Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Noah
Maybe showing up to a New Year’s party after getting a haircut for the first time in well over a decade was a bad call. I’d been thinking about getting a haircut for a while, but something prompted me to go downtown yesterday.
I ended up popping in to Get Buzzed to pick up some of their salon special shampoo and conditioner—I refused to use anything else—and there was a cancellation. I figured it was a sign and decided to let Booker Smith chop it off.
However, I wasn’t anticipating everyone else’s reaction. Parker’s in particular.
“Man, you haven’t cut your hair since your last serious relationship!” Parker said, loud enough for Nellie to hear and look over with an unreadable expression on her face.
“It’s just hair, dude,” I was trying not to show how irritating Parker’s remarks were. I hadn’t even clued in about the timeline, but he was right: I hadn’t cut it since my last serious relationship—in high school.
Tabitha seemed to sense my frustration, and like the angel she was, she floated in to distract him.
“Noah! I’m glad you’re here,” she said, slipping her arms around Parker’s waist. “Are Damien, Charlotte, and the kids coming? I mentioned it to them, and they said they might. I know Easton’s probably at The Quarter Lounge looking for his next conquest.”
“They were going to, but the girls came down with a cold, so I think they’re going to stay in now,” I replied.
“That’s too bad, I hope they feel better!” Tabitha said.
For the first few hours, Nellie tried to keep her distance from me. Any time I got too close, she’d find somewhere else to scoot off to, or get absorbed into someone else’s conversation. I was trying to play it cool, so I let her play her avoidance game.
But I’d seen her reaction when I walked in. I’d seen the way her eyes had heated as she looked at me. I’d seen the interest reflecting in her irises, and the way she immediately tried to stomp it down.
I knew I was playing a dangerous game myself. She was, after all, an employee. But I wasn’t planning on luring her to a dark corner to have my way with her. I wanted to talk to her, see if she felt the spark that flickered between us, or if it was all in my head.
Finally, at a quarter to midnight, I ended up beside Nellie. The table was full of snacks and other delicious spreads, and she was loading a plate with some desserts while talking to Auston’s girlfriend, Lilah.
I was feeling hungry, too, so I’d gone over to get a plate while talking to Donovan about some home renovation project he had gone on. I tried my best to listen, but I was distracted merely by her presence, and trying to play it cool and unaffected.
Nellie and I both reached for the same cannoli at the same time. Our fingers touched, and a small shock at the contact had Nellie pulling her hand away like it’d electrocuted her. “Sorry,” she said quickly.
“No worries, it’s all yours,” I nodded at the pastry.
Nellie’s eyes narrowed, dropping down to my lips until she forced her gaze away.
“How chivalrous of you,” she said, fighting a smile.
“I am a gentleman,” I said. I’d won an almost-smile from Nellie, and it made me feel like I could walk on water. I could hear Donovan chuckling beside me, and I discreetly elbowed him to shut him up. In my peripheral, I watched him shake his head and walk off, leaving me to it.
“Uh-huh,” Nellie replied, seemingly biting her tongue on a further retort. She knew exactly how ungentlemanly I could be. Judging by the pinkish hue on her cheeks, she was thinking exactly that.
Auston came up behind Lilah, putting his arms around her and whispering in her ear. “Come dance with me.”
Lilah let out a giggle, setting her plate down to follow Auston out to the living room. Tabitha and Parker had pushed their furniture back enough to make space for a little dance floor.
The big screen in the living room was tuned in to CBC so we could all watch the countdown in various capital cities across Canada, but the volume was muted, and music was playing loud enough to hear and dance too, but low enough that conversations could still happen.
Nellie watched Lilah and Auston dance with a small smile on her face.
I inclined my body toward her. “Are you having a good time?”
“Oh yeah, the party is great,” Nellie answered, looking around at the room full of people and revelry.
“T-minus ten minutes!” Tabitha called out as she made her way around the room with a tray, offering glasses of champagne to everyone for the countdown.
Nix carried another tray, and he stopped by long enough to press a kiss to Sage, then headed back out of the living room to get the stragglers in other rooms.
Sage slipped over to where we were still standing by the food table, two glasses of champagne in her hand. She offered one to Nellie.
“Where’s mine?” I joked, but before she could reply, Tabitha was thrusting a glass at me from her tray and whirling off. “Wow, fast service around here. Almost makes The Quarter Lounge look slow.”
Sage and Nellie exchanged a loaded look with each other. Sage tilted her head, and Nellie shook hers, taking a small sip of her champagne. I felt like they were having a whole conversation without a word, and that conversation was about me. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not.
