Chapter Eight

Penny

“You ready for some Saturday night debauchery?”

Gabby stood in my doorway shaking her hips back and forth and smiling big. I knew I should be excited to go out to Expose and party it up with my best friend, but I was having some serious issues trying to get Gabriel off my mind. She stuck out her bottom lip at me and then handed me a shot. My father wasn’t home yet so I didn’t have to listen to him bitch about the tiny little dress I was wearing, thank God. The last thing I wanted at that point was my father acting weird. Gabriel was doing that enough for everyone. It was like he was a different man than the one I went out with or the one that saved me from Troy in the club that night. In fact, I hadn’t talked to him at all since we had sex. I figured he would have at least texted me back or called me for lunch, but not a single word from him except telling me he couldn’t come to dinner on Friday.

I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands, but it was always obvious ahead of time that it was exactly that. Things with Gabriel hadn’t seemed that way, especially after he took me out to the restaurant, took me on a walk around Central Park, and told me a million things about his life and his family. One would think if he was trying to get in my pants, it would have been a lot more obvious, and he wouldn’t have put as much effort into it. It wasn’t like Gabriel was an unattractive guy. He had it all—looks, money, fortune, and drive. He could seriously slam any chick he wanted to, but he chose to spend time with me. That was the only thing keeping me from truly believing that he had moved on.

“What’s up with you?” She always knew when something was wrong.

“Just this Gabriel thing,” I sighed. “I mean after having such an amazing time at dinner and then our seriously hot sex in the pool, he basically just ghosts me.”

“Yeah, remind me to not go swimming in there,” Gabby laughed.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me that he would get laid and dip out,” I said, sighing and falling back on my bed. “I mean, I’m not stupid, I know that’s how it goes sometimes. He just seemed different, is all.”

“You sound really into this guy,” Gabby said walking over. “I mean, you’re acting like you got it bad, girl. Look, I don’t know this guy, and for you, I hope he is one hundred percent sincere, but if you look at his history and what people say about him at the club, he is a notorious playboy.”

“He didn’t act like that with me,” I said, feeling grumpy.

“And maybe he has changed,” she said. “I just don’t want you to be shocked if it turns out he is still a playboy and you got played.”

“I know,” I said. “I just really want to get to know more about him. He’s extremely interesting and so is his life story. I mean he started his company when he was nineteen. He was a Harvard dropout who excelled beyond anyone’s expectations. He is smart as hell.”

“Give it time,” she said, pulling me up to a sitting position. “He is a guy, and no man works on the same wavelength as us. For all you know he got caught up doing something like talking to his dudes about cars, and just straight paid no attention. I used to think it was an excuse dudes made, but I’m starting to think that they are just slow sometimes.”

“Not Gabriel,” I said, laughing. “He knows exactly what he’s doing, even if no one else can figure it out. Ugh, he is never going to call me again. This is absolutely exhausting.”

“Well, stop thinking about it and get your ass up,” Gabby said, snapping her fingers. “I don’t care what man you are waiting for, there are some seriously handsome eligible men waiting for me at the club.”

“Okay,” I said, standing up and looking in the mirror. “But they’re all probably assholes too.”

“Yes,” she said, poking her head around the corner. “The difference is, so am I!”

The club was packed as usual, but tonight we were staying away from the third floor until we knew that Troy wasn’t lurking anywhere. I was pretty sure he still had my gold visitor’s card, and I wasn’t trying to run into him. However, as I turned the corner, I literally ran into someone else. My drink dropped to the floor, and I jumped back, trying not to get my feet wet. I looked up, irritated, but my face quickly changed when I saw Gabriel standing there, smiling down on me.

“Well, hello there,” he said, oozing with charm.

“You too,” I said, with a smile.

“Let me introduce my best friend,” he said. “This is Jay Miller. Jay, this is Penny Wesley.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jay said, shaking my hand.

“You too,” I said, awkwardly. “And this is my best friend, Gabby. Gabby, this is Gabriel and Jay.”

“Oh, the notorious Gabriel,” she said, shaking his hand and turning to Jay. “And Jay, who I haven’t heard about but would love to.”

“Well, then let’s fix that,” Jay said, glancing over at Gabriel. “Let me buy you a drink.”

“Sounds perfect,” Gabby said, glancing over at me.

The only reason she was going to have a drink with him was to give me and Gabriel time alone. I wasn’t stupid; it was written all over her face. I looked back up at Gabriel, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me. He grabbed my hand and led me through a door into a small lounge with some couches. It was quieter there and I could actually hear the sound of my own voice. We started talking about nothing in particular, but it was nice being near him. I didn’t bring up dinner with my father and neither did he, which I was fine with since I felt like it was part of the problem. Sure, I wanted him to meet my father, but I also felt like he was taking it in a more serious way than I meant it. My father was not only my dad but he was like a good friend to me. It was no different than inviting him to dinner with Gabby. I guess for other people, though, meeting a girl’s dad was a big deal, and I hadn’t really even thought about it.

We looked over at the dance floor as Jay led Gabby out there. I put my hand over my face and laughed, realizing that Jay was a terrible dancer, but Gabby was trying to keep him from being embarrassed by pulling out some seriously terrible moves herself. They were insane and fit together like a very weird puzzle.

“That is the future of my company right there,” he said, laughing.

“I mean it seems foolproof,” I said, with a giggle. “If nothing else he could get down during a dance battle for the highest bid, right?”

“If meetings were held like that,” he said. “I would have one every single day.”

We both burst out laughing and gave Gabby and Jay our thumbs up from across the room. Everything seemed just like it should, and I thought it was going incredibly well. Maybe that was me being optimistic, but either way it didn’t seem to be as bad as I thought. Meeting someone’s father can be an extremely nerve-wracking thing, maybe he just started to get cold feet because I asked too early. I could understand that completely since I was not a people person and hated meeting parents. Right then I didn’t care if he ever met my father, I just didn’t want things to change. We were getting along fabulously, and he even reached down and rubbed my knee while telling me stories from the last week of work.

When his hand touched my skin, I could feel the electricity between us and it almost took my breath away. There was no denying how attracted I was to him, and from the looks of it, as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, shooting a passing group of guys a nasty look for staring at me, he was equally as attached. Maybe I needed to just chill out, and let things happen naturally. I was the worst at that. I overthought every single thing in my life. I didn’t know if that was a woman thing or just a me thing, but I drove myself more nuts than anyone around me.

Right then, though, my focus was 100 percent on this gorgeous man sitting next to me, hoping he would be sharing those lips with me at some point that night.