Chapter Three
Monday, September 5
Dallas, TX
Kami
“ S pill.” Kiera pulls open the passenger side door of my car and climbs inside.
I gape. “You got up at the ass crack of dawn just to ask me that?”
After my encounter with Ian on Friday night, I know Kiera has questions. Not just about how I know him, but also about the way I reacted to seeing him. Instead of playing it cool, I went into panic mode, especially when he called my bluff on more than one occasion.
I’ve been telling Kiera over the past few days nothing was happening, or had happened, between us. But since my bestie is here when she’d rather be fast asleep in her bed, there’s no doubt in my mind she’s looking for real answers.
“Yes, I did. So spill the tea.”
It’s not that I don’t want to give her a tell-all. I just don’t see the need to talk about something that doesn’t matter anymore. It was only sex.
But was it just that?
Sex between Ian and me was mind-blowing but got too real too quickly. In the end, I can’t figure out if it was lust or…something else.
Even if it was something, it can’t be anything. I’m not cut out for what he has in mind for us.
I sigh as I drive the car out of our apartment complex parking lot and onto the main road. “I always want to confide in you, but there’s nothing to tell.”
“From the way he was looking at you, and the way you two were arguing, I’d disagree.”
Please, don’t remind me.
“He’s just a guy I banged and has now deluded himself into thinking it can be more.”
“What makes you think it can’t? Jonathan and I started out that way.”
“You guys got together because you wanted to learn how to have sex without emotion,” I point out. “What happened between Ian and me was…”
“Just sex?” She finishes my own sentence with a dubious stare. “That’s exactly what Jonathan and I told ourselves, too. Look how that turned out.”
Could she be right? My mind has played out everything that happened between Ian and me that night as if it were that one movie I was supposed to hate, but ended up secretly loving.
Yes, the sex was good. Fucking fantastic is a better description. But then I felt something rise in me, something I couldn’t hold back. I don’t know how to explain it, but he made me feel like we were the only two people in the world. I still feel this indescribable pull between him and me. And when we saw each other again last weekend, that pull tightened its grip on me—which scared me even more.
My bestie continues, “Don’t let years of watching someone else’s mistakes, and your one bad experience, dictate your love life.”
I shake my head, trying not to let the past haunt my thoughts. “I’m not letting anyone dictate my love life. I know myself. I’m not a relationship kind of person.” At least not anymore.
There was a time I thought I could have unconditional love. That despite my crappy childhood, I could find someone special who would stick by me. But I learned my lesson a long time ago. No need to torture myself more than I already have.
After pulling the car into the nearest parking space a few minutes later, Kiera and I walk into KH Industries. Then I see my boss and Kiera’s future brother-in-law Nathan Knight walk up to us.
His arms are crossed over his chest as he glares at me. His nose is beet red, and eyes puffy. “Would you care to explain to me what’s going on, Ms. Hernandez?”
I blink. “I’m sorry?”
“‘Sorry?’” He lets out a loud sneeze, covering his mouth with his arm. “I’ve been sneezing all morning.”
I place my hands on my hips. He’s seriously blaming me for his allergies. He’s joking, right? “And why do I need to apologize for your allergies, sir?”
He sniffles. “Because of those damn flowers on your desk.”
“Flowers? Who left me flowers?” The answer comes to me the minute the question escapes my lips.
He. Did. Not.
“Don’t know and don’t care. Just…do something with them so I can stop sneezing.”
I nod as Nathan walks off to the elevator, Kiera and me right in tow.
I look over at my smirking bestie. Her mind went to the same conclusion mine did, and she’s clearly amused.
“What’s with that look on your face?” I whisper to her.
“I think you know.”
I shake my head. “It’s not him.”
“Twenty bucks says it is,” she sings as the elevator doors open to Nathan and my floor.
And no doubt she’d win that bet.
Whether Ian is deluded or insane, I can’t be sure. There’s a word to describe him, but my mind is, at this moment, drawing a blank.
I walk into the office and to my cubicle. My sight is immediately on the large flowers held in a transparent vase on my desk.
“Oh, my god,” I gasp.
Large greenery complements colors like orange, red, pink and yellow spilling from the clear vase. I recognize roses, lilies, kale and orchids in each of those colors. I’ve never seen something so beautiful—and something so me.
I inhale the exotic flowers. “Wow, they smell so good.” I feel my heart fluttering.
No. Bad, Kami, bad. This is a manipulation tactic.
I shake my head. Right, he’s trying to get me to go out with him, and if I’m not careful, he’ll succeed. Who says they’re from him anyway?
I scan the flowers for some kind of card or note when I find a white envelope in between a yellow bloom and a purple orchid. I pluck it out and read the message inside.
Just because I know your name now doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!;) Ian
I don’t know what impresses me the most: the flowers or the size of his balls.
They’re just flowers.
That may be true, but it’s the reasoning behind these flowers that I can’t just let go.
I’m sitting at my desk contemplating that theory, every now and then admiring the flowers, when I see a new email pop onto my computer screen. It’s from Kiera.
Who are the flowers from? Send pics!
Knowing her as the hopeless romantic she is, she’s already envisioned me married off to Ian and having his babies.
I reply back to her, saying they’re from Ian, and tag a picture of the flowers and notecard.
A few minutes later, I see her next response.
Wow those are gorgeous! Maybe you should hear him out?
Hear him out? Ian, like all the others, is nothing more than a been there and done that. Life is about living to the fullest. To have another round with Ian would be like history repeating itself. What’s the point of watching it all unfold when I already know how it’s going to play out?