10. Julia
10
JULIA
“ I can’t believe you’re going on a date with a client, Julia,” Mia said, adding the last string of lights to my tree. Tomorrow, we were set to do hers. It was a fun tradition we picked up doing when we first met each other, and even though I wasn't excited about our conversation, I wouldn’t miss putting our trees up together for anything.
“It’s a fake date,” I reminded her, kneeling down and plugging the lights in to make sure they worked. My apartment glowed in the way only Christmas lights could light up a room, warm and magical, just like my insides right now. Especially when I thought about Nick.
I pushed my hair from my face. “It’s just to help him out so his ex-wife doesn’t get caught up on the idea that he’s doing a rebranding.” Although a small part of me wished it were more as the memory of us going at it on his desk rode through my mind. I huffed out the heat that crested over my body, wanting to feel Nick’s callused hands on my skin, and his fingers pinching my nipples, and his dick?—
“Julia!” Mia clapped her hands in front of my face.
Crap.
“This isn’t a daydream. This is your livelihood. If you’re really going to do this ‘fake dating’ thing, then don’t try to fool yourself. I can see you’re already connected to him way more than you should be,” she scoffed as I handed over her scarf. I gave her an innocent smile and batted my lashes at her. “You’re—hell, we’re—just getting settled here. Don’t you think it’s a bit insane that a man in his forties has to have a woman who’s twenty-eight pretend to be his girlfriend so his ‘mean’ ex-wife doesn’t rain on his parade?” I snorted at the pun. Mia wasn’t amused.
“Okay, you’re right, Mom. I’m listening.” I chewed on the inside of my lip. I hated that she was right. Even if the experience with Nick was nothing like Jared, there was no way I was going to talk Mia away from it now. “Besides, I did learn my lesson. I don’t have feelings for him. It was just a tipsy night where two people were breaking free from bad relationships.”
That sounded right. Really right, actually.
Maybe that was what had happened?
Neither of us had been with another person since our exes.
It was plausible.
A little voice in the back of my mind tried to argue with my rationality, because that small piece of me did want to get to know Nick better.
“Julia,” Mia huffed. “I love you like a sister I always wanted?—”
“You have a sister,” I muttered, flicking my eyes to hers. When I saw the spark of humor in them, I relaxed and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “I love you too.” I walked her to the door. “Let me get through this job, and you’ll see it’ll all be fine.”
Mia opened the door and walked through. She turned and looked at me. “I know you’re just saying that to convince yourself…”
I slammed the door in her face for fun and heard her loud groan through the door. “Goodnight, you jerk!” she called.
“’Night, Mia! Be safe on your way home.”
I didn’t need to see her to know she was flipping me off through the door, and when I heard her footsteps go down the stairs, I turned and got ready for my fake date with Nick.
At least, that’s what I tried to tell the butterflies in my stomach. It was fake.
And I totally believed that.
And maybe, for a few seconds, I actually did.
Forty minutes later, I was dressed and downtown with Nick. We admired the Christmas lights and got cozy really quickly.
“The town is so pretty,” I said, snuggling up to Nick as he put an arm around my waist. I hated that I liked it. But I liked that I liked it even more. Even though Mia’s warnings fluttered around my mind, I tucked myself in closer to Nick. Not only would it look like we were together, but also, I really liked the way he smelled.
“Yeah, I like it.” He smiled down at me, and I fought the urge to kiss him again. “Want to go to the Christmas Shop after? They have great hot chocolate.”
“I'd love some hot chocolate. It’s actually my favorite drink after red wine.” I laughed. He dropped his hand, and his fingers wrapped around mine. I only wished now that I wasn’t wearing gloves because I wanted to feel that zip of our skin together.
“Well, I guess you’re lucky I’m so intuitive.” A sparkle popped into his sapphire eyes, and I leaned into it.
“I think you’re lucky that you can make an educated guess.”
His laughter rang through the air, and as the last parade float slowly rode away, he led me to a charming cafe that was stuffed to the gills with holiday paraphernalia. “This is the Christmas Shop?” I asked, pointing.
Nick tugged on my fingers, and I stepped in close. “That’s what the owner and town call it for the holidays because the owner and her family love them so much. They transform their cafe into the Christmas Shop every year since I was in high school.” His eyes looked up, and I followed his gaze. “Huh, look at that. Mistletoe.”
Excitement whispered over my chilled breath, and as he gazed at me, I knew I wasn’t going to back away. His lips came to mine, and memories of the other night flipped through my mind as my fingers dug into his coat.
