11. Rachel
11
RACHEL
E ventually, we gave up our table. Nate didn’t blink at leaving that generous of a tip, and I knew that the server wouldn’t have a chance to grumble about missing out on any other customers being seated. It was only because of the slightly uncomfortable chairs that we both gave in to leaving.
If not for those rigid high-backed chairs, I wouldn’t have minded staying well into the evening with him. Nate was fun, which shouldn’t have surprised me. What did throw me off as a shocker was how well we clicked.
I had a drier humor, but he could bend my way and meet me in the middle there. He preferred to joke and be goofy, but I could compromise and lighten up, too.
We were opposites, but over those few hours where we had an exaggerated and overly long lunch, we fit.
When we left the BBQ place and began walking back, though, I was stupidly unaware of how late it was.
“It’s this dark already?” I said once we were both on the sidewalk.
“We lost track of time,” he admitted.
“I’m not complaining,” I corrected.
“Good.” He smiled smugly. “Because I had fun.”
I did too. He distracted me from thinking about how Kyle dumped me. He prevented me from dwelling on the inevitable challenge I’d face in seeing my family again. And somehow, he’d kept me from wondering when I’d get a lesson on how to find a man.
Because somehow, along the lines of talking and laughing with him, I wanted to tweak the agenda. I wanted a crash course on how to find and get a man exactly like him.
He’s not available. I had to repeat it as we walked. He carried on chatting about something trivial but mildly entertaining. Yet, as I tried and failed to listen, I couldn’t tune out the stubborn thought of what it’d be like to be with him for real. No posing as a mentor and mentee. No pretending I’d want someone else.
Every time my hopes got up high, though, I remembered all too well that he’d sworn off women. Dejected, I tried to get past the thought that Nate was basically cutting off any women from mattering in his life again.
It didn’t seem logical. Not with the way he’d send those heated looks my way. Or that mischievous smirk when I told him that women in the office were gossiping about his dick size or his ability to use it.
If he was swearing off women, then that was just proof he wasn’t actually flirting with me, right? I was just… a pathetic woman he wanted to teach how to find someone else.
That just doesn’t sound right.
At this rate, I’d be kicking myself for entering any damn deal with him. While I fully intended to hold up my end of the bargain and go to that dreaded party with him, to support him, I wasn’t sure how to go through any sort of mentoring. It would be too cruel to be “taught” by the man I wanted but also the one who wouldn’t want me.
All because of one horrible woman. It was all Yasmin’s fault. No one else’s. She’d broken his heart and betrayed his trust so badly that he was now done with women at all.
“You know what I mean?” he asked, laughing.
I blinked, caught in not paying attention.
“Um.” Now I felt bad.
“You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said,” he joked. He lightened the accusation by taking my hand and swinging it. “Where’d you go?”
Our gloves were layers between our fingers, but still, this connection lifted my spirits.
I was, achingly and involuntarily, aware when a man wasn’t interested. Now that I knew Kyle was gay, and had been the whole time we were dating, I could clue in to those little differences.
Kyle never held my hand like he feared me letting go, like he wanted to be closer but wasn’t sure about making a move. Nate did. His fingers locked around mine like he had no intention of parting.
Kyle never touched my face and gazed into my eyes like he was warring with indecision about leaning in closer. Nate did. When he gripped my chin and forced me to look at him, I was a puddle of swoony need.
“Nowhere,” I replied, wishing I could promise it. I never wanted this closeness to fade. It’d happened suddenly, and not where I ever expected it could be possible, with my boss, my brother’s best friend.
“You were thinking about something,” he teased.
You. Just you. I had let my mind wander as I stressed and fretted about the cruelty that he would swear himself off all women. Including me.
It seemed like such a tall order, to imagine that I could be the one woman to knock him out of this self-imposed solitude.
As if I had something no other woman could offer.
“I was thinking.” I stalled, racking my confused mind for something to say that would make sense and not rock the boat too much. “About how you might plan to mentor me.”
“I can’t say I’ve given it much thought yet.” He sighed.
Still, he held my hand. Is he even aware that he’s holding it? Is this on purpose? I wanted his advice on how to decipher things with men, but what I really needed was a tutorial on how to figure him out.
“It’s been busy.”
“So that lunch?—”
“You call that lunch?” He laughed, sidestepping a saxophone player dressed as the Grinch on the sidewalk. “That was lunch, a snack, and a couple of hours more.”
