12. Van
Van
S omeone was in my office.
My steps faltered as I crossed the threshold to find a woman from R & D sitting in my chair, studying my daily fun-fact calender, a pencil in hand.
“Hi, Savvy. Welcome to my desk,” I said, setting my cup of coffee down.
She dropped the pencil and the calender. “Van! You scared me.”
“At my own desk?”
Her face turned red, and she stood, my chair skittering back.
“Sorry, I was going to leave you a note and then I saw the calendar, and I have a Pomeranian. I had no idea two escaped the Titanic. You must like them, too, right . . .” Somehow, her pink cheeks got even redder. “Obviously, you do.”
She moved around the desk, and I mirrored her movements until I was standing behind it, and she was in front.
“It’s a basic fun-fact calender. My mom gets me one every year.”
She had folded the page up, which had a little pencil smudge in the corner.
A flare of annoyance shot up, but I tamped it down.
Savvy was a nice enough woman, albeit a little enthusiastic.
“What can I hep you with?”
“I was wondering if you’re coming to the bar tonight? A bunch of us are going for happy hour, and you haven’t before, but I wanted to make sure you knew you were invited if you want to come.”
I considered the offer. Aside from seeing Xander a few times and my brief run-in with Ana at urgent care, I hadn’t spent much time outside of work with anyone. It would do me good to make acquaintances and build rapport with my coworkers.
“Sure, I’m in. Where at?”
My attention was half on my screen as I pulled up emails.
“Skol House at six?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you there.”
It took me a minute to realize she was still standing in front of my desk.
“Was there something else?”
Her ears were pink alongside her cheeks.
“No, I’ll see you there.”
I pressed the bent corner of the paper, trying to smooth it down with my thumb but gave up after a minute. I would rip it off, anyway.
Skol House looked the same as it had when I snuck in at eighteen, with its dingy green floor tiles and chipped purple paint on the doors. However, they had since updated the neon signs from hard lemonades to hard seltzers. Vinyl posters of local sports teams had changed to a new roster, but the same black light menu hung behind the bar.
Savvy stood from her chair, waving to flag me down despite the bar being half full. “Van, over here.”
On the other side of the empty chair was a thin man from research and development.
What was his name? We had been introduced a few times, but it was always in a group setting. Nathan? Nolan?
He was looking at the seat and back at Savvy with a pained expression she didn’t notice.
“I saved you a seat. You can sit with me and Eldon.” When I hesitated, her smile dropped a little. “Unless you have someone else coming? People said you brought someone to the parade party.”
The gleam in her eye told me she wanted me to be single. Office romances were on my no-go list. If seeing the boss’s granddaughter was a slight risk, dating someone you had to see every day was a huge mistake.
Savvy was a cute gal, with her short brown hair and green eyes, but I didn’t feel enough attraction to commit career suicide over. Best to end any aspirations now.
Settling on a high stool across from the table, I leaned against the tabletop. “My girlfriend might join us. She works just down the road at the hotel.”
I hadn’t planned on inviting Summer, but I needed her to meet me.
In the days since I had last seen Summer, we had been talking more and more. At first, she would check up on my foot, telling me to rest it, followed by me reminding her to put on the wiper blades I had dropped off at her door. She sent me pictures of her car with a thumbs-up, and I sent her a picture of a teacup with pink roses.
It was innocent enough. Without having her in front of me, I could almost convince myself she wasn’t as beautiful as I thought.
Then she tagged me in one of the pictures she took the night of the parade party, and I was back to fantasizing about her rose-scented skin near mine.
Focus. Keep it together. She could play her part, and I would keep my dick in my pants. I had thirty-two years on this earth without letting lust swallow reason. Not even Summer could shake my resolve. Right?
I excused myself to get a drink, bellying up at the bar.
While waiting, I shot a quick text to Summer, asking for her girlfriend services.
By the time my beer was set in front of me, she texted back a car emoji and a saluting face.
Everyone at the table was discussing the trivia competition when I returned. Savvy and some other woman, Gabriella, were talking about how well they had done at the last one.
Back in Seattle, I often went to trivia nights with my friends. It was nice to know I could start over here, too.
The conversation switched from defeat over the name of the small piece at the end of shoelaces to complaints about work, the ordinary pain-in-the-ass managers, and that one coworker who was always late.