His tongue lapped over mine with a slow precision meant to soak my panties and made me wonder what he would do with his tongue if his head were between my legs. A moan slid from my mouth with the thought as his fingers knotted in my hair.
He kissed me faster, making me forget we were in public, and a thousand other things I wanted him to do to me beat into my head as our kiss went up to the next level, raising my blood pressure as my heart beat against my ribs.
My hands slid into his jacket, and I felt around for the hem of his shirt, sliding my fingers up it, feeling his abs as soon as they found it. I tried to remember that I couldn’t take his shirt off in public. That would be a bad look for both of us. Plus, it was thirty degrees.
A sharp buzz twittered over my lips and trickled down my neck and low into my belly. I nipped at his lip, and he held me tighter. My fingers ran behind his back, still touching his skin but encircling his waist with both arms.
His hand cupped my jaw, and he rounded out the kiss, pulling back just enough for his foggy breath to caress my face as our eyes met again. “I don’t think—” he started.
“That was a disgusting display.” A woman’s voice shattered the moment between Nick and me, and I remembered I was in public, and that meant people were around. My cheeks warmed, and I couldn’t believe I lost myself like that. But I could.
I liked it.
A lot.
I wanted to walk away from the woman who I knew was Kendra and invite Nick to come back to my place so we could finish our kiss. Instead, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, worried that I really did make an ass out of myself and afraid to look to see who was saying it, because I was sure it was…
“Kendra, I don’t think you need to comment on anything I do or don’t do,” Nick said, rubbing my shoulder, trying to comfort me. I dropped my hands from around his waist and turned to look at Kendra, running my hand over Nick’s back to hold onto his waist. His arm dropped over my shoulders. “Don’t you know when you say shit like that, it doesn’t make me look bad? It makes you look bad.”
He took my hand, and we started to talk away from the group of women when Kendra shouted, “It’s great to see you found someone so young. No other woman your age would have you.”
I turned my head to defend our situation. I desperately wanted to say something back, but Nick held my hand tighter. “Don’t give her a reaction. It’s what she wants, and she doesn’t need to get anything else, okay?” he said.
Kendra’s voice resonated in my head. Was our age difference really too much? Did that say something about Nick? We rounded the corner, and I pulled away from him. “Well, you weren’t lying about how angry she was.” I hated hearing the quaver in my voice. She was a bit scary, and I was kind of worried about what would happen next.
“Um, next time, I’ll be a little more prepared.” I patted Nick on the shoulder and took a few steps back. I needed to think about some things.
“Julia, I’m sorry that happened. I didn’t… I mean…” The sorrow about what happened was genuine, but I needed to be alone. I had some stuff to sort out.
“Don’t worry, Nick.” I waved and turned. “Next time, I’ll be more prepared.” I tossed the words over my shoulder and hurried away, ignoring the pool of emotions swimming on the edge of my nerves.
There was a lot to unpack.
I’d never really had to deal with ex-wife drama, although my ex, Jared, had a sexual harassment suit brought up against him when we were together. It was one of the reasons I left him. I’d always seen him flirting but knew he wouldn’t cheat on me—at least that’s what I told myself—but I continued to talk myself out of leaving him.
We’d been together for a year and I was starting to outgrow the relationship, but I’d been stubborn, trying to tell myself that he had been “The One” when I first met him and I didn’t want to be wrong in thinking that because what would it have said about me?
Thankfully, the lawsuit shook me out of my ego and I got to step away from the relationship, learning it was okay for me to make mistakes as long as I learned from them.
Then of course, after I dumped Jared, moved out of our apartment, and started to get into a good routine for myself, clients started bailing on me. I learned through one loyal client that Jared had approached her and tried to tell her how shitty of a job I did for them and that he wanted to “warn” her away from having her business ruined.
Even though we were in a city with millions of people, he'd managed to do enough damage that Mia decided to talk me into leaving the city. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it was a big transition. We had to find a town that wasn’t too far away from other places. Heart’s Creek was about two hours away from Buffalo and was a stone’s throw away from Pennsylvania. We could get to Manhattan in less than an eight-hour drive too.
Not that we needed to travel much, at least at first.
But eventually. It was a goal.
By the time I was two blocks away, I slowed. My apartment was right around the corner, and I began to calm down when my phone dinged. I smiled, knowing Mia needed to give me a hard time, but she was right. I wasn’t ready to dive into that shark tank with Nick, and it would be better if I just steered clear of anything more than fake dating.
No matter how good of a kisser he was.
I went to text Mia back only to see that it wasn’t Mia who texted me. It was Jared. The text demanded that I call him right now .