childhood. I want to return that favor to you,” he continued.

I stood up from the bench as well. “No really, Mr. Sole . . . Michael. It was nothing. It was just a chocolate bar!” I insisted.

“I want to cook you dinner.” His words came out of the blue, astounding me into silence. Did I hear him right? He wanted to cook me dinner?!

He saw the look of shock on my face and broke into laughter. “I can see that you’re skeptical, but trust me: this isn’t my plan to poison you!”

I smiled. “I don’t know what to say . . . ” My words faded away as he reached for my shoulder, gently touching me again.

“Come have dinner with me, Aria, at my home. I want to keep talking to you, and I would like it if you accepted my invitation.” He was peering into my eyes, searching for my answer.

“Yes. Okay, I will,” I replied, and he clapped his hands together like it was a great success.

“Tonight? At eight? I’m sure you have my address already,” he said while already backing away from me. All I could do was stare at him, still confused and amazed by what just happened.

Was this a date? Was this some other form of apology? What was I going to wear?

“I’ll see you later! I need to go grocery shopping now. Another first!” I heard him call out to me from afar. I could hear the excitement in his voice. He was actually excited about this!

I was biting down hard on my lip as I watched him jogging out of the park. This was the craziest Saturday of my life.