“Whoa. Check her out,” one of the guys at the table murmured, nudging the guy beside him.
I glanced up to see Summer walking in, her long blonde hair flowing over her tanned shoulders. She wore a low-cut light-pink dress over a white woven bra. The cotton hem swished around her upper thighs as she stopped in the doorway to scan the bar. When her blue eyes landed on mine, a wide smile stretched her face as she approached.
“Hey, Hot Rod.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek as if it were second nature.
I fought the instinct to pull her body to mine. To bask the roses and sunshine of her skin.
The spot where she kissed me seared with heat, and it took all I had not to connect her lips with mine. Her words from the other day playing in my head.
As much as I wanted to hold her, I couldn’t put my hands all over her unless she wanted me to. What was the term she used— sleazeball ? I had many terrible traits but to be sleazy toward a woman wouldn’t be one.
As she pulled away, she frowned. “Oh, sorry. I left some—” She swiped her thumb across my cheek. “That lipstick is supposed to be smudge-proof, but you might have a pink mark on your skin for a while.”
The last thing I was worried about was lipstick on my cheek.
“No worries.”
“I’m marking my territory.” She laughed, her clear-sky eyes on me.
It was the gaze of hot days on the water and the soothing feel of a sea-cooled wind.
“I’ll allow it.”
She grabbed my beer and took a sip before making a face. “Ugh. IPA. Disgusting.”
Taking the beer back, I downed the rest of it, still watching her.
Her eyes darted to my throat before snapping back up to my face, her nose wrinkling.
“My cousin Oliver loves them. I don’t know how you can drink that garbage. It tastes like an herbal-scented trash bag with a cigarette thrown in.”
“Delicious.” I smacked my lips dramatically.
She rolled her eyes, and I savored the sight of her face, beautiful, even when annoyed by me.
Turning to the group, I motioned. “Everyone, this is Summer. Summer, this is everyone.”
When I went around the table and gave her each coworker’s name, she did her best at shaking hands and repeating names back.
One of the guys, Eldon, looked starstruck, shaking her hand a few seconds longer than everyone else.
Afterward, I had her sit on the stool beside me. I wanted to place my hand on her knee but stopped myself. When the server came by, she ordered sparkling water with lemon, then whispered to me she didn’t want another repeat of that first party.
“Summer.” Savvy leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. “Nice dress. It’s very”—she gave her a once-over—“bold.”
Summer glanced over herself, her face blank, as if the comment wasn’t rude. “Thank you. I knitted the bralette myself.”
“You knit?” I asked, my brow raising.
“I contain multitudes.”
“Apparently.”
“Why are you so shocked? Lots of people know how to knit. It’s not a bygone craft or something.”
I coughed to hide my surprise. “No, I know. It’s just that knitting is for grandmas and old people, not—”
She shot me a withering glare. “That kind of ageist thinking is exactly why I do it. Knitting is an art form. I’ve been a member of a local stitch and bitch group for the past few years.”
I threw my hands up in mock surrender. “I concede. You can stitch and bitch as much as you want.”
She smiled at me, then sipped her drink as feedback from a microphone shrieked.
A thin man in a terrible hunter-green fedora stood in the DJ booth. “Hello, beardos and weirdos. Welcome to Trivia Masters. I’m your host, Dr. Factoids. Get your teams together, and we’ll be starting momentarily.”
Summer’s head snapped toward me with a gleam in her eyes. “Trivia! I fucking love trivia. I’m going to dominate.”
“Is that so?” I raised a challenging brow.
Our team was in the lead with four points. We scored double on a question about the largest archipelago in the world but then lost when we couldn’t define alektorophobia.
For the last hour and a half, I had successfully not pawed at Summer like some horny teen. Despite how cute she looked when she would furrow a brow as she struggled to answer a question. And the smile when she was correct? Words escaped me. The sunshine and confidence in it.
She blurted answers when she knew them and didn’t hesitate to debate with the rest of the team, who she had just met. When she couldn’t contribute, she sat back and let others take over.
For an entire one hundred and seven minutes, I kept my hands to myself.
The hardest moment was when she insisted we take a picture together, angling her body into mine. Her lush curves fit perfectly against me as she smiled at the camera. When she pulled away, I had to clench my hands into fists to stop them from lacing around her waist and pulling her off her stool and onto my lap.