“Yeah, that. Did you ask me to join you for the sake of seeing the afternoon disappear? Or was that supposed to be a mentoring exercise?”
“Hmm. I can’t say. I don’t really know. I just realized it’d been too damn long of not seeing you or talking to you with how busy I was. I figured I was overdue another shot at making you laugh.”
Easy, there. If he wasn’t careful, I’d fall head over heels for him. A man with a mission to make me crack and hear my laugh? That was… sweet. I was touched.
“Are you saying I don’t laugh enough?” I asked, keeping my tone light. “That I’m too serious?”
“For someone your age?—”
I growled, cutting him off. “Oh, stop with that!”
He cracked up more, pulling me closer with a side hug. “Okay. Okay. I will. I’ll admit that was one of the hardest things to get over. To reconcile the young kid sister of my friend with this .” Gesturing at me with his hand, he gave me a long, appreciative once-over.
“This?” I asked, raising my brows.
“Yeah. This sexy, smart woman?—”
I couldn’t tear my gaze off him. Looking up at him prevented me from watching where I was walking, though. And with his focus locked on me, not the sidewalk, it was no surprise that we both collided into someone else.
“Oh! Sorry—” I began to say.
“Watch where you’re—” The tall brunette we bumped into gawked at us. Not us. At him. “Nate?”
He stepped back, not only to be polite and give this person space, but also to provide a buffer.
“ Nate ?” the woman repeated, like she couldn’t believe he would dare to impede her path. A slick sneer covered her face, and I realized I was about to get another example of how rude New Yorkers could be. But then her sneer morphed. She slipped into a slow, smug smile as she looked him over. “It is you.”
He exhaled, meeting her head on. “Yasmin,” he greeted with a curt nod.
It was the iciest I’d ever seen him. And within reason.
Yasmin?
I furrowed my brow, getting another look at this stranger who wasn’t unfamiliar with my boss at all. Taking my time, I checked her out to see what the vixen who’d broken his heart could look like. How she could have ever dared to hurt this charmer, this usually happy man.
Straight brown hair fell to her shoulders, so styled yet magically looking soft and glossy that it defied the laws of physics and didn’t flutter with the breeze. Her sharp blue eyes were clear and full of mirth as she stared at her ex. The rest of her, on the outside, was just as perfect.
If Yasmin wasn’t a supermodel, she’d missed her calling. Tall, slender, with high cheekbones, huge boobs, a tiny waist?—
Wait.
Her waist was tiny, but her belly was large. A baby bump swelled out, and somehow, that made her look even more beautiful. She was gorgeous . Drop-dead gorgeous and stunning with that glow expectant mothers had.
Damn.
“Funny running into you,” she said. “My mother was just asking if I’d heard any news about you lately.”
“Oh?” Nate’s reply didn’t invite a follow-up. Dull. Monotone. Like he didn’t want to face her at all.
My heart broke all over again. Whatever he saw in her, he’d bet on it. He’d spent years dating her, all to be dumped and cheated on publicly.
“We figured the same old. That you’d be alone, busy working and pretending this is the happiest time of the year.”
“It should be the happiest time of the year,” I blurted out, stepping forward to insert myself into this awful confrontation. Yasmin clearly was a spiteful woman, but I’d be damned if she tried to insult Nate any further.
“In fact, any time of the year is a happy one with him.” I lifted our joined hands. The hurried gesture was a bit jerky, but I’d only done it to emphasize that he wasn’t alone. I was here, dammit. I wouldn’t be ignored. Even if I was lying through my teeth. Nate lunged forward with my control over our hands. If anything, it proved how unpracticed we were with holding each other’s hand. He was so tall. I was so short. We needed to meet in the middle somehow. Despite the awkwardness, he didn’t let go of me, bumping into my side.
“And who are you?” she asked, arching one thin brow at me.
“His girlfriend,” I lied, jumping at the first idea I had to dispel her thought that Nate was alone and miserable.
He was. He’d proclaimed that he’d stay alone because of her. But she didn’t need to know that.
“And trust me, he’s not too busy to make time for me.” I turned, pivoting ungracefully to face Nate. One reach up to the front of his jacket gave me the grip I needed to pull him down.
The second he lowered, tilting with an expression of confusion on his face, I took my shot and kissed him.
I kissed my boss, trying to convince myself that this was only to save face and show Yasmin what she was missing.