Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“Earth to Grier.”
I jolted in my chair and turned my head to look at Davide. He stood next to my desk, his head cocked as he studied me with an openly concerned expression.
“Hey. What’s up?” I asked, setting down the pen I’d been clicking mindlessly as my brain obsessed over what had gone down with Elijah five days ago.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked after letting the silence stretch between us for a minute.
I shrugged a shoulder. “Not really, but I will be.”
“Please tell me you’re not thinking of quitting,” he said.
He leaned over the desk and rested his palms on it as he lowered his face closer to mine.
“You have been a godsend, and I will legit bawl like a baby if you abandon me, Grier. I’m talking gasping, snotty tears.
There will be begging and maybe even me throwing myself on the floor and clutching your ankles to keep you from walking out. ”
I couldn’t control the laugh that burst out of me at the visual he painted. “No, no. Nothing like that,” I finally assured him.
He shifted to lean a hip against my desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “Then, what’s got you so down?”
I hadn’t been able to talk about this with anyone.
I didn’t tell the girls what happened other than that I wasn’t dating my guy anymore.
I didn’t want to be the cause of drama in our group.
It wasn’t worth it. But I really needed to talk about it.
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth as I looked up at Davide.
Before I could decide if I was going to tell him or not, he asked, “Is this about Elijah Lawson?”
I blinked at him, completely taken aback, which made him laugh.
“Grier, honey, I knew as soon as he walked in the Friday before you started here that something was going on between y’all. Both of you have zero chill. He was eyefucking you every time he thought I wasn’t looking, or even when he knew I was, and you were fidgety as hell.”
My shoulders slumped. “So much for being discreet,” I mumbled.
“Did something happen?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “But I’m hesitant to tell you. I don’t want you to feel like you have to choose sides or anything.”
“Okay, then. I won’t choose sides. I’m your friend right now, not your boss. It’s obvious you need to talk about it, and it’s just as obvious you can’t talk to the women in your life. So, tell Daddy what’s going on.”
I grimaced at his words. “Oh, my God. Don’t call yourself Daddy anymore. It’s just weird.”
“What? Elijah gives off serious Daddy vibes. Especially with that scruff he tends to wear.”
“Yeah, no. I didn’t call him Daddy.”
“Why not?” Davide asked.
“Because I don’t have a Daddy kink?” My answer sounded more like a question, which made him smirk.
“Well, you should call him that the next time you see him. If nothing else, it’ll be fun to watch his head explode.”
I shook my head. “I doubt I’ll see him again anytime soon. And when I do, I don’t want it to feel awkward.”
“You need to live more, Grier.”
A bark of laughter escaped me before I huffed out a sigh. “I just want to be happy. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
He reached out and patted my hand. “It’s not. Now, tell me what happened.”
Though my eyes stung, I told him the entire story. I couldn’t control the hitch in my breath when I told him about my last conversation with Elijah, but I managed not to cry. Barely.
I’d shed enough tears over the man in the past five days. Then again, it might not have been the man, but the fact that I could see a future with him. It had been the first time in several years that I’d felt so connected to someone.
“Well, shit,” Davide sighed as his head dropped forward so he could stare at his toes. “That just sucks all the way around.”
“It does. I just wish I’d brought all this up when he said he wanted to see me again. When he suggested we spend more time together, I assumed it was because he wanted to date, not that he wanted a regular casual hook-up. I should have clarified.”
“Maybe,” Davide agreed. “But he definitely shouldn’t have waited a month to bring it up. Or acted like you were a dirty little secret. I’m disappointed that he didn’t even take you out to dinner or a movie or something.”
While we were seeing each other, I hadn’t cared that we didn’t go out.
I liked having him all to myself. I didn’t want to share his attention.
Or see the way other women looked at him.
At least not yet. I was a homebody. Nothing made me happier than hanging out at home with someone I liked, comfort food, and playing games or watching a movie together.
After a few moments of silence, Davide spoke, “You know what you need?”
My eyes widened. Knowing him, it could be anything from finding a witch to hex Elijah or taking out an ad online proclaiming that I was trying to get in touch with him because I found out I had an STI and he needed to get checked.