My phone lit up with a notification that she had tagged me.
It was down to the final question. Only two points were separating our team, the CasaNopas, and The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers.
Eldon had said the L.L.U.A. won the last three months in a row and was getting smug.
On the mic, Dr. Factoid played a drumroll clip. “Aaaaaaand for the last question of the night. For a whopping eight points, according to IMDB, what is the highest-rated episode of political drama, The West Wing ?”
The rest of the table glanced around with trepidation.
Some of the show’s staff were likely born in the years after the show premiered.
“Two Cathedrals,” Summer and I say in unison, then glance at each other.
“How—” I shook my head.
Nothing about this woman would surprise me, but it didn’t include her knowledge of my fast-talking comfort show.
Since half of the table hadn’t even heard of the show, Eldon wrote the answer down, reporting to the DJ.
We waited as Dr. Factoid announced our team as the winner of a twenty-five-dollar bar gift card.
Cheers and high-fives abounded as we celebrated our victory.
Our rival team shot us dirty looks, and one woman on the team hissed expletives at a man beside her with narrowed eyes.
Summer wrapped her arms around my waist.
With one arm over her shoulders, I squeezed her slightly.
Tingles shot up my arm, and I fought the urge to keep her tight against me. To claim her in front of this group.
I pulled away, a casual smile on my face.
I couldn’t let my dick get me in trouble here.
A line formed between her brows as she pulled away, but she said nothing, high-fiving the team as if they had fought a hard battle for years.
Eldon leaned in close to me, a wide grin stretching his freckled, tanned cheeks. “You need to bring her every time. She’s an absolute menace.”
After slapping my back, he stepped away, giving double high-fives to Savvy, who had her arm around Summer’s waist as they congratulated each other.
I could picture it all too well, Summer beside me at the bar, us dominating at trivia and winning each round with ease. Our knees knocking together, the feel of her fingers against mine as she steals the little pencil from me to write the answer.
It wasn’t anything I ever wanted. Brief dates with women, sure. But to have someone around all the time?
“Yeah, I’ll get her back here next time.”
“She’s a member of the team now. You must be serious about her.”
Summer threw an arm over Savvy’s shoulder and beamed at me.
The urge to cup my hand around her neck and bring her lips to mine was overwhelming. My mouth tingled from want.
“Yeah, of course,” I said, barely registering the comment until after I agreed to it.
But there was a shift in how I was feeling about her. I could picture her joining me for these trivia nights, charming my coworkers, her hand holding mine under the table like some junior-high crush. But more than that, I could visualize what came after. What she would look like in the mornings, fresh- faced and still sleepy. How we would find each other in the night, our legs tangled and the air mingling.
The last time I had spent over thirty minutes with a woman after a night together was at least five years before, and that was more because she couldn’t take my hints about needing to head out the door and parked herself on my couch with a box of Crunch Berries. That mistake both made me late for work and deprived me of all the red berries.
Somehow, I doubted Summer would be one to methodically remove fruit flavors from sugary cereal.
The group downed the rest of their drinks and covered their bar tabs. In ten minutes, half of them were out the door, leaving only a few of us.
Savvy was at the bar, ordering her last drink, and Eldon was watching her with lovesick eyes.
Was there a way to help him along?
Without the buffer of the group, Summer turned to me. “Okay, Hot Rod, what is up with you?”
As she waited for my answer, she fished the lemon out of her drink and sucked it into her mouth, ripping the fruit from the rind.
I stared at the empty yellow skin. “Did you just eat that lemon like an apple?”
“More like an orange, since it’s a citrus.” She shrugged. “I like lemons.” Setting the rind down, she turned on her stool, her knees bumping mine. “Don’t change the subject. I’ve been here for hours now, and you’re acting . . . I don’t know.” She frowned. “Not boy-friendly.”
“Not boy-friendly?”
“Yeah, side hugs, barely get a high five. I leaned in closer, the universal put your arm around me signal, and you ignored it.”
“I was being respectful. You told me not to be a sleazeball. I didn’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
“So, you went a thousand miles in the other direction?” She raised a brow, a smirk playing at the corner of her rose-tinted lips. “Don’t you worry about me. I have no issue telling you to back off if I need it.” Her gaze peered over my shoulder. “Speaking of, hold that thought.”
Her chair screeched against the linoleum as she pushed it back.