“Can you guys speak out loud, you’re making me feel insecure.”
“You? Insecure?” Sage laughed. “I didn’t think I’d see the day.”
“I’m flattered you think I’m so self-assured that telepathy wouldn’t make me uneasy.”
Nellie snorted, her smile lighting me up inside. “I’m sure you’ll be okay,” she patted my arm gently. “Besides, who’s to say we were even talking about you?”
“Oh, now that hurts my ego.”
“It could use a little deflating,” Nellie said cheekily, and Sage nodded in agreement. “It’s abnormally large.”
“Oh, you remembered?” I teased back with a smirk.
Sage was taking a sip of her champagne and ended up spitting a little out when she saw Nellie’s vexed frown.
“Three minutes!” Tabitha called out over the din.
“It’s impossible to forget how big your ego is, it takes up all the oxygen in the room,” Nellie retorted, rolling her eyes.
I chuckled as Nix made his way back through the crowd, his focus on making it to Sage. It didn’t matter that Nellie was teasing me, so long as I had her attention.
“It’s nice to know I left you breathless,” I murmured into her ear.
Sage was watching the two of us with a delighted glint in her eyes, although she was trying to look irritated on behalf of her friend—whose skin I was definitely getting under, judging by Nellie’s annoyed expression.
“One minute!” Tabitha shouted again, and someone, probably Parker, turned the music down so the countdown could be heard on TV. Everyone chimed in, the entire room counting down with the timer on the TV.
“Five, four, three, two, one: HAPPY NEW YEAR!” everyone shouted, and the room erupted in cheers as couples came together to share their first kiss of the new year.
Everywhere I looked, couples were kissing and embracing. Nellie froze beside me, as if she didn’t know where to look either. We ended up looking at each other.
That simmering connection between us zapped and sizzled, and I swallowed hard. I wanted to kiss her more than I wanted to take my next breath, but she’d shown little interest in me romantically.
Nellie bit her lip, and my eyes tracked the movement. “Happy New Year, Boss.”
Her calling me Boss rocked me with the reminder that I couldn’t blur these lines.
“Happy New Year, Nellie,” I said gently. “I hope all your dreams come true this year, and more.”
Her eyes misted, and she smiled. “Thank you, Noah. The same to you,” she said, then set down her glass and wove around the couples.
Nellie
I had to get out of there. I grabbed my coat and slipped out the front door, intent on getting back to the security and safety of my apartment.
Not only was I tired—really tired—but with all those kissing couples, I was feeling dangerously close to asking Noah to be my first kiss of the new year, so I wouldn’t start the year off as lonely as I’d been the year before.
But that was a dangerous, foolish idea. Especially given the fact that he was my new boss.
Setting aside the mess of him being my boss entirely, the whole baby situation made everything beyond complicated. What if he wasn’t the father? I couldn’t decide which was worse, the idea that he might be, or the idea that he might not be.
If he was the father, we’d be tied together forever through co-parenting another human, and that would influence how he saw me.
But all I could think about while I’d stood beside him, with couples all around us counting down the seconds into the new year, was how I didn’t feel so lonely with him beside me.
When we'd made eye contact, I felt that undeniable pull that I spent so much time fighting and ignoring. For a second, I’d wanted to stop fighting it and fall into that feeling.
I’d wanted his lips on mine, his kiss stealing the breath from my lungs.
I’d wanted to see if this thing between us was real, or imagined.
I had almost allowed myself to forget everything going on.
Knowing how much I’d enjoyed kissing him before had my mind muddled and my heart aching to connect with him.
I let out a huff of aggravation, walking along the pathway that led to the garage and my apartment. I told myself I could not catch feelings for Noah Wood, not right now, maybe not ever.
It didn’t matter how compatible we were in bed, or how my body had bloomed under his expert touch.
It didn’t matter that I dreamt of that touch, of that feeling, so vividly, I’d wake up aching for him.
It didn’t matter that the way he looked at me fanned the flames of something that had been burning since the moment we first made eye contact at the Witches’ Ball.
I didn’t do long term relationships for a reason, and I couldn’t try now—not when my focus needed to be on myself and my future.
Thankfully, I made it up to my apartment without anyone noticing I was gone. I locked the door behind me and peeled off my knee-high boots, doing my best to ignore the tight tugging sensation in my heart.
I left the lights off, making my way through the dark apartment to my bedroom, where I changed into a pair of comfortable pajamas and texted Sage and Tabitha, letting them know I was tired and was back home so they wouldn’t worry.
Then I crawled beneath my heavy, comfortable comforter and let the tears flow.