Chapter 18

Erica

"Matt, this is my best friend Lanie. Lanie, this is Matt." I moved back as Matt and Lanie shook hands.

"I would say that Erica's told me so much about you, but she's rather private about everything." Lanie glanced over at me and wagged her eyebrows. "He's cute."

"He's right here." I shook my head and moved to open the door to the yoga facility. "You brought your water, right?"

Matt nodded. "Yep. I brought yours too. You left it sitting in the kitchen."

"Oh yeah. Jeez." I walked in and moved to the back of the room as Matt moved up on my left and Lanie took her place on my right. The afternoon had been relaxing and yet incredibly titillating thanks to Matt getting up every few minutes to put his hands on me while I stood half naked in my living room, posing for him. I had to quickly get over the fear that he would find some part of me less than attractive. It was easy to do seeing that he spoke affirmation continuously.

"You ready for this?" Lanie leaned out and gave Matt a silly smile.

"Oh yeah. I could teach this thing." He lifted his arms to the ceiling and leaned over to the left as his back popped. "Watch and learn how it's done girls."

I snorted. There was no way in hell he was going to make it through the whole hour without limping out of the room drenched in sweat.

And that's exactly how it happened. I'd never laughed so much in my life watching Matt try to reach the various poses the instructor called out to us.

His eyes were filled with mischief and his smile wide though I knew he was hurting.

"You're a total champ. You know that?" Lanie patted his back as she walked by us after the class ended.

"Thanks." He flinched and turned to face me. "You hate me. I get it. You could have simply said that you hated me and saved me from having to be violated by the downward dog."

I laughed loudly and moved toward him. "You're too much, Matthew Bryant."

He reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. "You want me to let you have some time with Lanie and I'll see you back at the condo?"

"No, unless that's what you want. You might need a break from me. We spent two years avoiding each other and now we’ve been trapped together for a full weekend. You surviving okay?"

"Oh yeah. I'm a champ, remember?" He lifted his hands and grimaced again as a groan lifted from him. "Maybe a sore champ, but I'm still a winner, right?"

I shook my head and pointed to the locker rooms. "The men's room is over there. Get a quick shower and we'll meet you out front for a cool down and a drink."

"All right. If I'm not out in thirty minutes, come in after me, but make sure you're nude. It's a shower for heaven's sake. You'll get your clothes wet otherwise."

"You're corrupt." I turned and walked away as he mumbled something under his breath.

Lanie glanced up from pulling off her yoga pants and smiled. "If you don't want him... I do."

I laughed. "No way. He's my dream guy."

"I can see why. He's so damn funny." She pulled her top off. "You said he was good in bed too? It's always so hard to find a guy that's great outside of the bedroom and excellent in it. It's like they're a rare breed."

"He's incredible everywhere. I'm head over heels, which isn't the best place to be." I pulled my clothes off and dropped them in a sweaty pile on the floor before walking to the showers.

"Why's that?"

"Because he needs to figure out where he wants to live and what he wants his career to look like. I've offered him a job with me in advertising at M&B, but I'm pretty sure he looks at that like putting a ball and chain around his leg."

"What other options does he have?" She moved up to the shower head next to mine and turned it on.

"His father is a billionaire, so technically he doesn't have to do anything, and he's not really done much since college from what I understand, but he's feeling that internal push to get up and get busy."

"What's he good at? We have some openings at the elementary school that I could check on for him."

"He's living in Dallas where M&B are headquartered right now, but I'm hoping he'll move up here. He's been offered a contract to showcase his art at Jonathan Luntz's De Luge gallery."

"Oh, I love that place. It's the one where they serve the frozen grapes in your wine right?"

"Yeah. I love it too. Jonathan seems to be a really good guy too, but you never know with those art dealer guys. He could be blowing smoke up Matt's ass. I hope he's not that stupid, but we'll see how it goes."

"You hope who's not that stupid?"

"Jonathan." I reached for the shampoo and washed my hair quickly.

"When is the showing?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you know. I would think Matt should be able to get a few extra tickets free of charge. We'll try to score a few so you and I can go rub shoulders with Seattle's elite."

She smirked. "Maybe I'll score me a billionaire to take home and spoil to death."

"Too much info." I winked at her and reached for a towel.

"I meant with my killer chocolate chip cookies."

"Is that the code word kids are using nowadays?" I chuckled and moved out of the way as she tried to pop me with her towel. "Are you wanting to go out for a drink tonight?"

"I'd love to, but my mother called and asked me to stop by to help her figure out what's wrong with her dishwasher right before you walked into the locker room. Rain check?"

"Yeah, no problem." I finished drying off and tried to keep the smile off of my face. I was more than happy to have the evening free up and Matt to myself. A repeat of the night before would have been bliss, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. He was subtly starting to pull back, and I had no intentions of not letting him go. If I was worth his time and effort, he'd realize that on his own.

Besides, he knew how I felt about us, or at least I assumed he did.