“You need a date for Yancy’s rehearsal dinner.”
Okay, that was a suggestion I hadn’t seen coming.
“You remember my friend, Seth?” he asked.
I nodded. Seth came into the gallery every couple of weeks or so. He would bring coffee for Davide and, when I started working there, me. He’d also come to happy hour with us once and had me crying with laughter almost the entire night. It had been a lot of fun.
Seth was extremely good-looking, almost to the point of being pretty, and he possessed a dry wit that never failed to make me laugh. He confided in me that his relationship with Davide had started as a hardcore crush, but he’d quickly realized they were better as friends.
“Well, he’s had a huge thing for you since you started working here.
He’s been asking me to set y’all up since the night we went to happy hour, but I’ve been putting him off because I worried it would be a conflict of interest or something.
Or that you would feel pressured to say yes because I’m your boss. ”
My mouth moved, but no sound came out, so Davide continued. “I’ll call him tonight and see what he’s doing Saturday. Though, even if he has plans, I’m confident he’ll ditch them for you.”
I knew that Seth dated both men and women, but I hadn’t realized he felt that way about me. I hadn’t seen him as a potential romantic partner. Just as a friend.
“Davide, I’m not sure this is a good—”
“I’m not saying you have to declare your undying love, Grier. Just a date. He’ll be excited to have a chance to impress you. You’ll have a date for the evening that makes you laugh, and, if Elijah is there, it’s going to chap his ass when he sees the adoration in Seth’s eyes when he looks at you.”
“I doubt that, D. He’d have to care about me to be jealous.”
“Oh, I think he cares a lot more than he’s willing to admit.”
“He wouldn’t have felt the need to put me in my place the other night if he truly cared.”
Davide scoffed. “A guy like Elijah? Oh, he cares so much that it scared him to the point he had to tell you he didn’t want anything more than a casual fling. Otherwise, he would have just come up with a fib as to why he couldn’t make it.”
I shook my head but stopped arguing about Elijah. Just hearing and saying his name made my chest ache.
“Okay, I’m going to call Seth and give him your number. I’ll make it clear you just need a date for this one event, and he’s not allowed to keep bugging you if you decide it’s not your cup of tea.”
“Davide—”
“I promise you, Grier. You’ll have fun, and he won’t make a pest of himself.”
I could tell by the expression on his face that he wasn’t going to budge. “Fine,” I sighed. “Call him and give him my number so we can plan for Saturday night.”
A wicked grin spread across Davide’s face. “I promise that you won’t regret it.”
“Ha!” I exclaimed. “I’ll remind you of that when things go sideways.”
“There’s no guarantee it’ll go sideways.”
I shot him some serious side eye. “Have we met before? Because things always go sideways when you and I are involved.”
He gasped in mock affront, clutching at his chest like a genteel Southern lady. “That’s so offensive.”
“But it’s true.”
“That, too,” he retorted, a short, sharp laugh coming from his lips. “Okay, I’m off to call Seth. Why don’t you head out early this afternoon? See if you can find a dress for Saturday?”
“I have a dress,” I answered.
“Your standby LBD?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Why not?”
“Grier, can you afford a new dress?”
My head reared back. “Um, yes. Why?”
“Because I was going to give you a couple hundred bucks if you couldn’t and still tell you to go shopping for a new one.”
“Why do I need a new dress?” I asked. “It’s not like Seth has ever seen my usual little black dress before.”
“You’re not buying a dress for Seth. You’re buying a dress that makes you feel pretty, sexy, and confident. If you walk into that rehearsal dinner knowing that you look good, you’ll feel a lot better.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me.”
Davide leaned over and kissed my forehead. I sighed because forehead kisses were the best, but I wished I was getting them from a guy who wanted to be more than my friend.
“Good girl. Now, I’m going to order tacos and tres leches cake for lunch because being disappointed by a man means you need comfort food.”
“You have to stop,” I said.
“Stop what?”
“Being the perfect man for me when I can’t have you.”
Davide burst out laughing. “Yeah, well, if we’re both still single in ten years, we’ll talk.”
It was my turn to chuckle. At least until he walked back into his office. That was the moment it hit me that I might very well be single in a decade, and pain pinched my heart.