Before I could ask her what was going on, she was at the bar, her gaze on Savvy, who was standing between two stools with a frown on her face.
A man with wrap-around sunglasses sitting backward on his balding head and a peeling sunburn on his forehead was leaning on the wooden surface. His eyes traced Savvy’s body, and he gave her a lecherous grin.
“No, thanks,” Savvy said, turning back to the bartender.
“Put it on my tab, Tim,” the man said.
Savvy shook her head again. “That’s really o—”
Summer grabbed the stool between them, pulled it out into the walkway, and slid beside Savvy, giving the man her back.
“Excuse you,” the man slurred. “You bumped into me.”
Summer glanced over her shoulder at him, her mouth pulled into a sneer and a single brow raised. “And yet you’re still standing here.”
On the table beside me, Summer’s phone chimed and lit up.
I glanced down out of habit to see her screen filling up with notifications.
@corytheman now follows you
@corytheman commented: ??????
@corytheman commented: “Beuatiful”
@corytheman commented: “prety in pink”
On and on, her screen didn’t have time to rest as the notifications of this guy commenting and liking posts kept buzzing. Heart emojis and fire beside peaches. Then the message requests.
I had no say in who she talked to. Unfamiliar jealousy rose, a dark coil aching to take possession of her. I’m all wrong for Summer. Too stuck in my ways.
Long ago, I had promised myself I wouldn’t hurt a woman the way my father hurt my mother. I had the obligations of my life and the promises I had made. There was no room for a woman.
I couldn’t give her what she deserved, but damn if I didn’t want to be the best one who tried.
Since the day of the parade, we followed each other on social media. She tagged me in a single photo in her story, not a real post. Afterward, she posted rarely but only flowers, pastries, and photo dumps of blurry selfies with her girlfriends. Ones with the rain-soaked streets of London and dimly lit pubs with pints of beer. A snapshot of curry sauce on fries and the view from a plane window. Nothing of her in pink, nothing that would elicit the horny comments.
As she stood at the bar, I pulled up my phone to see who this Corytheman guy was commenting all over her picture. I had to scroll back five months to find a single comment from him, Blue without my blue. No other mention of him. No tagged photos—and even more confusing: she wasn’t following him, but he followed her. His own page was a nondescript one of beer signs and sports memes. Something wasn’t adding up.
A few feet away, the man at the bar raised his voice at Summer, who was blocking his view of Savvy.
“I was talking to her.” He motioned to Savvy with his beer glass, the drink spilling over his hand.
“And now you’re not.” Summer turned back at Savvy, who was still waiting on her bill, her eyes large and fearful.
“Anyway, like I was saying. This top really doesn’t take too long to make if you—”
Most men would get the hint, but this man didn’t seem to catch it. If anything, he looked even more determined to talk to Savvy.
“You interrupted my conversation with her.”
Summer frowned. “No, I don’t think I did.”
“I see how it is. Cockblocker, are you? Why don’t you run home to your cats so the rest of us can have some fun?”
At this insult, I stepped forward to give him a piece of my mind.
Summer put her hand on my chest. “I got this.” Her smile dropped, and she cocked her head. “First of all. You aren’t tall enough to make that joke.”
People snickered behind their hands, and one woman cackled at the insult.
The man’s brow knitted as he processed her words.
She stepped forward, causing him to lean back.
She was a small thing, couldn’t be over five-five, yet the fierceness emanating from her made her seem seven feet tall.
All around us, others stopped talking and watched the scene with the drunkard and the warrior.
“And I can’t block something you were never going to get. Anyone with eyes could see that you have hit on no less than five ladies at this bar. I’ve been watching you. No one wants that drunk pencil dick you have. So, quit being a creep and leave them alone.”
“You can’t talk to me like that,” he slurred.
“You must have some humiliation fetish, don’t you? She’s not interested. No one is. So, get lost.”
I sucked in a breath, tensing my fist in case he tried to place a hand on her.
She obviously wanted to handle the man herself. From that first day with her, Summer made it apparent she was a force. It was better to let her say her piece than have her turn it on me.
The guy slammed his empty pint glass on the bar top.
The bartender finally intervened, signaling a bigger guy at the door. “Okay, buddy, pack it up.” He handed the man his card and receipt. “We’ve had three complaints already. We’ve talked about this.”
The drunk man grabbed the receipt, glowering at everyone. “I’m going to the casino. At least they know how to treat a guest.”
The bar was unusually quiet until the door swung shut with a vibrating clang. Whispers and comments about drunk assholes buzzed around.
Summer rolled her eyes at the door. “Well, can’t say I’m surprised, but at least he’s out of here.”
I saddled up to her and placed a hand on her elbow. “Surprised about what?”
“That it took a man telling him to leave for him to listen. Did you hear the bartender? Three other women complained. I’m glad I spoke up.”
“That was a ballsy move. Could have been dangerous.”
She shook her head. “Well, someone had to. I could tell Savvy was uncomfortable.”
“He could have hurt you.”
She scoffed. “I’d like to see him try.” She left me to join Savvy, who was pulling on her coat.
I couldn’t hear what was said, but Savvy gave Summer a hug before they pulled out their phones and exchanged information.
Eldon grabbed Savvy’s purse off the table and motioned to the door.
The bartender placed another beer and something red in a pint glass down before me. I took our drinks, and we sat at the four-top.
The music was getting louder, and the late crowd was trickling in, replacing the happy-hour crew with the night drinkers.
“You and Savvy got along,” I commented, jutting my chin at my coworker, who was laughing at something Eldon had said.
They walked out, his cheeks pink with the attention.
Good. Maybe he would get the courage to ask Savvy out.
Summer beamed. “I like her. She’s smart and funny.”
“And she likes you.”
Summer faced me, her gaze narrowing. “Why wouldn’t she?”
“Because I was getting the vibes that she was into me, and that’s when I invited . . .”
Summer assessed me with a tilted head, a smirk playing on her lips. “Please, go on. Tell me how a woman should be devastated by missing out on you.”
“Okay, fine. Point taken.”
This woman was a total ego killer.
“I’m sure she thinks you’re hot.” She swallowed her cider, looking at me over the rim of her glass.
“You think I’m hot?” I teased. “You want this body so much you can’t handle it.”
“You have no idea what I could handle, Hot Rod.”
Unbidden, the image of her beneath me, her body flush with want and her hands all over me as I thrust into her, flooded my mind. I shook away the thought.
“Despite what early aughts teen comedies might have taught you, most girls don’t compete over men. I would wager that she won’t be thinking about you at all now.”
“I couldn’t care less what that woman thinks of me. There’s only one person I’ve been thinking about tonight.” I leaned forward, still not wanting to touch her and cross that line.
But a little harmless flirting? That, I could do.
“Are you playing with me?” She quirked a brow and frowned.
“Trust me. There are many things I want to do to you, but I am one hundred percent serious about them.”
She cast her eyes down.
I reveled in making her nervous until her shoulders shook.
Lifting her head, she pursed her lips, holding back a laugh. She let out a chuckle, covering her mouth with her hand. “Sorry. One hundred percent serious. ” She imitated my voice. With a pat on my arm, she stepped back. “Keep it up, Hot Rod. Might work eventually.” After emptying her glass, she set it back down. “I should probably head back to my place. I have to be at the hotel at seven tomorrow morning.”
The rejection stung.
I wasn’t so egotistical to have my come-ons work every time, but I had a good record.
Could this woman do a single thing the way I was used to?
She stood, her thin sweater looped around her bag’s strap.
“Can I walk you to your car? In case there are meandering thugs with backward sunglasses who didn’t end up at the casino.”
She slipped the strap over her neck, letting it fall across her body. “I walked. I’ll be okay.”
“Let me walk you home, then.”
She cocked her head. “Why? So you can stay three paces behind me and check out my ass?”
“I wasn’t—that’s not what’s happening. Dammit. Are you always this quick to call a man out?” I grabbed a handful of the little chocolate mints by the door and popped one in my mouth.
She shrugged, her long gait already taking her out the door. “Yeah, kind of. Is it too much for your delicate feelings?”
“Obviously not.” I scowled.
Instead of taking the sidewalk, she headed through the waterfront park and to the boardwalk spanning to the end of Freedom Bay.
Ahead of us was a group of teens throwing rocks into the muck of a low tide.
“I know I’m a handful, but you look like you’ve got two hands. Just say you don’t have what it takes for me.”
The quip stopped me as she walked away. It took me a few moments to catch up.